Lawmakers don’t return to the Statehouse until Jan. 9, but one small, dedicated group of legislators will get a head start on committee work.
House Speaker Shap Smith and the leaders of the Republican and Progressive caucuses agreed to move ahead with the process, which takes weeks of testimony and deliberation to complete.
The House Appropriations Committee will begin reviewing the Shumlin administration’s budget adjustment requests on Wednesday afternoon. Jim Reardon, the commissioner of the Department of Finance and Management, will give lawmakers a rundown of the mid-year changes in state spending and revenues since the 2013 budget went into effect on July 1.
Reardon’s annual explanation of upward pressures, savings, revenue gains and shortfalls will give lawmakers the lay of the land. His testimony will be followed by that of agency secretaries and department commissioners who will troop into Room 42 one by one over the next several weeks to pitch changes for approval.
The first secretary at bat is Doug Racine, who is head of the largest agency in state government — Human Services. He will be followed by commissioners for Corrections, Health, Health Access, Mental Health, Children and Families, and Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living. Officials from the Judiciary, the Agency of Natural Resources, Commerce and the Tax Department will also present lawmakers with a rundown of not only the state of the state’s finances, but also reports on how their agencies and departments have performed. In years past, lawmakers in House Appropriations have held as much of an interest in the efficacy of state government as in the spending equation.
In September, Reardon red-flagged areas where the fiscal year 2013 budget could be higher than anticipated, including funding for the state’s prison system and subsidized child-care programs. Entergy Corp. filed a lawsuit with the state that month over a $7 million increase in a generating tax on Vermont Yankee. It’s unclear how the state will now collect the revenue. Last month, officials said spending for disabilities programs is up by $3 million to $4.5 million.
The Budget Adjustment Act is typically completed before the committee takes up the budget bill, which will be introduced by the governor later this month. The state faces a $50 million to $70 million budget deficit. In addition, congressional cuts in federal spending now under deliberation could have an impact on the state budget.