The House Appropriations Committee unanimously supported Gov. Peter Shumlin’s 2015 budget adjustment proposal, H.82, in a vote on Monday.
The committee made few changes to the governor’s proposal.
Notably, however, lawmakers struck language requiring the judiciary branch to find $500,000 in savings by March 31 for the fiscal year 2016 budget.
“It was not the right place to be asking the question,” Rep. Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero.
In lieu of the governor’s language in the bill, the committee sent a letter to the judiciary branch asking the courts to work with the Defender General’s office, the state’s attorneys, the Vermont Bar Association, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Children and Families to find the savings.
“We actually did ask the judiciary,” Johnson said. “We just asked in the broader context of the judicial system, not just the judiciary branch.”
Otherwise, the committee made minimal changes to the governor’s recommended adjustments to the FY2015 budget.
The bill includes a change made at the request of the attorney general’s office to authorize the use of $40,000 in special funds for consumer protection, rather than taking it out of the general fund, as recommended in the governor’s BAA.
Last Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee heard testimony from Hal Cohen, who took over as Secretary of Human Services late last year. The Agency of Human Services, which oversees a number of departments including health, mental health, corrections, children and family services and services for elderly and disabled Vermonters, accounts for about half of the state’s budget.
The Agency of Human Services budget was lowered by $44.7 million in a rescission last July. In budget adjustment, the agency requested an increase of $37.7 million, which, according to the agency largely went toward the operating costs of Vermont Health Connect and increases in Medicaid caseload and utilization.
In the 2015 budget, Medicaid non-Long Term Care costs total more than $1.28 billion, an increase of approximately $60 million over 2014.
The package includes a $437,139 cut to a program that supplies housing vouchers to people with mental illness. According to the agency, the reduction won’t impact people who are already receiving vouchers, though no new recipients will be approved unless someone exits the program.
“As I understand it, everybody who has a voucher will continue to have a voucher,” Cohen told lawmakers.
Several positions were created in the AHS central office, including two that had been cut in downsizing a few years ago. An Administrative Services Director position was created, to provide more continuity in overseeing the daily functions of the agency. A director of Emergency Management position was also filled.
According to Dixie Henry, the deputy secretary of the agency, the agency wanted to create a permanent director of Emergency Management position after a FEMA-funded position to oversee disaster case management expired.
The BAA also includes funds for three human resources investigative positions. The AHS previously had a unit, but it was transferred to the Department of Human Resources. Two investigator positions were transferred back to AHS, as was a vacant position, restoring the agency’s three-person team.
“AHS has almost half of all state employees, so to have our own makes a lot of sense,” Henry said by phone on Monday.
H.82 will be brought to the House floor on Thursday.
CORRECTION: The three human resources investigator positions were transferred to AHS from DHR. No new positions were created, as the article originally stated.
