Vermont House Speaker says 2nd session to focus on budget

The Vermont Legislature returned to session Tuesday for the second part of its 2020 split session where lawmakers will focus on keeping Vermonters safe and finishing this year’s state budget, said House Speaker Mitzi Johnson.

Legislative leaders decided to split the 2020 session so they would have more information about state revenues after this year’s federal and state tax deadlines were pushed from April to July because of the pandemic.

While Vermont did receive $1.25 billion as part of the federal coronavirus relief package, that money cannot be used for most regular state expenses.

Lawmakers were also hoping Congress would provide clarity about whether it would provide assistance to states beyond the coronavirus relief funds that are not authorized to be used to make up for the loss of state revenues.

So far, Congress has not acted on legislation designed to help states make up for lost revenues, but it still could.

“We can’t built a budget on a wish, right?” Johnson said during a video conference with reporters. “It has to be what we know and what we can count on.”

The state is facing a budget deficit of around $55 million, a much better position than feared a few months ago.

Better than expected state revenues, increased federal money for Medicaid reimbursement and small budget cuts and a state hiring freeze can help make up the difference. Coronavirus funds have also been released for some state expenses, Johnson said.

“That’s going quite a long way to close a lot of this budget,” Johnson said.

But the revenues that will be used to balance this year’s budget might not be there next year.

“It does mean that building the FY ’22 budget will not be fun,” Johnson said.

One of the first orders of business Tuesday was to reauthorize the use of remote lawmaking that was developed earlier this year when it became clear that meeting in person during the pandemic could spread the virus that causes COVID-19.

While the second session will focus on the big issues, lawmakers will also work on a variety of legislation that went unfinished during the first session that ended in June.