Legislature, Advocates Begin Consideration of Governor’s Recommended FY23 Budget Last week the Governor gave his annual Budget Address, which marked the formal start of the Legislature’s budget-writing process for the upcoming 2023 Fiscal Year (FY23). The Governor’s speech was accompanied by the release of the Governor’s Recommended Budget, which is used by legislative committees as the starting point for their deliberations. The House will be working on their FY23 budget until mid-March, with the Senate doing most of their budget work in March and April. As the press has reported, the Governor is proposing to use a combination of state surplus and federal pandemic response funds to support a number of large, one-time expenditures. Several of these are in policy areas that are critical to the Alliance and to our communities, including housing, workforce development, and tax credits for families, children, and child care workers. He also proposed a modest funding increase in the CCFAP program and other program changes. However, many of the proposals are more outlines rather than detailed plans, and legislators will have many questions before they can consider whether or not to support them. Until the budget is passed and signed, none of these proposals (in whatever form they eventually may take) will go into effect. The Governor’s comments last week in many ways pointed in a good direction, but his proposals would do too little to address the ongoing, daily negative impacts of the pandemic on real people in our communities. Too many still face emergency conditions. Nor did he provide a vision for a more fair, just, and equitable Vermont. While the initiatives are worth further study, they will only make a small impact on the very large, structural challenges facing Vermont families and communities. The Alliance supports a vision of a state that works for every person living here, no one excluded. State agencies and departments will be sharing more details of their proposals to various committees in the coming days. Meanwhile, Alliance members continue to advocate for improvements to Reach Up, Farm to School, and other programs, and more funding for PCCs and CIS. For more information on all these issues, please reach out to the lead organizations on the issues on our Legislative Agenda, who can help you follow the details of the discussions. |