Ever since Vermont received $1.25 billion in Coronavirus
Relief Funds (CRF) as a result of the federal CARES Act, Governor Scott and the
Legislature have been trying to decide how to allocate those funds to relieve
the economic distress caused by the “stay home, stay safe” response to the
virus. More than $90M was used almost immediately to help unemployed Vermonters
and small Violating the
guidelines would put Vermont at risk of having to return the money to the U.S.
Treasury next year. To be eligible for
CRF, the spending must: 1) be necessary expenses incurred due to the COVID-19
emergency; 2) not have been accounted for in the budget most recently approved
before March 27, 2020; and 3) be incurred between March 1 and December 30,
2020.
Over the three-month period since the emergency went into
effect, House committees, with stakeholder input, have been looking for
eligible avenues within their areas of jurisdiction that would help all aspects
of the Vermont economy, including individuals, businesses, non-profits, and those
in need of social services.
With the goal that no Vermonter or Vermont community should
be left behind because of COVID-19 impacts, several bills were passed during
the last two months of the session that allocated $1.04B of CRF money to help
Vermont and its citizens get back on their feet. The appropriations include:
- $356M to stabilize our health
care system, including $257M for provider stabilization, as well as
funding for mental health, childcare, senior services, and suicide prevention;
- $196M for assistance to
businesses, including restart grants, marketing and tourism, public
safety, and the Arts;
- $170M for pandemic frontline
workers, including $20M for hazard pay;
- $91M for housing
assistance including eviction and foreclosure prevention and homelessness
assistance;
- $73M for higher education;
- $50M for Pre-K education;
- $43M for broadband
connectivity assistance both for residential affordability and network
expansion, E-911 system expenses, and to cover utility accounts that were
90+ days in arrears due to the pandemic;
- $35M for agriculture and
forestry relief;
- $16M for the judicial
system; and
- $13M for municipalities.
This is the largest emergency recovery program ever passed
by the Vermont legislature and reflects an enormous amount of work by the members
of the House and Senate, our legislative staff, the administration, and the
Joint Fiscal Office. While there still may be some changes as agreement on the
details of the bills by the House and Senate are negotiated, we expect to
finish our work by the end of this week and recess for the month of July. We will be back together in August to
complete the final three-quarters of the FY21 budget.
