By Zachariah Ralph, Rep. WDR-1 Hartland, Windsor, and West Windsor
This weekend truly felt like spring had arrived and that summer will come presently. I personally am looking forward to the arrival of morel mushrooms and planting my seedlings in my garden. A lot has been changing on the governance front, too.
Remote voting
The Legislature has been working remotely over the last couple of weeks, and we just finished our trainings for meeting and voting remotely. With 150 legislators calling in we had to make sure that everyone still had a voice while maintaining some sort of order. We should begin voting on legislation this week. This all took a bit longer than I would have liked, but at least this way we are able to have a more comprehensive look at the current situation, and we avoided being “porn-bombed” on Zoom meetings before they became password protected.
VSC closures
I received many emails from folks about the announcement to vote on closing three of the State College (VSC) campuses. This was very alarming news. The VSC system pro
vides affordable higher education to our most rural parts of the state, and over 500 good union jobs. The loss of these institutions to our state would be incalculable. I am pleased to say that pressure from many individuals, the General Assembly, and the governor was successful in getting the VSC board to postpone their vote until next week. I support the Legislature providing gap funding to the VSCs to keep them operational for the next year, but the underlying fiscal and enrollment challenges facing these institutions needs to be addressed to guarantee the long-term viability of these essential institutions.
Budget
The pandemic has put a strain on many people’s pocket books. Vermont has not been immune from these impacts. Here is a fiscal note from our Joint Fiscal Office in regards to our state revenues.
“Our revenue expectations have remained relatively constant for the past two weeks […] For now, if deferred taxes are allocated to the fiscal year they were due, the FY 2020 shortfalls from the January estimates are:
General Fund down $61 million
Education Fund down $150 million
Transportation Fund down $40 million”
Given the uncertainties of federal funds and available revenues, as well as the still developing pandemic it is likely that the full Fiscal Year 2021 budget cannot be completed until Aug/Sept, and so as a result the Legislature will continue to meet until Aug/Sept. You can see the entire April 14, 2020 fiscal note on this website. ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Subjects/General-Updates/5974c1f31b/GENERAL-347645-v3-April_14_update.pdf
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
We learned on Friday that the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the Covid-19 crisis, has run out of funds. Vermont had over 4,000 applying to the program and was approved for $853 million. Vermont is ranked third per capita in funds approved.
We anticipate that Congress will approve another round of funding for this program this week. Small businesses who would like to apply for this forgivable loan should start gathering information and payroll documents for the application now.
You can apply through any existing Small Business Administration (SBA) lender or through any federally insured depository institution, federally insured credit union, and Farm Credit System institution that is participating. Visit
sba.gov for a list of SBA lenders.
Zachariah Ralph is a state representative for Hartland, Windsor, and West Windsor. He can be reached at [email protected].
