By Xander Landen/VTDigger
A federal coronavirus relief bill approved Wednesday, March 10, by the U.S. House would direct more than $2.7 billion to Vermont, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. That includes nearly $1.3 billion in direct aid to the state and tens of millions of dollars to Vermont municipalities.
“My top priority for this relief package has been to ensure that Vermont has the resources we need to address our current needs and to chart a course of recovery out of the pandemic,” U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a written statement.
Having passed the Senate last weekend, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill was signed by President Joe Biden, Friday. It was supported by all three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation: Leahy, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
The $2.7 billion earmarked for Vermont includes $731 million worth of direct stimulus payments, according to Leahy’s office. Those who earn up to $75,000 may qualify for payments of $1,400.
The package also includes $293 million for Vermont’s K-12 system, $152 million for rental assistance, $65 million for colleges and universities and $47 million for childcare subsidies and support for childcare providers. The City of Burlington would receive $19 million in aid, while other municipalities would get $57 million, according to Leahy’s office.
State officials would have wide latitude to spend the $1.3 billion in Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars to respond to the pandemic and its economic impacts. They would also have until December 2024 to spend the money — far more time than they had to dole out a previous round of aid last year.
Gov. Phil Scott’s secretary of administration, Susanne Young, said the state would be able to use the federal funding in the short term to respond to pressing economic recovery and public health needs. It would also have time to strategize about longer-term investments.
“The question really in my mind is what do we need to do now, what do we need to start planning for and what can wait and what can’t wait?” Young said.
“And with a three-and-a-half-year runway, I’m not saying we drag our feet and wait a year before we decide where to make investments, but we’ve got to take some time to make thoughtful, strategic decisions,” she said.
Young called the influx of money a “once-in-a lifetime opportunity” to invest in areas including the state’s water and sewer systems and broadband expansion. “All those really big-ticket items that we’ve talked about and just haven’t had the means,” she said.
The state could consider using the funds to upgrade infrastructure, invest in clean energy and overhaul the Dept. of Labor’s unemployment insurance IT system, Young said.
Vermont would not receive the $1.3 billion all at once, according to Young. It would be sent to the state in two separate trenches — one within 60 days of the bill’s enactment and another within a year. It’s not yet clear how much funding would be included in each allotment.
As was the case when Vermont officials spent the $1.25 billion the state received under the CARES Act last year, the administration plans to work with legislators to appropriate the funds. But Young said it wasn’t yet clear what that process might look like.
The vast majority of the funding the state received last year required some level of legislative approval before it could be allocated — either through the traditional appropriations process or with sign-off from the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee. The governor was allowed to spend only $60 million of the $1.25 billion with unilateral authority.
Well before the Legislature’s scheduled May adjournment, the Scott administration intends to propose a plan that would harness the federal dollars to fund some “emergency response items,” Young said. Those could include additional grants for struggling state businesses.
“We’re working as the cabinet to pull together ideas, look at needs and see what makes sense to put in a short-term bill,” Young said. “It’s really too soon to say beyond that what it will look like.”
Legislators have said they are open to extending this year’s legislative session if they need to do so to get the federal money out the door.
“What we’ve been saying is we’re just going to keep in touch and keep monitoring this to see if we can hit May adjournment, or if we will have to adjust somehow to accommodate the relief coming from Washington,” House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said last week.
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, said last week that her colleagues “reserve the right” to prolong this year’s legislative session so that they can allocate the federal relief dollars. They could also take a break during the summer months and return later this year.
That’s what happened in 2020, when legislators passed a partial budget early in the summer and returned in the fall to prepare a full spending package and determine how to deliver remaining federal Covid-19 dollars.
Balint noted that the longer spending timeline in the latest federal relief bill would give legislators more room to make decisions about funding priorities. “That’s what was so hard about the funding last December and last spring is that we had these strict timelines,” she said last week.
“Once we get the budget pretty much baked and ready to go, we’re going to have a little bit more time then to think, ‘What do we want to sock some money away for? Where can we delay spending some of that until later in the year?’” Balint said.
