List of possible budget cuts released
MONTPELIER, Vt.—Higher education and help to the elderly in paying for their medicines could fall victim to the budget ax, according to a list of possible cuts state officials and lawmakers released Wednesday.
Yet another possibility on a list released Wednesday: closing the state prison in St. Albans Town and sending its inmates to out-of-state penitentiaries.
The list of potential general fund spending cuts was released a day after consulting economists told a state budget planning panel that the sputtering economy could cost the state more than $40 million in revenue shortfalls by the end of the next fiscal year.
Lawmakers and aides to Gov. Jim Douglas were quick to say the list of possible cuts was preliminary. In an unusual move, House and Senate budget writers from a Legislature controlled by Democrats are joining with top officials from the Republican administration -- at least for now -- in hopes of coming up with a consensus on most of the cuts that need to be made.
The budget hole in the state's general fund, described by two consulting economists in a forecast issued Tuesday, is expected to be at least $24.5 million. It would be about $30 million but for plans to block some of the federal economic stimulus package -- mainly geared toward businesses -- from being passed through and affecting Vermont tax collections.
In addition, the state's transportation fund is expected to be short of its target by $5.8 million by the end of fiscal 2009, while the education fund is expected to be running $4.5 million short.
Among the big items on the list of possible cuts issued Wednesday:
-- The University of Vermont, Vermont State Colleges, Vermont Student Assistance Corp. and the Next Generation program, which pays for Vermonters' college scholarships, work force development and student loan forgiveness, could see cuts totaling more than $5.2 million from the total passed earlier by the House.
Cuts to higher education will show up as tuition increases for students and their families, warned Karen Meyer, vice president for government relations at UVM. "We're a tuition-dependent institution, and we'll only become more so," she said.
The Burlington campus gets 8 percent of its funding from the state, the lowest of any public university in the country, Meyer said. Sally Fox, legislative liaison for the Vermont State Colleges, said those schools are in the same boat, but are perhaps worse off because they don't have the same fund-raising ability that UVM does.
-- Vermont elders who rely on state help to fill gaps left by the federal government's Medicare Part D prescription drug program could see that state assistance ended. That would be a $7.17 million boost for the general fund, but it would mean an end to state assistance for struggling seniors trying to pay for their medicines, said Michael Sirotkin, a lobbyist for a group called the Community of Vermont Elders.
"More than 5,000 people with annual incomes between $14,000 and $20,000 will have to pick up new costs averaging more than $2,000 a year," to maintain their prescriptions, Sirotkin said.
As soon as the list was released, there was a mix of anguish among those whose favored programs were on the list and relief among those who had dodged the bullet.
Sen. Susan Bartlett, D-Lamoille and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, looked down the list and said, "Nobody thought it was going to be pretty."
Both she and her House counterpart, Rep. Martha Heath, D-Westford, said they understood they would be inundated with requests by people to be spared.
And some will be: With $24.5 million in budget cuts the target, the list contained possibilities adding up, by its own estimate, to more than $46.3 million.
Bartlett vowed to keep certain goals in mind as the final cuts are worked out in the coming days. "We are looking to spread it across all of government, and to minimize shifting costs onto communities or onto schools" through things like cuts in state aid.
