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Vermont Legislature
Follow VPR's statehouse coverage, featuring Pete Hirschfeld and Bob Kinzel in our Statehouse Bureau in Montpelier.

The $29 Million Chopping Block: Officials Present List Of Possible Budget Cuts

A list of potential budget cuts totaling about $29 million was revealed Thursday by the Shumlin administration and key lawmakers that may be used to help close a budget gap in the 2016 fiscal year that has grown larger during this legislative session.

The list of cuts, characterized by Finance Commissioner Jim Reardon as a list of “brainstorming ideas,” includes far-fetched ideas such as reducing the 150-member House to 120 members. It also includes reductions to the state’s online health insurance marketplace and premium subsidies that many Vermonters rely on.

The list, revealed at a House Appropriations Committee meeting Thursday afternoon, prompted Chairwoman Rep. Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, to note that lawmakers and the administration would need to take a “good, hard look at a lot of our loyalties and core values.”

“I just want to acknowledge how incredibly difficult this is,” she said.

The list, which also includes the possibility of closing the Vermont Veterans Home in Bennington, was compiled by administration officials including Reardon and Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson, as well as Rep. Johnson, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, and analysts with the Joint Fiscal Office.

The legislative session kicked off early last month, when the projected budget gap in the 2016 fiscal year budget was $94 million. But a revenue downgrade just weeks later made it balloon to at least $112 million. It could grow even more if lawmakers do not sign off on Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed 0.7 payroll tax on Vermont businesses, which would funnel some of the revenue generated to cover the $16 million needed to pay for the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

This story was originally published by the Vermont Press Bureau and reprinted under a partnership with the bureau.

Neal is a a reporter for the Vermont Press Bureau. He also files reports for Vermont Public Radio.
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