MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A plan by Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott to use one-time funding to help close a $58 million gap in the state’s Education Fund was received coolly Wednesday by lawmakers who still hope to wrap up the 2018 session by the end of next week.
The proposal unveiled by the Scott administration on Tuesday would be part of a five-year plan to restructure the way the state pays for education and would prevent a significant property tax increase this year.
“It is essential that we move forward together to prevent a $58 million statewide property tax rate increase this year, address recurring deficits in the Education Fund and generate $300 million in savings to (provide) more and better educational options for kids, as well as lower tax rates,” Scott said Wednesday in a statement.
But lawmakers were skeptical of the complicated plan, presented late in the session.
“The word ’disrespectful’ is very prominent in my vocabulary today,” Senate Finance Committee chair Sen. Ann Cummings, a Democrat, said Wednesday during a Statehouse committee hearing.
“Now we’re either going to rubber stamp, which you want, without due diligence, or we’re going to be here for several more weeks,” she said.
The administration said many of the ideas were first presented in January.
Since Scott took office in January 2017, he has urged lawmakers to find ways to save money on the state’s education costs. He feels schools have too many staff members and that tens of millions of dollars could be saved over time by reducing the student-staff ratio. In the Tuesday proposal, Scott dropped a proposal made last month to impose stiff penalties on districts that don’t comply with the lower ratio.
Instead, the administration wants to set up a system that will accomplish the same goal without the requirement and save $262 million from reduced spending over the next five years. The savings would be used to repay the one-time money that would close the budget gap this year.
The one-time money would come from a $19 million tobacco settlement payment, $20 million from an anticipated surplus and $7 million from the general fund reserve, $2 million from a change to the property tax system and $10 million from other sources.
Cummings said the administration plan “looks like an exotic mortgage.”
But Tax Commissioner Kaj Samsom said the proposal is well-thought out.
“These are not imaginary savings,” he said.
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