by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 26, 2012 This year, the revenue minus spending equation has been a little more complicated to perform, thanks to Tropical Storm Irene, which added a great deal of expense and difficult decision-making to the usual formula.
But as of this week, the House will finish putting the money bill puzzle pieces together, and once that is finished, lawmakers will see a clear path to adjournment one month hence.
Last week, the House passed the $1.3 billion Big Bill, and the largest transportation budget in the state’s history ‘ $639 million.
This week lawmakers finish up on two other key pieces of financial legislation ‘ the miscellaneous tax and the capital budget bills.
The annual tax adjustment legislation from House Ways and Means is, well, miscellaneous, and technical in nature. The legislation includes a 1 cent per gallon tax on heating fuel to subsidize the petroleum cleanup fund; a provision to tie the interest rates for overdue taxes to the prime rate plus 0.25 percent; a change in the tax rates for small farm corporations; the renewal of the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program, which awards tax credits to businesses, to 2017; a health savings account income adjustment for the renter rebate program; and new filing dates for property tax adjustments.
In response to complaints about audits and subsequent retroactive tax liability for auctioneers, caterers and now some cloud computing companies, the miscellaneous tax bill calls for the Shumlin administration to hire a taxpayer advocate who will work with businesses that are having difficulties interacting with the Department of Taxes. The advocate would develop a taxpayer ‘bill of rights’ and would have the authority to recommend ‘extraordinary relief’ for taxpayers who have been taxed unfairly and experience significant hardship.
Read today’s calendar.
The biggest change, however, is a new ‘generating tax’ on Vermont Yankee that would replace the Clean Energy Development Fund tax and draw $6 million in state revenues (the same amount Entergy, the plant’s owner is paying now). The Education Fund would get half the generation tax; $1.5 million would go to the Clean Energy Development Fund and another $1.5 million would go to help Windham County plan for the plant’s future closure.
Capital bill temporarily pulls $10 million from Health Lab, state police barracks
Irene threw a wrench in plans to move forward on two projects the state set aside $10 million for last year, namely the Department of Health Lab in Burlington and a new state police barracks for the Rockingham/Brattleboro headquarters.
The state hasn’t abandoned either project, according to Rep. Alice Emmons, chair of the House Institutions Committee and a Democrat from Springfield. Both will get their funding in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 ‘ next January when the Legislature develops its two-year capital budget.
As it turns out, the barracks has been delayed because of permitting problems, and the Department of Buildings and General Services plans for the Health Lab are behind schedule because of Tropical Storm Irene. Neither would be ready for prime time this year, Emmons said.
The $10 million, plus $8 million in additional capital budget monies, will go toward Irene recovery. The state must come up with a 10 percent match for FEMA reimbursements for a new psychiatric facility ($20 million total), the Rutland Regional Medical Center mental health unit ($6 million), expanded capacity for psychiatric patients at Brattleboro Retreat ($4 million), the renovation of a Morrisville nursing home and a secure facility for patients ($2 million), the Waterbury complex reconstruction ($12 million) and the retrofitting costs ($1 million) to move about 300 Agency of Natural Resources employees to the National Life facility in Montpelier.
Though the bill gives the administration flexibility to move ahead with construction plans, it also includes a mechanism that will allow lawmakers to work with the administration as funding and construction details evolve. The Joint Fiscal Committee can’t take action unless the chairs of the Institutions committees are consulted.
Midwifery bill pulled off House floor for review by judiciary committee
A bill that would require insurance companies to cover home births even if midwives are not in their network took a detour Thursday when Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas introduced it on the House floor.
An amendment to last year’s bill requiring insurance companies to cover midwifery would effectively require insurers to cover the services even though midwives in the state do not have malpractice insurance.
Families having home births have found Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont has not been covering the services. When midwives do not carry malpractice insurance, the company has refused coverage because carrying the insurance is a requirement to be an in-network provider.
Spotting the legal implications, the House opted to send the bill to the House Committee on Judiciary for vetting.
Rep. Chris Pearson, who sponsored the amendment in the House Committee on Health Care, said the committee would take it up Tuesday morning.
Insurance companies proposed language in the bill last year requiring midwives to follow in-network requirements if they are to be compensated, including malpractice insurance.
Under the amendment, midwives would not have to have the insurance until 2014. Pearson said during the interim they can work to find affordable malpractice insurance.
Three members of the health care committee opposed the bill, saying it creates a double standard where hospitals and doctors have to carry malpractice insurance but midwives don’t.
Rep. George Till, a medical doctor on the committee, said the bill could leave doctors open to litigation if there are transfers from homes to hospitals that go awry.
Cassandra Gekas, a health care lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said the amendment really just requires insurance companies to live up to existing requirements that they cover out-of-network providers when there are no in-network physicians who offer the service.
Gekas said she plans to mobilize citizens as she did last year to express support for the bill.
‘Lots of families care about this,’ she said. ‘We’re going to re-engage them to remind lawmakers that this is about them. It’s not about the insurance companies.’
~Alan Panebaker
A Senate scuffle over pot decrim
It isn’t often that the Senate has a tie vote, and it’s rarer still that the Green Room orders a bill to lie, but last Friday was one of those sessions.
A move to table an amendment calling for the decriminalization of marijuana drew a 13-13 vote that Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell broke ‘ in favor of ordering the amendment and the underlying legislation to lie, which is akin to putting a bill on life support, that is it exists on the calendar every day in a coma state until a senator asks for it to be reconsidered.
Sens. Joe Benning, a Republican from Caledonia County, and Philip Baruth, a Democrat from Burlington, tacked the decrim amendment on to S.138, which resets criminal sentencing guidelines and requires law enforcement to file warrant records whenever police search and/or seize property (the Burlington Free Press has reported on how law enforcement has avoided filing warrants).
Sen. Dick Sears, chair of Judiciary and a Democrat from Bennington, one-upped Benning and Baruth by pulling a parliamentary procedure in which he replaced the decrim plan with his own amendment, which would lower the penalties for pot possession, on the bill.
The clincher? Sen. Tim Ashe, P/D-Chittenden, moved that the bill be tabled, or ordered to lie. Campbell broke a 13-13 tie over the question.
The Senate is back to square one on S.138. Any senator can ask for a vote on the bill, and Baruth said it’s likely the question will come up again soon.
vtdigger.org March 26, 2012
Capital bill details emerge and miscellaneous tax bill in the House hopper
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