Lawmakers mull how to deal with budget gap
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By Louis Porter VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: November 11, 2009
MONTPELIER – Gov. James Douglas and lawmakers have a pretty big hole to fill in the next state budget: Roughly $82 million, or a 6.4 percent, gap between available revenues and expenses.
That gap would be even larger if not for around $100 million in federal stimulus money, and the prospects for future years are even worse, with the end of the one-time federal monies. Add to that the fact that the size of the state's fiscal problem is hard to pin down because of several unknowns: Will there be a second federal assistance measure for states? Will any health care reform bill include more money for state insurance programs? Will state revenues come in as expected?
But there is another even more fundamental question that needs to be answered first, said Rep. John Zenie, a Colchester Democrat.
Zenie, until his retirement, worked for computer giant IBM prioritizing information technology budgets, and thinks the state could use a different way of approaching its financial decisions. Whether it is managing an IT budget for a massive corporation, a family budget for a struggling household or the state budget in the face of a cascade of rescissions and cuts, the same principles apply, Zenie said.
That was the message he wanted to get across to some of his fellow lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Accountability Committee Monday.
A list of priorities, perhaps established by groups of lawmakers from financial and policy committees, should be drawn up that allows spending to contract or grow depending on revenue and changing needs, Zenie said.
That is how best to prioritize and structure the state budget, to prevent the kind of ad hoc reductions the state has seen in the last year or so, or at least make sure those reductions follow a reasoned approach.
Then, questions such as what effect closing some rest areas (as was done during one of this year's budget cutting programs) will have on the state's goals can be considered beforehand, Zenie said.
"We need to move more quickly than I have seen before," he said.
Some of those ideas have been considered before, said Rep. Michael Obuchowski, D-Rockingham, who is on the accountability committee as well as the Emergency Board that will meet to talk about the state's finances later this week.
Indeed, Rep. Patricia McDonald, R-Berlin, another member of the accountability committee, suggested Monday that lawmakers consider assigning policy committees on issues like transportation, health care and others to look at budgets and government organization with a fresh eye. McDonald made the suggestion originally last year.
But there may be some difficulties with implementing the proposals, lawmakers said. For one thing, legislators on policy committees – and the commissioners and secretaries who testify before them – tend to believe strongly in the importance of their area of expertise and its funding, Obuchowski said.
"That's why you have to give folks a target" to cut spending to, he said. And there are simply not enough members of the "money" committees to form independent groups to look at each agency in state government separately.
Finally to move up the speed of the budgeting process so lawmakers have more time to look at those areas is difficult – governors deliver proposed budgets in January leaving only a few months at most before they are completed.
But Zenie said that some change to the budgeting process – a change that would lay the groundwork for future cuts if necessary or expansion if possible – is needed to improve how spending decisions are made. The things the state pays for that simply "keep the lights on" and enable other work of government should take top priority, he said.
Then the things that government does best should be protected. The third priority in Zenie's outline would be investing in new and promising programs. The final, and lowest priority, would be things that would be helpful to the state but are not essential, he said.
"We only have limited resources," Zenie said. "We have to use our money wisely."
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