In 2009, this body for the first time in its history overrode a budget veto. At the heart of that veto was the use of ARRA money to fill holes in the budget, without having to cut spending.
Over the last three years, the practice of using onetime money has become policy, not just to bridge the revenue gap, but to grow the size of government.
Since 2010, annual spending has gone up by nearly 5%. Instead of making tough choices, we’ve passed this deficit from budget year to budget year and we’re about to do it again. Over that same time, had we grown spending by only 2% we wouldn’t be facing a deficit at all
While the ARRA money is long gone, this budget adjustment allows for the transfer of $27 million of onetime tax revenue to the FY12 budget. It is irresponsible to spend onetime money on long-term structural budgetary issues while we ignore hundreds of millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities.
For example we currently owe $29 million to school districts around the state for prior school construction project as well as millions in backlogged repairs to dangerous and deteriorating bridges.
Vermonters deserve a responsible budget process. The strategy of, “forget about today until tomorrow,” is not sustainable. Vermonters and Vermont businesses are doing more with less; state government needs to do the same.
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