Both Rep. Ken Goslant and I did “biweekly” updates last week, so this will be some shorter highlights as we get onto our usual alternating schedule.
The good news of the week is that the long tradition of Farmers Night has returned after a several-year COVID absence. These free performances in the House Chamber every Wednesday evening at 7:30 are a real treat and showcase some of our most talented Vermont performers, including the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. You can find the full schedule (Jan. 18 through April 12) at the bottom right of the legislature’s home page, legislature.vermont.gov
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Committees are just getting organized, and bills just being submitted, so there’s been no action on the floor yet, but lots of media attention on the agenda for the controlling majority in both House and Senate. These include significant investments in childcare (from general funds); the family leave bill (via payroll tax); and climate change mitigation through home heating mandates (via fuel surcharges.) On top of inflationary pressures and an expected hike in school taxes, these could really add up, so each will require review with an eye to the whole package.
But I recognize that everyone has their own priorities, since I’m introducing a bill that would require new funding: the “65th Birthday Cliff” bill would address the disparity that currently occurs when older Vermonters lose financial assistance for health coverage as they go onto Medicare. Medicare has significant gaps, yet we change the low-income threshold for Medicaid support at that point.
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The governor’s budget address is scheduled for this Friday, so we’ll be hearing his priorities. We are already reviewing the changes in the current budget he is proposing in the budget adjustment act. One item of concern to me is a $9m appropriation to fast-track construction of a children’s inpatient psychiatric unit at Southwestern Medical Center in Bennington. We do need to act quickly to meet critical mental health needs, but not so quickly that we make major investments that could be misguided.
Those kinds of mistakes can occur when public input is limited. I’m concerned that this would be in Bennington, when the only other hospital for children is in Brattleboro, causing significant challenges for families. We also need to ensure we aren’t investing in the highest, most expensive level of care without adequately funding programs in the community that could prevent a need for hospitalization.
It’s worth asking why the state be paying to build a unit in a hospital, when all other types of care are part of the hospitals’ own capital investments? The answer is that hospitals get more revenue for care such as surgery while psychiatry loses money. Reforms need to align the actual costs with actual funding, both inpatient and outpatient, and we’ve made little progress on parity for mental health care. It shouldn’t be a surprise that mental health needs are skyrocketing when kids wait months to access child psychiatry.
The legislature has been pushing for steps towards integration of health care for decades, but we almost took a step backwards in our own language in another example of action taken too quickly without input. The Speaker wanted to change jurisdictions of our House committees. One was eliminated to bolster several others, and descriptions of all were revised. Input by the full legislature was limited to seeing the document an hour before the vote on it. Health care was renamed “physical and mental health care” – the lingo of segregation we eschewed a decade ago. I objected with a fair amount of passion and am happy to report that it was re-amended this past week to use our own current statutory language that describes an “integrated and holistic health care system.”
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Berlin’s leadership took a key step this past week in getting a handle on the level of disruption that has been occurring because of the state paying to house homeless individuals and families at the Hilltop Inn. I had helped in encouraging the state to come to the table and sat in on a meeting with town officials and the police chief, owner representation from the Hilltop, a social service provider and the Commissioner and staff from the Department of Children and Families.
Berlin officials made it clear that they want to support homeless folks, but the minority who are bringing violence and drug issues are creating a huge burden on local police. The Inn’s management hasn’t taken any quick actions, and the town felt more support was needed by the state. It turned out that the Hilltop wasn’t aware that they can have people removed immediately if they are endangering others, but also needed help in getting clear details from the police calls. All the players will now be meeting weekly to see if problems can be resolved quickly when they crop up. I was particularly impressed by the Berlin manager, Vince Conti, in how he steered the discussion to stay on topic and work towards problem-solving.
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Please reach out any time to Rep. Goslant or me, at KGoslant@leg.state.vt.us or ADonahue@leg.state.vt.us It is a pleasure to serve you.
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