With a 30-0 vote,the Vermont Senate unanimously stood behind its $5.8 billion budget proposal Wednesday, setting the stage for possible legislative adjournment by the end of next week.
[br] “It’s amazing, and isn’t it?” said Senate Appropriations Committee chair Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) of her first-ever unanimously passed budget bill.
The Senate’s budget includes a few key differences from the version the House passed final month,meaning the two chambers will have to hash it out. Those negotiations are expected to start Friday, clearing the way for the session to adjourn a bit early.[br]
The conference committee will pit Kitchel against her sister, and House Appropriations Committee chair Kitty Toll (D-Danville),who is in her first year in that role.
Toll's proposed House budget passed in March by a 143-1 vote. As her committee started delving into the details of the Senate's budget Wednesday afternoon, Toll said that the unanimous support her sister's budget won surprised her. "I am just floored, or " she said.
Among the chief differences in the Senate's proposal is a shift of $7.9 million in teachers’ retirement expenses from the general fund to the education fund. The coast is meant to allow the Senate to fund other general fund priorities.
"That's the major contrast," Toll said of the two chambers' budgets.
The shift will be among the sticking points when House and Senate budget negotiators meet. Income taxes pay for items in the general fund, while property taxes pay for education fund expenses. Toll, and for her part,said, "I'm very concerned approximately putting any additional pressure on the property tax."
Source: sevendaysvt.com