Category Archives: Budget

Secretary of the Agency of Administration Jeb Spaulding has released the November revenue results for the state, and things are looking better than last year – state revenues for Nov. 2011 were $78.6 million, or about 2.9 percent ahead of the forecast. That puts the state about $12 million ahead of the forecast for the fiscal year thus far.

“Naturally, we are pleased that General fund revenues continued a positive trend for the month and
through the first five months of the fiscal year. All four of the major tax sources – Personal Income,
Sales & Use, Rooms and Meals, and Corporate Income – are ahead of target and last year’s actual
results, for the month and year to date,” Spaulding said in a press release announcing the results.

The forecast was approved by the Emergency Board in July; the next meeting of that board – made up of the Governor and the chairs of the four 'money' committees in the House and Senate – comes on January 18 of 2012. At that meeting, the E-Board will also take up a number of mid-budget year requests for adjustments on the expense side, including a request for more district technicians from the Agency of Transportation (which are somewhat related to Irene recovery efforts, but the agency is also recommending become permanent), and a new need from the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, which is facing a budget shortfall. Irene accounted for $25 million in shortfalls in this year's budget so far, according to officials.

While personal income and corporate tax receipts, and consumption taxes like the Sales & Use tax are ahead of forecast, real estate transfer taxes are down, more than 30% below the forecast for November and more than 11% below the fiscal year to date forecast.

Transportation Fund receipts are up, which helps provide more bonding capacity for VTrans, according to Spaulding, while the Education Fund non-property tax income was ahead of forecast for November, but still lagging slightly for the fiscal year to date. 

“It is definitely good news that the General Fund has exceeded target for the fourth consecutive month. However, uncertainty from the continuing global economic instability and the unknown extent of federal budget cuts require us to remain cautious. While the current results indicate a positive note for the current fiscal year (FY 2012), there remains a good deal of uncertainty for FY 2013. We look towards the January Consensus Revenue Forecast revision, scheduled for consideration by the Emergency Board on January 18, 2012, with interest and what we hope will be a clearer picture of the revenue future for our three major funds," Spaulding said in the release.

The Secretary of Administration has released the February revenue results for Vermont, and personal income tax receipts are still "mixed" after a January that was below the consensus forecast by state economists, Jeb Spaulding said.

February General Fund revenues were off the forecast by 5%, or $2.71 million, the report says. Because of refunds delivered to early income tax filers, the income tax receipts were actually negative, which also has Spaulding looking ahead to March for a sign on how the remainder of the fiscal year will go.

“We will be watching the individual and corporate tax filing season and the remainder of the winter tourism season closely. It is critical that the next two months exceed or, at a minimum, meet the targets in our four major tax categories (PI Tax, Corporate Income, Sales & Use, and Meals & Room) if we are to end FY 2011 with GF revenues at or above target for the fiscal year,” he says in the agency's press release.

The entire release can be found below:

Download Feb Rev

Hundreds of people gathered outside of the statehouse at noon, today, asking legislators not to make cuts to mental health and developmental services in the upcoming budget.  They chanted, "no more cuts" in unison. In the governor’s proposed budget, there would be $4 million dollars in cuts to these services. This rally was the centerpiece of Mental Health Awareness day at the statehouse

After the rally, a portion of the group went inside to talk to legislators and to give testimony at committee hearings — telling stories of how the mental health and developmental services funding affect their lives and to plead for the legislators not to cut this funding. 

Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding just released the January revenue results for the state, which were below projections by $1.6 million. That means you can subtract $1.6 million from the roughly $26 million extra (which is the amount projected in excess of the original projections used to create the FY11 state budget) that Gov. Shumlin planned to carry over into the FY12 budget to help plug the budget gap.

Looking a little deeper into the numbers, the income tax receipts and the sales & use tax receipts were down, while the corporate income tax receipts were above the target. At the Emergency Board meeting in January, the state's economists warned that while revenues for the last 6-12 months have been doing slightly better than expected, they project that this probably does not signal a rapid turnaround. Rather, slow growth will be the case for the next year or two.

However, one month does not make or break the state. The full report:

Download Jan 2011 Revenue Press Release1

Peter Welch has introduced a provision in federal legislation that might give Vermont a bit of help on meeting its budget – extending an ARRA (the stimulus bill) provision that allowed states to defer paying interest on federal loans to the states' unemployment funds.

Welch's office says this would save Vermont $8.4 million over two years, according to the Vermont Department of Labor. States would not have to pay the accumulated interest on these loans when the two years is up, either.

The fate of this bill, HR 650, which was introduced first in Jan. 2010, by Welch, is uncertain due to the change in leadership after last fall's elections.