Legislature agrees on $84.5 million for career training, business grants and forgivable loans

House and Senate conferees agreed on a compromise Tuesday that gives Gov. Phil Scott most of the nearly $100 million he wanted in workforce and economic development funds.

The compromise provides money to subsidize training for thousands of Vermonters as they change careers or enter new ones, to provide businesses and nonprofits with grants and forgivable loans in the hope that they create more jobs, and to help businesses keep employees on the payroll if another Covid wave hits the state. 

Scott had sought nearly $100 million for a suite of proposed workforce and economic development programs.

The Legislature’s budget allocates $114.5 million in total for workforce and economic development. Lawmakers agreed on $84.5 million of that in S.11 on Tuesday, with an additional $30 million set aside in a budget agreement reached Monday.

One of the biggest pieces of funding is for the Capital Investment Program, which lawmakers renamed the Community Recovery and Revitalization Grant Program. The program provides grants for projects to maintain or expand businesses and nonprofit organizations, attract new businesses or nonprofits, and create jobs, with preference given to projects in communities with a shrinking or stagnant tax base. Nothing in the program actually requires that jobs be created for the money to be given out.

Scott had asked for $50 million for the program. The compromise bill, S.11, appropriates $10 million. But the separate budget bill, H.740, appropriates $30 million more for the program, for a total of $40 million. In addition, the House and Senate compromise appropriates $9 million for creative economy businesses, for a total of $49 million in grants to businesses and nonprofits. 

“Does that mean no more vetoes?” Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, asked hopefully as conferees worked out the compromise bill Monday evening.

By midday Tuesday, Scott seemed optimistic but noncommittal. 

“They’ve come a long ways, and I really appreciate the work, especially with the economic development bill,” Scott said at his weekly press conference. 

The governor cautioned that he does not know all the details, but said the Legislature was moving in the right direction. “There’s a path forward there,” he said. 

Legislators found part of that extra $9 million for creative economy businesses by axing the Senate’s proposal to provide an extra $25 a month to unemployment recipients. The compromise bill still proposes to increase unemployment benefits, but it would instead do so by increasing the maximum benefit by $60 a week over the next three years. Because that money comes from the unemployment trust fund and not from federal stimulus money, the compromise proposal frees up $8 million that would have gone to the extra $25 a week.

That $8 million also will help fund two other programs: a Covid relief fund to help businesses trying to keep employees on the payroll after they have used up their paid leave but have to stay home for Covid-related reasons, and a program the governor proposed to provide short-term forgivable loans to businesses from the Vermont Economic Development Authority. 

Scott had asked for $20 million for the loan program. The Legislature appropriated $19 million. 

The compromise provides $15 million for the Covid relief fund for businesses. Conferees agreed to House restrictions on how businesses can use the money: no more than 40 hours reimbursed per employee, no more than $21.25 per hour for any employee, and no more than a total of $850 per employee. 

The fund will also be active for the period the House wanted, which is from July 1 to June 30 next year, as opposed to what the Senate wanted, which was for all of 2022. That means businesses will not be able to seek reimbursement for expenses they incurred over the Omicron wave as they struggled to keep workers on the payroll. 

The House had sought to kill a program favored by Scott that pays people to move to Vermont. In the compromise, the program will get $3 million, half of the $6 million the Senate wanted. Another $4 million for marketing to people considering relocating to Vermont, which was favored by both the Senate and the administration, has been cut entirely. 

The compromise provides millions of dollars, agreed upon by the House and Senate health care committees, for training people in health care fields. It includes $2.5 million for health care providers for programs that help health care workers transition into nursing, another $2.5 million to repay loans for people entering health care and $2 million in grants to support nurse educators. 

House and Senate conferees signed the bill and shook hands Tuesday afternoon. The bill is expected to head to the House floor Wednesday.

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