 all can be with us. Ritchie and I have been chatting and what we thought we would do this morning is give about an hour and thought we would take the first 10 minutes or so and just debrief. We haven't had an opportunity to follow up on our conversation with Senator Kitchell. We then thought we would talk a little bit about our upcoming meeting with the administration that Kendall is working on and Richie wrote to Kendall and we can share a little bit of where we're at with that and what we expect and then we'll just take the rest of the time and go around and get updates from folks. I think one of the things that you know I think some people have been able to do a little bit more than others. I know not all the committees have met as a group even you know my fault Debbie's done some has done quite a bit of work for us but we have yet to chat and we know since we're talking to the administration on Thursday we you know that will also allow us to have an opportunity to figure out where some of the holes might be plugged from some of the holes that we've identified. So long story short we'll just go around after we talk a little bit about Jane and a little bit about Kendall. Where folks are at if you've not met but somebody in your group it sounds like might have done some work that you know we can just talk about even just say that you know you're when you're planning on getting together to share what you found and maybe there are other things that you feel like you need to do before we hear from the administration later this week. So let's kick it off if anybody wants to have any sort of response to the conversation with Jane or any questions I know Richie is also on that committee. Oh dead silence we love it. Oh yeah and of course Alice is on that committee I mean I don't know about everyone else but the big thing that I suspect we're all waiting on is whether or not the feds will change these regulations and allow us to actually use you know 1.25 billion to you know build budgetary gaps and I don't know Alice or Richie if there's something that you're all communicating with our federal delegation or if you're just if you're in the sort of cold holding pattern that we all are in and just waiting to to see what happens. So it sounds just just one little piece it sounds like you know the administration is continually in touch Stephanie that is with the treasury looking at what can be done and can't be done and then looking at different ways that maybe something can be done that seems to be what's going on with regard to a lot of the money. I think for us in the our existing budget this second bill that they're beginning to fight over that past the house that the administration said is dead in the water and whatever that's the place that there probably is going to be help internally within state budgets you know when they get sorted out with that stuff but you know I'm not one for much for knowing the ins and outs of the fights in Washington if somebody else has got a better handle on that they're a lot smarter than I am. So one other question I have is in terms of appropriations are you all planning on what's your process I guess from here on out where are you at is it the like you said Stephanie's talking with the treasury the treasurer's office she they're helping to determine what can be spent what can't be spent and then when would that all when would we know when that money is distributed. So just maybe I misled you she's talking with the US Treasury US Treasury okay and and there's a whole group that meets to try and sort things out so I think one of the places is of course they're planning to try and use that money or let's see I gotta think how they're going to do this they're going to use different months that may be reimbursed if they have to if they can't use that directly okay like find a different way to go about it. And what's the timing Alice I mean for example a constituent asked me yesterday he said do you guys think you'll be done you know in terms of distributing these funds by the end of June or is this something just is going to be ongoing throughout this. You know I think you really heard from Jane we're going to do the budget adjustment there's a piece of money that's already been spent of the COVID money by the administration you know in 65 to 80 million dollar range that they've already spent that joint fiscal is approved. The joint fiscal committee will with the cons the administration will bring another pot of money that's probably about 150 million to joint fiscal for joint fiscal approval and then the rest of all of the COVID money will be spent in the budget process and the likelihood is that the bulk of that money will be spent in this first quarter budget that we're going to do because we're going to do a three-month budget and then moving to the last three quarters but I expect that the bulk of that that COVID money will be spent in that first quarter budget and for me what I'm hearing that's where I think that this committee is going to get an opportunity to say here are the things that we think are related to a transition period and we should get some ability to say what we think needs to happen. I think there'll be areas like higher education and what's going on at the state colleges in the university that we'll get some way in. I would like to think broadband. The administration has said they want a third of the money spent on the economy and I'm not sure what that means but I think that that moves into what we're doing and I would say to Mark and the dark senator with no face you know he's kind of really black in there. He's from the mafia. Yes he does. That we're going to have to get a handle on what they're proposing in that but it's that I think the bulk of that COVID money is going to be spent in that first quarter. Rich when you say spent do you mean apportioned but the exact uses yet to be determined? Yeah well it will be budgeted out I think. As a template for further decisions on just how each okay thank you. And I think this is going to finish the budget adjustment. Not sure what days we're meeting yet. Yeah and I it's important to note and maybe Joyce was going to weigh in on this but that the funds in the CARES Act have to be spent by December 30th. That's correct. So not not just budgeted not just appropriated but spent. That's one of the big reasons why they have to go you know early and I know that both Ledge Council and JFO have been in those treasury meetings trying to figure out creative ways that we can use the funds. I've worked with several of them so I don't know Joyce do you want to say more but sure that that's the point I was going to make. There is a work group that's working through NCSL that had a conference call last week with a treasury high up official and he was very clear that the funds absolutely have to be spent it's not enough to obligate them it's not enough to hand them off to someone who's going to spend them. The funds really have to be spent by December 30th. He also emphasized that it those funds are really targeted at COVID related expenses. So if you can make the case for example that school districts with higher unemployment rates school districts in counties with higher unemployment rates have larger costs related to something or other then then you can perhaps apportion funds that way but you have to have something that's directly related to the COVID effects in order to spend those monies. Rich the same statements were made in the summer of 2009 with the the stimulus money that went out and for those of us that are looking at broadband and that was all supposed to be spent that year for shovel ready stuff in the broadband area the money carried over for I think two or three years and and the people that had gotten control of that didn't learn a bunch to actually use it for several years so that's what this is the same thing we were told in 2009 at this time of the year I I'd have no I can't estimate make any estimates on whether that's going to be modified or changed and I think this Manchester is correct that's what they're saying now yeah I I I understand that in the appropriations process for us though we're almost done the budget adjustment and so the next and the process that was laid out in joint fiscal is um you know 65 to 70 to 80 million the administration has got to spend has we laid out a number and they will spend 150 we laid out for the administration with joint fiscal to spend but that really leaves the vast majority of that 1.2 billion for to be appropriated to be spent and the next place to do that is in the first quarter budget that we're going to do so in June we'll have to have plans to be able to get that out the door to either either get it all spent or at least obligated you know I think from the federal position they're going to say you've got to spend this by the end of the year if you might be absolutely correct mark that if we're on a track to spend it they might not claw it back but we're definitely going to have to have this obligated and down the tube if um um um you know there's always I think a little flux in there but for us June is going to be the time when um um the appropriations committee is going to be put putting that money in a budget to get it out the door so so are we you want to move on brian brian you're muted uh yes anybody else have any questions or joys did you want to say anything else okay so why don't we uh go ahead and talk a little bit about kendall uh your email to kendall richie and what we're expecting to hear later this week so um um we have asked the administration to put together a presentation on um transition plans given overall view of what their plans are during um the beginning part of this transition I suggested um that they better be ready to talk about child care as um as one of the areas first I'm thinking that um that if they want to spend um 30 percent of this um COVID money or a third of it on um the economy what does that mean um and the question is for the rest of you what are the other things that brian and I today should convey to kendall that the areas that besides child care and the economy that um we should convey to her that we want the information on I think the hiring freeze is one thing that comes up okay Ruth I guess I would like to get a sense from them about when they make a decision to open something and and I think child care is kind of the classic example but there are other things too they made the decision to do that before they released any guidance and then when they release the guidance it's really complicated and and it just is going to be really hard for most child care centers to meet that guidance um and they just didn't provide very much lead time so I'm concerned that that's a precedent for schools and colleges and other really complex institutions to reopen um because they're just not I know they're eager to reopen and that the numbers show that they're safe to do so but they have they're not in a lot of sectors a lot of time to meet pretty complicated guidance so and the community I guess the communication is is not as as strong as it could be I think along those lines I'd like to hear a little bit more about I'm starting to receive emails about you know the lack of requirement for masks and uh I think some reasoning so that we can get back to people I think for most of us I don't want to speak for everybody but for me masks seem just like a logical thing to require and they're out there people have them if they don't have now they've asked us to them for the most part for the different stage and it seems to me that it should be something that we would require so I'd be curious to know they're thinking on that if we don't hear by Thursday so I think I would like to hear more about that we are getting a lot of letters also a lot of the constitutional people are writing as well one of the issues of course is the courts being closed so you know if you give a citation to someone just adds to the big bump at the beginning yeah process yeah thanks um yeah I'm kind of wanting to go back to the child care thing for a minute um on Friday we had a meeting at the child poverty council and um Jim is on that too and we had quite um passionate testimony from a child care provider who was really upset about the June 1st opening the administration is being it as a as a choice but it's not really a choice because their money their stabilization funding will stop on June 1st so I mean they really they really don't have a choice but um they there's apparently been a petition drive and as of Friday they had over a hundred preschool teachers already signed it about how upset they are that they're being forced to reopen with that and they feel it's very inadequate um precautions being taken and inadequate guidance they're given so I didn't want to uh and we asked a person from the Department of Health on the poverty council he did try to respond by that decision had been made that way but um I do think it bears you know more investigation and and then another couple of things came out of our meeting too um so housing and homelessness um we have that I think the homeless we have a really big opportunity here to um help some of these folks that you know we have housed who hadn't been housed in a long time but we've been able to do that and you know what are the plans I think there are they're working on some plans going forward continue to keep some of these you know in uh in housing so that they don't return to you know nothing or the streets or camps or or surfing but I'd love to hear more about that and then finally the um after-school programming always seems to kind of dropped um but was that was that last bit after school oh yeah for older kids because I mean the assumption seems to be that you know everybody like that has young has children only has children under the age of five but you know lots of people have you know a four-year-old and a seven-year-old and a 12-year-old or you know and and the seven and the 12-year-olds needs after school programming and also summer program um and I think they have a proposal floating around out there too about how to stabilize those programs so I'd love to hear from the administration thinking is about that anything from uh your thoughts on healthcare in particular you took the first stab at our little healthcare subcommittee anything in particular that you think folks need to hear uh from the administration on yeah well we've been taking so much testimony in health and welfare um yeah I think you guys actually I would love to get in your brains I mean I sort of was I feel like my brain is full to be honest but um yeah I mean it sounds like the administration is quite on top of all you know the things that need to be done I mean you know like changes to to telehealth and telemedicine to you know extend those um you know I mean stabilizing the hospitals is and and independent providers is a big challenge um you know working with the insurance companies but I mean a lot of that work is what we're hearing in health and welfare is a lot of that work is taking place wouldn't you say bridge yeah I would I would say that that's more ongoing and not as much transition as it is right you know Anthony had um had his hand up well I was just going to go back to some of the things we were talking about before a couple quick things in terms of child care it's not just a subsidy program itself but there's supply issues with healthcare with child care in terms of being able to access kinds of cleaning materials and other supplies of child care centers are going to need there's another thing which is sorry which is something that's not about money necessarily but I think there's growing concern about the emotional impact really of sending kids into a situation where like their adults are wearing masks and can't hold them and comfort them that kind of stuff I mean I don't know what we do about that but I just think it's something we can't forget about that there's going to be a lot of you know sort of trauma emotional trauma that comes out of reopening too quickly and I think we have to I get I don't know what we do about it but I think we have to be aware that it's real in terms of health care um well two things that are related to health care we've been working a lot on trying to provide funding for EMTs emergency medical services and I just want to know if the administration is aware of the effort the fact that the EMTs are basically ready to they're going to go out of business to talk about ambulance services and emergency medical services I mean they're losing tons of money and they're going to really a lot of them are ready to hit bottom and something that we need to have strengthened as part of the medical system and it's not they're not affiliated with hospitals that's what a lot of us are mad I used to grow it up I always thought the ambulance came from the hospital and therefore was part of the hospital you know budget and funding but that's not the case so I just want to make sure that EMTs emergency medical services are on their radar screen as well and then I would just say food I mean as you all know and a lot of people who are relying on emergency food supplies and this thing the other day Berlin airport 2,000 people 2,000 carloads of people showed up to pick up free food and you know how are we going to be able to sustain that is there funding and awareness available that people are going to continue to need food I mean it's really scary and people got turned away at the Berlin airport there are 2,000 cars in but not everybody made it in so it's pretty pretty scary so the whole issue around food access to food is something that we need to continue to work on because there is the possibility that those supplies are not going to last forever so just go back okay you go ahead Rich and then I just want to go back to both of you and go ahead Brian and then Ruth just got her hand I just want to go back I'm trying to keep a list here yeah I've got one too so we can compare we Debbie so one of the things with health is and I realize well I do think this is connected to the transition is if we do transition back to a another wave of people becoming infected we have a sense or should we put it on the list give a sense from health and welfare if folks hospitals are ready for another if we do get hit with you know a wave of people becoming infected you know you know August or in September but yeah I I do get the sense that they're not they haven't been overwhelmed you know we haven't heard that really with COVID cases I mean more than anything it's it's it really is the financial hit in not being able to do other procedures very well that's one of their biggest concerns but you know and then and then but the things like you know like PPE for the the healthcare providers I mean we hear reports all the time I mean the investment will tell us that I know it's fine and we have enough and you know and then the providers on the ground are telling us no that's not always the case it's a concern if we have a surge I think so so I'm not sure I guess one thing that comes up quite a bit near me is enforcement of the new rules with regard to visitors to the state and is there any enforcement that's going to occur this is what people seem to be they don't mind the people coming if they're I mean hard part is thinking that someone's going to quarantine for two they get here or what's going to happen if you know they don't I mean is it realistic to think that something is going to happen what what is it that we're worried about it seems to me that the Vermonters who choose not to quarantine themselves which is a small group um perhaps are greater numbers greater percentages of our population than the folks who come here from afar who come here to and then quarantine themselves because they're worried about where they've left so what is it we enforce so the one one group of people we we seek to enforce that they are quarantined and our own citizens we so turn their heads to the other direction so what I'm hearing from people I mean we've heard from the administration Vermonters can go to motels you know got all those dates set up and that kind of thing but what the people are writing about are someone who comes and rents the house next door and you know it's too big family behind and I think the it's not very realistic to be thinking that they're going to be quarantined for two weeks before they come I just I mean how do you check that I mean I I don't think you do but that's what a word that there is enforcement I don't see what the enforcement they're asked if they if they come here to quarantine themselves for the first two weeks when they're here and to stay away from everyone else that's what the current ask is today um it's a little challenging for someone who's coming up for the weekend we've got emails from people who say our family wants to visit us for the weekend can we do that and I said well since they have to quarantine for 14 days so we can trip for the weekend doesn't seem to be quite possible yep okay well they could stay indoors with the family so Ruth was next I'm trying to keep track here thank you Richie I appreciate it and can I just request that people unmute themselves too when they're not talking because there's a lot of background noise that makes it hard for people to hear I just wanted to say that first all the education issues that have been brought up are on the list that I sent you that hopefully you all can actually get into this time Debbie I just added after school because I had forgotten that but I have I will have to say that if there's no school in the fall there's not going to be any after school in the fall either um uh and um I guess for the meeting that we're having on is it Thursday Rich with the administration I think it's important that we first get a really good overview sort of big picture overview of their planning for reopening and how they're making decisions and that's some that's exactly what we're planning yeah I was going to ask you if because everything that we've had listed for issues was really pretty defined issues except for your little piece that says before you open up an area are you going to have guidance that comes out ahead of time yeah would you put that in the email to Brian and I um and I would forward that to Kendall as kind of a backdrop to the big picture I what the hope is is we get the big picture on Thursday they go somewhat into the areas and then our committees are going to follow up on what gets said okay I just didn't want to get too much in the weeds on a particular issue um because I feel like we could go down a rabbit hole pretty quickly um and then lose sight of what what the goal is so I think that the big picture transition and I don't know who mentioned it but I also think it's important that we hear what their plan is for if there is a resurgent resurgence if that's the right word because that doesn't seem to be in most of the guidance they're putting out guidance about how to reopen but not guidance about what happens if we have to re-close something what is the guidance there just trying to make it a little more orderly the next time so people know what to expect I think that the um excuse me uncertainty out there is palpable it's certainly palpable in my house so I think it's palpable out in the entire state just what happens if kind of thing and so the more they can clarify what happens if that that I think the more helpful it will be um and I'm also in addition to the masks question which I'm getting a lot too I'm getting a lot of questions about contact tracing and how that's actually working we did have Dr. Levine in to talk to us and that was really helpful but it seems to me that they're putting out a lot of information about testing but not a lot of information about contact tracing so I just want to get a little bit more clarity on that issue like how is it actually working in practice okay um so get me the email on on on that first one in Brian and I will make sure that that gets passed around and we'll try to do something broader view but I am going to lay out as many of these issues as I can for them in the background and tell them they should expect that our individual groups are going to be contacting them up on those issues do you want to move into the areas yeah I think we've hit on some of them uh quite a bit but let's see let's just go back to maybe economic development it seems like we've talked a lot about what we would want to hear from the administration on things like health care education maybe we haven't heard quite as much on what else needs to be uh what questions economic development might have for the administration then our fourth category um I'm blanking on education economic development health care and government government thank you so and we've heard a little bit on on on governance but anything else on governance or Richie do you want to start by talking a little bit about what you think needs we need to hear around economic development well we haven't met but I think um um the dark man in in the center of my screen and Mark and I need to sit down with um ACCD if they're going to talk about 30% of all the COVID money going out um for economic development I think this week the three of us are going to have to sit down with them and talk to them about what in broad brush that they might be talking um I think we are going to um have to sit down um with um um um Senator Sorotkin to what's going on in economic development in relation to this what do we mean Rich when we say what do we mean when we say economic development as a topic what what do we mean what do those words mean well we've got um I was getting to that we have the list of suggested areas that we look in and I was going to say the um um the things not included on this list that we have in the transition list I think broadband um needs to go in the economic development pot I think we heard from Jane that her and um Senator Cummings we're going to meet they're hiring that consultant I think we need to get in a place where um we at least understand that and can be back up my fear is with stuff like broadband is that finance is so busy that you're going to do a lot of it but you um they're going to need some help um you know and as I look down through here you know there there's issues around the opening of restaurants and in tourist businesses um I think that that's an area that's particularly from my point of view where I'm from it's going to be particularly hard hit um I don't know if others are hearing it but um I'm hearing a lot of people say they're calling former employees and people um because of child care or any other number of reasons people are refusing to go back to work so is there some role that we need to play to make it more advantageous for people to go back to work and you know and and I would encourage the two of you to look at the list that um we started to put together and figure out what you consider transition and whatnot I think you know with Jane's talk about existing programs is it I think we may be able to start that but I think that's a longer term discussion if our programs are the right programs to get to some solution. Rich I apologize I as a committee member I asked more questions and I constructively answered and yeah well you're you're going to have to come up with some answers if you like which is perhaps why I got assigned to this thing yeah and I when when we're talking about economic development and we take the subject of broadband and perhaps finance is too busy um there we have two choices as Vermont and Vermonters we can take money and do short-term stimuluses with old broadband technologies and in the process delay a world-class broadband here in the state of Vermont and the choices are do we send the money to um the technology to be constructed for the future or do we send to the money the money to people who will send it not to the technology but a great number of that those dollars to their stockholders and that is a fundamental question that we're looking at and and we have to make decisions on which of those directions we want to take meanwhile we sit and listen to um lobbyists take a lot of our time on zoom using a lot of words that have no that are unmeasurable and have no content and it's like watching an infomercial how do we deal with this transition committee to see that the money goes to the long-term future stays here in Vermont and provides an economic benefit rather than it simply puts the money in pockets of people who live out of state and and provides us with puts us further away from our goal of of economic activity I think those decisions as this committee how do we recommend I think mark that that this week um the three of us should sit down with chain and and and talk about given where they are and hiring a consultant and moving towards a consultant what our role should be and and I think I think that if we did nothing else on this committee but answered that question that you just answered we'd be doing we have done our whole job I and I I'm on that those same lines again we keep talking about people and families and have we categorized for monitors today and the three basic positions where they work live or reside or or um quarantine themselves because we've got many Vermonters who are working for the same salaries they always work for they're at home that have their kids that whose expenses are less than they used to be um are probably cooking for themselves and putting money in the bank and then we've got Vermonters who are deemed essential that we've sent a little money with them to the jobs that they're doing that are dangerous that involve commuting and driving long distances and can't and have a tough time finding a place to send their kids and then we have a third group of Vermonters they're out of work can't pay their bills um on our a home and unconnected to anyone and um probably we're the large part of the people we saw at the airport the other day um lined up for food and every time we have to make a solution is the solution we're coming up with helping the the ones that are putting money in the bank staying at home and doing just fine the ones that are being told to take their take the health and physical risks with their kids un taking care of or the ones that are going to the airport to get free food because those are decisions when we make them we have to make them with those groups in mind instead of which is the easiest or how do we incorporate that thank you for giving me this time no i i think mark you absolutely bring up one of the questions that the three of us are going to have to struggle with you know i would say one of the other things about this is um for economic development one of the questions that bugs me is i don't think we're asking the question as we're headed to the other side of this and they're reopening the economy and the businesses what's not what are the areas that look like they might not survive and where are the weaknesses that we're going to have i think that in follows the same kind of thinking that you're talking about we're helping this group but not that group so where are the holes in the people that we're helping but in the same respect i want to make sure that in the business community that when i look at it that the playing field one area is not so decimated it because partly because we just aren't paying attention to what we might be losing but i think that um ruth and then i'm done with economic and and i'll be calling the other two in our area thanks rich i just want to say mark that i really appreciated that your comments about your sort of categories you're absolutely right and i i had i think it's important that we remember that the different situations people are in and who who were actually helping and trying to help so thank you for laying it out like that that was helpful um and i just want to put in a plug to say that i i hope that we define economic development much more broadly than just giving you know money to manufacturing and businesses i i just think that that has a failed economic development policy in the past and if we continue to do that when we have this opportunity to provide funding in a crisis to um revive our economy we're just it's not going to be as broad-based and it's not going to help the categories that that we need to hit the most and the vast majority of remanters are employed by small businesses and we need to really make sure that those are front and center and i i again want to put a plug in our stations and nonprofit organizations that you know aren't quote unquote you know for profit businesses that we often think about for economic development but those are crucial organizations to taking care of people but also for um uh just vitalization in our small towns and tourism as well so just want to make sure we remember those but the federal the federal stimulus seems to have been designed to help the very entities that you've just that are not the ones that you've just said we ought to pay attention to it's the seems to be designed that way to send that money to um not to the hey i'll stop yep so okay so it sounds yeah governance um we've talked a little bit i think we'll hear an update from folks on the courts um there might be you know they might weigh in a little bit on upcoming elections uh anything else that folks want to say about governance or need answers to um ruth that's your area fresh cup of coffee ruth you're ready to go um so anything else on governance that folks have questions that they'd like to hear uh the administration and yeah senator plena well we've been talking about this a lot in gov ops obviously and we've done a lot of um changes the emergency changes given an onslaught of the pandemic and we've talked about whether or not we need to pass legislation essentially that would allow the transition to emergency measures to go more smoothly should this it should there be a resurgence in other words we've allowed select boards to meet without a designated location that kind of stuff that or to change the due date for tax or tax um payments whatnot we've taken those on individually mostly and said here's some changes we need to make so we've been talking about whether or not we should put together a package of things that communities are going to need to be able to do should there be a resurgence and sort of put that into law so that next time there's this sort of happen again we wouldn't have to pass legislation on each individual issue we have something that would be ready to be implemented right away so i mean i don't know if that'll turn out that way or not but that's what we're thinking is that we should have a package that sort of gives community municipalities the ability to transition to a pandemic like operation without having us to pass legislation on for each individual issue and that's a great point i have that written down now uh others as it relates to definitely well i think i think um following up with beth pierces bill that's i don't know if it's actually has a bill number or anything yet her bill that's in the house with regard to loans to municipalities and having the state pay the interest getting that money out of the cold for the interest in fees so i think i think that's going to be a very important bill for towns and the other municipalities not for every one of them they don't all need it but there's certainly i think we heard there were 82 that definitely we're going to need something i guess the question would be you know does the does the administration see this as a need sure they do okay anything else so it sounds like i feel like we've we've asked questions again of the administration relating to related to the four subcommittees economic development health care i think um russ has done a fair amount of work in education can you talk a little bit about where um you are you and yeah sure yeah anthony and i met last tuesday and we put together a list and then i added to it because i can never resist to add things to list um so it's i sent it yesterday and um the childcare it covers childcare um k12 and higher education and some of the issues are similar for each of them i think access to ppe and cleaning supplies and testing and tracing that is true for all of them um and then the financial impact is huge for all of them as well um but it differs for each level um i all of them also mental health and trauma informed practices as i think it was anthony mentioned um a lot of kids are in a young and old are in a different space with their mental health at this point and that is going to have a huge impact when schools and childcare centers and colleges reopen obviously for colleges people coming back into the state and the procedures for that dorm space and the ability to quarantine and a lot of you know things that go along with the residential um it assist a system um for the k12 um and higher ed to contracts and how to meet contractual obligations during this pandemic um obviously for higher ed the Vermont state college system situation is front and center um but also not forgetting about uvm as an important public institution and and uh i would also put a plug in that we want to make sure we don't lose track of our um independent colleges that are really important in some of our small towns like mine and brian's um and um uh childcare though is the first one that's really going to hit and and there's so much stress and anxiety out there among parents and childcare providers about this june 1st deadline and not having sufficient time to prepare or financial resources to do so um and then to be dropped out of the stabilization program without um any options um i think that we're potentially you know leading toward a a crash of our childcare system if we don't do more to stabilize it beyond june 1st um so there are more details in the list um i don't know if you want me to go through every one of them but that's the sort of general overview and i also am working um as you all know our education fund is really challenged shall we say um so i've been working with jfo to try to come up with uh a plan for that um because i had i love education finance issues so that's that's something that um hopefully i can work with the finance committee on too but brian at your suggestion i just sort of took the flag and ran with it and we'll see what i can come up with great great dead um yeah something else that i think should be our our radar for education um is uh yesterday um the jenton county delegation met with um um non-tenured well tenured and non-tenured faculty at uvm and um the uvm is attempting to balance its budget by uh cutting the hour of non-tenured faculty by 25 and they're throwing some of them into um below minimum wage basically um i mean they're throwing them into food insecurity and how i mean it's it's it's it's very bad i think without apparently looking at um cutting other parts of the university budget like especially administrative administrative salaries which are much higher and could you know they could afford to take cuts more easily so i'm gonna um ask senator bruce um to have the education committee take some testimony on this but i think it should be on our our radar too um you know this is not the way we want um any of our institutions or you know businesses to balance their budgets coming out of this crisis by cutting the you know lower um level um at lower middle salaries and creating more hardship on these folks we need we need to look at the upper levels or using you know federal funds or uh you know doing anyway doing a alternative alternatives did you uh did you guys happen to mention what that dollar amount looks like that they're trying to cut did that did they learn that did um i can find that out they they were gonna i did see the letter from one of the conate you probably saw that as well uh yeah and i i can't remember all the details at that point but i i have heard that some well yeah i guess i'll just keep my mouth shut for now thank you yeah they're they're yeah they're they're getting us more hard data um so yeah i can have some numbers anthony yeah i know the answer to this question but i'd be curious to ask the administration whether they're ever going to consider raising revenue as opposed to just cutting programs i mean some word went out that um agencies are being told to come up with budgets that represent eight percent declines i think and they're spending in those sorts of eight percent is right but you know sometimes in situations like this you also have to look at raising revenue the example would be to rescind the tax cuts that wealthier vermoners are enjoying now we talked about a hundred and sixty million dollar hole in the education budget given the last tax cuts that went into place years ago um the wealthiest vermoners are saving two hundred and thirty seven million dollars a year in taxes so that's money that we could try to recoup some of that and bring that back to the state of vermont so the question is whether or not we're ever going to have a conversation about raising revenue where we might find new revenue as opposed to just cuts i would presume the administration is going to say no we're not considering raising revenue but i think it would be interesting question to put on the table for them i mean there's there's revenue out there there's word for forgoing wealth is five percent are saving two hundred and thirty seven million dollars on their taxes now this year every year federal taxes we could put a surcharge on those folks to recoup some of that money that they're that they're not going to be paying in federal taxes that direct some of that back to the state of vermont yeah i totally agree with that anthony and and and actually again i keep having all these other meetings but um the women's caucus met also on friday and stephanie splina um from evm um presented a lot she's an economist and presented a lot of information about how the austerity in a time like this is is exact opposite of what we should be doing and she definitely mentioned she made a good one case for exploring raising revenue and and even you know and dipping into our reserves and even um borrowing money if we need to to have an unbalanced budget because vermont's one of the few states that doesn't have a balanced budget um you know uh law um and i think it's worth i mean it's definitely worth hearing um she has a lot of good evidence um we might want to we might want to actually invite her to speak this group um can be what's her name again stephanie seguino and first uvm ui no she's at uvm i just say to you that um um the appropriations committee had um the treasurer speak to us about maybe doing some bonding for housing in a number um transportation in those areas to um with interest rates low and all of um um to take a look at that and the treasurer came in and was not very um uh was not positive on any of the ideas of boring she in fact she was quite i'm just telling you but i do you know i do think that there is you know from transportation fuel costs are down um paving's cheaper the um loan pieces cheaper separate bond fund to be able to do so it i i think at some level in a number of different area we we ought to at least push um um people like treasurer appears on that issue it is rich um did you have anything in healthcare that you wanted to add to what um you guys are talking about yet or or human service area um um debbie or we've not yet to me and that's my fault so we'll try to connect maybe the next couple of days and all right we have a long list actually or i held along this yeah rich yes um chair coming says and the finance committee are of the general opinion that the amount of money we have set aside in rainy day funds is going to get us through this fiscal year ending at the end of june and that we've been gotten a lot of high marks for our conservative rainy day funds and but next year we're on our own so debbie brought that up rich you brought up the transportation issue we have a transportation budget that plans to do a certain amount of work this year and it's clear i think to everybody if we if there are no changes that work isn't going to get done for 2021 um there are people who are at home not driving and there are people who drive that has been suggested that we if we were we reacted quickly and put a surcharge on the fuels motor fuels whether it was at at wholesale or at the pump for a period of time until our transportation budget was replenished only the people who are working and driving would be paying for it and that we could automatically shut that off when the fund was full or when gasoline went back up to a price around 250 240 you name the dollar figure but during this time we should be collecting more money for our transportation fund and as a member of the long-standing member transportation committee is there any right reason why that shouldn't be one of this committee's recommendations to do that well i i um mark would say to you that we have um the tib bond fund which is um um that we've never really used as a bond fund um interest rates are low um and what you're talking about is a lot of the stuff we're going to give up is is construction projects and for from in my point of view um if we were worried about unemployment construction jobs are high paying jobs yes and um you've got interest rates that are as low as they're probably ever going to get you've got fuel costs that are low in in paving particularly is something that's based on a petroleum product so that's going to be cheap so you've got the alignment of all of these things and we might be able to borrow some money really cheaply and because it's a separate bond fund it not go against the overall bonded and deadness of the state why wouldn't we try to do some of that now the only reason would be because constantly when we get ourselves into these positions our solution is always to make our grandchildren pay for it we've got people that are driving now earning money why don't we have a surcharge to do something tomorrow while we consider the traditional way putting it off well i i think that's something we need to look at but what i'm saying is i think um it might be a combination of both so um i think brian it's 8 30 and you need to go uh i think this has been really great i really you know these kinds of deeper dives good conversations richie and i will work on the list and stay tuned for an invitation uh from us we go or from uh myra they should look for a doodle poll and um but thursday thursday hopefully late in the afternoon we'll get that presentation from the administration we will put together some ideas and relay what we've said or what's been said here today so our colleagues will also be joining us uh on that conversation alice are you thinking that the next meeting of the transitions group won't be until next thursday this thursday this yeah this thursday well you're saying afternoon afternoon is the best because the problem the problem is so many of us have afternoon committees that are meeting and have you seen the new floor schedule at one o'clock yeah on thursday right yeah thank you all thanks thanks a mark could you hang on in you jimmy could you hang on for a second and um hope for rain thursday