 Okay, we are connected. I'd like to welcome all of you here today. You have before you the House of Appropriations Committee, and we will go through and do introductions. The hearings that we had throughout the state and the ones that we have here at the State House are really key in helping us with our decision-making. The voices of your audience are heard. We make changes to the budget in past years and the considerations for this year's case based on the information that is brought to us from not only agencies and departments, but also from providers. And so this is not simply a core value. It is really key. And if a month or small enough to still make this happen and make it work, I think we should really embrace the community with what we still have at our state government. It doesn't happen in those seven states. So I'd like to welcome you all here. Peter Fagan will be keeping in time. We will have three minutes for each testimony and when we get to 30 seconds, he will put up a little 30-second time so that you can start winding down and bring your testimony to conclusion. If you did not have enough time to finish, please submit an inviting and we do look at testimony and file it and bring it back up when we're making our decisions. My name is Kitty Tolle. I'm the Chair of House of Corporations. I'm from landfill and Dave will start from the left-hand side of the room today. Good morning. I'm Dave. You have the voting. I represent Morris Town. Al Moore was sharing with you. I'm Kimberly Jessup. And I represent East Montpelier and Middlesex. Check my question. I represent Deverich-Rottenham Plaza. I'm Diane Lampert. I represent Addison 3, and I'm the Chair of the House of Sparesburg, which has a hand in welcoming Addison. Good morning, Peter Faye, and I'm one of the four representatives from Rottenham City. And I will add that I also represent Patiola Town. Good morning. I'm Mary Cooper and I'm one of the two representatives from Montpelier. Good morning. I'm Arne Talbis. I represent Lyndon Sutton-Lever. I'm one of the four state representatives from Southbrook. I'm Bob Elm. I represent Ferry Ableton-Huberton. And what state? So we have a good portion of the state public. And we would all like to thank you for the work that you do advocating for the monitors and making sure all the monitors are well cared for. So we will call up, we have a list, and I will call the person that is to follow, so that the next person is ready and that we can expedite our time through this and not this time on transition. So we're going to, and I apologize for mispronunciation for the meetings. We're going to start with Holly Moorhouse and Janet Honville-Followed and Steve Cooley-Aulville, the third on deck. Welcome Holly. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Holly Moorhouse and I'm the Executive Director of Lamont After School Estate Wedding Profit. Thank you for your time today. I'd like to ask the appropriation committee to allocate funding to expand access to afterschool and summer learning programs, particularly for low income children and youth and in underserved areas of the state. The request for $2.5 million was arrived out with great care and intention and is based on two years of research by the expanded learning opportunities legislative working group in a Vermont Pre-K through 16 council. Afterschool programs are an essential component of statewide prevention efforts. Reports from the Marijuana Commission, the opioid coordinating council and the advisory council and child poverty and strengthening families all recommended investments in afterschool and out-of-school activities for Vermont youth because afterschool programs are true primary prevention for all risky behaviors, including substance to abuse, but also others. The connection between quality afterschool programs and healthy engaged Vermonters is proven, researched, informed, and clear. Consider the following, peak hours. On school days, the hours between 3 to 6 p.m. are the peak hours for youth to commit crime to be in or cause an automobile accident be victims of crime, smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs. Research also shows that youth who are isolated, bored, and unsupervised outside of school are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as school failure, drug use, and delinquency. In comparison, Vermont's Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that students who participate in extracurricular activities 10 hours or more each week are significantly less likely to use any alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana than those who did not participate in any activities. Participating students also showed much higher levels of belonging in their communities. Vermont afterschool has signed a five-year contract with researchers in Iceland, and we are currently supporting implementation of a pilot version of their prevention model of six Vermont communities, including Rutland City and Fairhaven. Data collected from 7 through 12 grade students and those communities this fall with an 82% participation rate show clearly that alcohol and marijuana use are higher on Vermont teens, and one of the most significant risk factors is the lack of afterschool opportunities. Ready for this investment? We celebrate the $600,000 of one-time money from the Tobacco Settlement Fund that was allocated last year. With those funds, the Child Development Division established the afterschool for all grant program, and there are afterschool programs running in Vermont communities today where there were no or few options before. However, 100 letters of an interest were submitted for those funds with requests totaling over $5.4 million for projects over two years for approximately $2.5 million per year. Another $5 million to expand access to afterschool programming is not only proven prevention strategy, it is research-based and effective. It is also one of the Vermont communities that are in critical need of today and ready to take up. Thank you again for your consideration. We have Janet Hunt, and Steve Julio will follow and Ruth Baker will be third. Good morning. My name is Janet Hunt. I'm the Executive Director of the Association of Area Agencies on Aging. I'm here today on behalf of the Five Area Agencies on Aging to ask that you please consider making the health and well-being of our older Vermonters a major priority in this budget. First, let us make sure that older Vermonters have the food that we need. We request an increase in funding for nutrition programs, meaning home delivered and community-based meals by $700,000 to more adequately cover the costs and close the funding gap. Vermonters estate with a thriving food economy, and no Vermonters should be malnourished or go hungry. Vermon nutrition programs for older adults provide over 1 million nutrition meals to more than 18,000 Vermonters each year. Currently, these programs have a funding gap. The average meal cost is approximately $10, and the average reimbursement is between $3 and $6, depending on the service area. With adequate funding, programs can ensure that older Vermonters can stay in our homes, get the food that we need, and receive a safety check from a friendly volunteer. Second, with regard to home-delivered meals under Choices for Care, you're likely aware that according to local schools, local funds from non-state sources are not allowable as a Medicaid match. These funds must come from a governmental entity. V4A requests that state funds be appropriated for home-delivered meals in the Choices for Care program. Third, V4A supports annual increases for home and community-based providers to ensure that older Vermonters have a flexibility and the care we need in our homes if we wish with dignity and health. These increases are needed for parity with nursing home annual increases. V4A supports any budgetary increases that would come from the passage of the Older Vermonters Act. Addressing the needs and funding gaps of older Vermonters will improve the lives of all Vermonters now and in the future. Thank you for your consideration to older Vermonters. I'm Ruby Baker, followed by Amy Johnson. Good morning and thank you. I am Steve Cooley out in the Executive Director at the Vermon Association for the Blind Vision Parity. Our mission is to help Vermonters have a vision problem to stay independent and remain in their community. The statistics say that without services like ours, you're 15 times more likely to end up into a nursing home and 17 times more likely to follow a break of leg than other seniors do to these visual impairments. We actually do save the state money. Our service is cost less than $1,000 per year client versus the cost of a nursing home. Many of our clients express concerns that they will end up in a nursing home due to their vision loss. But by the end of our services, those who express that concern said that they no longer have that fear. And we do this and we have to subsidize our programs because funding is very tight and we understand that. But one thing that we are not going to do at this time that we would like to is to help teach our clients the accessibility features and the helpful apps that are on their iPhones, iPads and other Android devices that will significantly improve their quality of life. We are looking for $100,000 in funding to provide these services because while we might rehab them so that they can stay in their home, they still are facing in many cases loneliness and isolation. Think about how much you and I use our iPads or iPhones. I see them all around the table here. If you didn't have them, what would you do? We rely on them so much. We look at them and we say, well, gee, it's just common sense that, you know, you could use this, but for some of us visually impaired, it's not. How do you use it? You know, you do your phone calls, you check your calendars, you download apps, you go on the Internet, Google for information. What things our clients can do if we can teach them how to use the accessibility factors and help them to understand how this works. Consequences of isolation and loneliness are very severe, negative health outcomes and higher health care costs at result. So with our aging demographics, we need help to start providing the service. Most of our elders want to stay in their community and stay independent and connected so please help our neighbors by funding this program for $100,000 to provide the service. We did have a one-time pilot program because we wanted to see if the state asked and provides ongoing funding. Does it have good outcomes? And we found out that, yes, it was very significant and the help of getting one quick story. Someone had never seen an iOS device that I had or an iPhone. We showed her. She was able to keep order and start using her phone to go online and send emails, connect better with her family, read bar books and is working towards being able to submit her grocery orders online. If you can't see, being able to order your groceries are a big deal and she's completely blind. So she's learned to voice over gestures to be able to do this. So I thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Ruby Baker, followed by Indy Johnson and Sonya Raymond will follow you. Good morning. I'm Ruby Baker. I'm the executive director of the community of Vermont Elders. I'm going to start with a quote from Ash and Appleby who said, we are all either old or future old. And as such, Coe's mission is to promote and protect quality of life for all Vermonters as we age through dialogue, education, advocacy and empowerment. We ask that you consider an increase to choices for care home and community based services, which is an essential program that provides person centered care to our most vulnerable older neighbors. We question an underutilization decrease as proposed to this program as there is an active wait list for the moderate needs group and we request that you consider a re-out of the program. We ask that you consider an increase to choices for care home and community and we request that you consider a reallocation of funds within choices for care to address this wait list rather than a decrease. Coe supports the governor's recommend that maintains the LIHEAP program and ask only that the committee help to ensure that the proposed increase is directed to participants to maintain purchasing power and not to administrative overhead. Lastly, we urge the committee to monitor the status of the response to any federal cuts to this program, which plays a vital role in keeping Vermonters healthy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Amy Johnson, I'm followed by Sonny Williams and Virginia Ridley. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Amy Johnson and I'm the director of the Parent Child Center of Northwestern Counseling and Support Services and president of the Vermont Parent Child Center Network. I am here today in support of the Parent Child Center Bill and increasing state funding for parent child centers providing essential state services. First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your ongoing support of the Parent Child Center Network. I feel fortunate to live and raise a child in a state that recognizes the importance and true value of a network of family serving organizations that support positive childhood experiences. Childhood experiences have a tremendous impact on the future of Vermont including lifelong health and opportunity for children and families in our state. As such, early experiences are an important public health issue that the PCCs are on the front line addressing. To continue to provide prevention-based supports and services and build healthy communities in our state, we are advocating for an increase of $4 million to our master grant base for fiscal year 21 to help deliver our essential services as well as an additional $1.5 million in one-time funding to catch up on deferred administrative and maintenance expenses that have resulted in decades of under funding. Every PCC services and supports fall within the eight core services. These services are designed to be interconnected and to ensure that families are fully wrapped and supported. Underfunding has made providing all of the services that each of our families need a constant challenge. We could always do more for families and families would be even more successful if we had the capacity. To this end, it is critically important for our families and communities that the services provided by PCCs are not only fully funded but of high quality and consistency across the state. The parent child center statute requires new language and funding that allows for an accountability structure for quality across the network and continuity continuity of care across the state. The parent child center bill will help create a quality structure for PCCs across the state to deliver high quality prevention supports via the core services. Furthermore, the bill will support the overall global health of the network by allowing for adequate funding of our prevention hub. The bill will ensure that our state maintains a rich and robust network of family resource centers. We are the only state in the nation that has written family resource centers into statute. That's a powerful message of our investment in prevention services for families. So kudos to Vermont. Investing in PCCs as critical primary prevention upstream supports for families means that families will have the opportunity to access services and thus build family strengthening and protective factors which will stabilize children and families reduce ACEs and the high cost associated with them. The system exists to support families and it is a robust one. We need to invest in the current system. We need to invest in the high quality prevention work of PCCs. For Vermont families PCCs are the answer. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Sonya Raymond and Junior Raymond will follow and Drake Turner will follow. My name is Sonya Raymond. I'm the executive director for the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children and I'm also the owner of Aputery Learning Centers in Stowe. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to your community today about the challenges faced by Vermont early childhood education workforce and a way that we can better support this critical workforce. We have a crisis in early care and education field both in terms of the lack of availability for childcare spaces as well as in the early child education staff and programs. Families cannot work and Vermont teachers continue to struggle to fill vacant positions. However, early childhood educators in Vermont faced numerous challenges. First, the median annual wage for a childcare worker in the state is about 30,000 less than that of an equally qualified kindergarten teacher in the public school system. This makes it very difficult for us to retain our most qualified staff particularly those working in classrooms who can easily transition to a kindergarten classroom. Early childhood educators currently working in the early education field who want to further their education often cannot afford to do so without the assistance of a scholarship program because wages are so low and programs cannot charge enough money to cover their costs they are not able to support the education component for their staff. Vermont has many programs that are closed or downsized in the last several years. Trying to hire a qualified staff is close to impossible often taking six to eight months if at all and when you do find a teacher that is highly qualified they often come with student loans that they need to pay and cannot afford to and often will not remain in the position. So this lack of childcare is a barrier to businesses and workforce development and the only way that we can increase access to childcare is by investing in our early care and education workforce. I ask that you target your investments to expand the teach program which is a scholarship program for early educators in the incumbent workforce to establish a student loan repayment support program and to create a temporary wage support program. The teach scholarship program currently serves 76 early educators. This is 44 fewer than FY19 due to a decrease in funding for fiscal year 2020 in order to expand support to the 2019 levels and expand to a desperately needed bachelor's scholarship which we don't have so there's not a full continuum for teachers. We need an appropriation of $653,000. The student loan repayment support is for those currently working in the early education workforce new hires. We're asking for a 1.6 million needed to establish this loan repayment program and our temporary wage support program is requesting an appropriation of $12.3 million to fund temporary wage supplement programs for early educators. This has been a successful approach in many other areas and has been driving down turnover rates by close to 11%. Thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you so much. We have Virginia Renfrew and the Drake Turner and Nicole Wayland. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm Virginia Renfrew and I'm here today for the Vermont Association of Adult Days. We're working from on adult day programs across the state are committed to doing everything possible and have been acknowledged by the state as so doing to make Vermont the best state in the nation to age in place. Adult day services offer community based non residential supports to assist adults with physical and or cognitive impairments to remain as active in their communities as possible. They provide a safe support of environment to come during the day and receive a range of professional health, social and therapeutic services as well as a nutritious meal and valuable social interaction. Adult day programs are reimbursed at $16.72 an hour. The average cost of running an adult day program is $20 an hour on a shoestring budget. The majority of adult day programs participants receive Medicaid benefits. To meet the needs of the participants we serve and attract more qualified staff. The adult days are requesting a Medicaid reimbursement rate of $25 an hour which comes to about 1.5 million in general funds which would then be matched by federal. In order to operate with our budgets we are required to pay workers relatively low wages. As a result is increasingly more difficult to recruit workers with the low wages that we must offer. A higher reimbursement rate would allow adult day programs to be more competitive in the marketplace thus attracting more qualified employees to serve the increasingly high acuity needs of our participants. In addition adult day programs are not reimbursed when someone is absent. Despise the fact that many expenses are still incurring labor costs overhead. We have many absentees throughout the year especially in the winter due to sickness and weather. Thank you for your consideration. Drake Turner and Nicole Waylund will follow and Eric Elton will save this room. Good morning everyone. My name is Drake Turner I'm the policy manager at Let's Grow Kids and on behalf of our network of 30,000 supporters Let's Grow Kids would like to thank this committee for the critical investments you've made last year in Vermont's early care and education system. This funding is having a direct positive impact on Vermont's children and families but we still have further to go. In 2020 we must continue to invest in Vermont's early educators as detailed by Sonya Raymond strengthen Vermont's Child Care Financial Assistance Program and engage our employers and communities to develop solutions to Vermont's child care crisis. Vermont must continue to invest in our state's Child Care Financial Assistance Program As your committee discussed last year the Child Development Division has developed a five-year plan to transform CCFAP to increase the number of families eligible for the program increase benefits for families and work toward paying early care and education programs reimbursement rates that reflect current tuition costs. In order to continue to move this plan forward we are asking you to increase funding for CCFAP on the governor's $3 million recommend to bring all program reimbursement rates in line with at least 2017 child care market rate survey findings and to allocate the additional $4.5 million in one time funds needed to support the IT upgrade that will implement the five-year redesign plan for CCFAP. In addition to expanding broader child care capacity Vermont must also ensure that children with special needs are able to access child care options. In state fiscal year 20 funding for special accommodation grants the funds that allow child care programs to support children with specialized needs ran out within three months. We ask that you appropriate $550,000 in the state fiscal year 21 budget to ensure these children can remain in high quality early care and education programs. The lack of affordable quality child care also has direct impacts on Vermont's broader economy. Many Vermont businesses are interested in working to solve Vermont's child care challenges so we recommend that the legislature establish a pilot program to engage employers, early childhood educators and other community partners to lead capacity development work by allocating at least $1 billion for such a program. Each year that passes presents an opportunity to develop, to improve, excuse me, the developmental well-being of our kids, support strong healthy families, support our early childhood educators and improve our economy. We thank you for your investment in Vermont Children and encourage you to fully fund these important initiatives. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Nicole Weyland. Eric, you will follow with the department of the Vermont Graduate Department. Good morning, Nicole. Good morning. My name is Nicole Weyland. I'm the Director of Communications and Public Affairs with the Vermont Food Bank. And the Vermont Food Bank is the state's largest hunger relief organization distributing more than 12 million pounds per hour of 300 partners throughout the state. I am here today to ask for new state funding for a $500,000 annually for Vermonters Feeding Vermonters. Vermonters Feeding Vermonters is a program to purchase local Vermont produce directly from Vermont growers to distribute to people in our state who are facing hunger. Many people aren't aware that the Vermont Food Bank purchases a lot of the food that we distribute. If we only relied on donations, we wouldn't be able to guarantee that we had the healthy food and all the food groups needed to improve the health of the people who need us. So, as we are already purchasing food, we recognize that it is a priority. We recognize that it's a priority for us to be investing those dollars in state and buying from Vermont farmers instead of from the sources out of state and sometimes out of the country that we have had to turn to in the past. This program uniquely addresses several priority areas for the state of Vermont. It improves the health of Vermonters. It provides financial security to farmers. We're purchasing top quality produce at the farmer's price point. We're not asking for a break because we're the Food Bank. We want to be contributing to our local agriculture economy. This program strengthens the Vermont economy. We know that for every dollar spent on local produce, it has a multiplier effect and contributes an additional 60 cents to the local economy. It's good for the environment and it shortens the distribution of food, keeping food within 50 miles of where it is grown. And the most important thing that we really see is that this is helping our neighbors who are struggling with poverty. We know that many of them struggle with diet related illnesses, diabetes, health disease, high blood pressure. And we heard in a study that came out this last summer that the health care cost of food insecurity is $82 million a year here in Vermont. And so this is the way that we can affect change there. The Vermont Food Bank has been running this program with private donations for the last two years. And we are looking for health in the state to scale this up and sustain it. We will continue to contribute that amount to the program and so the $500,000 appropriation would be in addition to what we're already currently investing in the program to allow us to really scale this up. Thank you so much for considering and for working with us to share this program with our neighbors. Thank you. Eric Abelson, tell me how to do with Eric Abelson. I got a bad time. Thank you. I struggle over here. Welcome. Good morning. My name is Eric Abelson. I'm the Executive Director of Vermont Legal Aid and along with our partner Legal Services Vermont, we provide the core infrastructure for legal aid. We have five offices located across the state. We operate a hotline and support a website that helps Vermonters represent themselves. The state of Vermont has funded Vermont Legal Aid for more than 50 years. However, in the recent years, that funding has stagnated. Ten years ago, Legal Aid got 8,000 calls a year and the state provided about $850,000 towards helping those clients. And the state provides only $700,000 of funding from low income litigants. In the coming year, the governor has once again proposed level funding for Vermont Legal Aid. I ask you to think about how you would feel if you got a notice that your home was being foreclosed, yet you paid all of your mortgage papers. How would you react to getting a document that says you're being sued by a bank you've never heard of for a credit card you don't think you have? If you got a notice saying you're at your retirement income, had been cut in half. In each of these cases, you find out that there's a lawyer on the other side whether representing the bank, the mortgage servicer, or the federal or state government. The legal documents don't seem to make sense and you don't know what you're supposed to do next. You call the court and ask what you should do and they say you should get a lawyer to help you. But you're earning minimum wage, earning $500 a week and you don't have any savings. So paying a lawyer $200 an hour is simply not in the cards. Our judicial system works best when both sides are represented. In fact, when legal aid represents people in the vast majority of cases, we find a settlement that's acceptable to both of the sides in the case. We preserve our client's housing, their income and their safety and we reduce the judicial resources needed for these litigants. Helping even the legal playing field is not only the right thing to do, it is a good investment. A recent study by a national organization found that here in Vermont, legal assistance programs generate $11 in the economic activity for every dollar invested in legal aid. Now is the time to start making up for the last decade of the Galact by renewing the state's commitment to access to justice and increasing the base funding for Vermont legal aid. Thank you. Do you suggest it in the mountains where I am suggesting $250,000? Thank you. I did send some materials into Teresa, so it's in there. Thank you. Margaret Atkinson, and maybe Bernie will follow it and Jen will notice. Welcome Margaret Atkinson. Good morning. My name is Margaret Atkinson, I'm the director of development and community relations at the Winston Proudy Center in Brattleboro. Today I'm representing a statewide coalition of agencies who serve children and families to ask you to consider a funding increase for children's integrated services, CIS, which is level-funded in the governor's recommended budget. CIS is range of healthcare promotion, prevention and early intervention services for pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children age 0 to 6, their families and child development professionals create both immediate and long-term benefits. In an era of concern over the per level of education, CIS reaches children early, providing effective interventions for issues that are more costly to address as children age. The best way to illustrate the impact of CIS on families is to hear from those who have experience of it. Following our parts of a letter we received at the Proudy Center from a mother of a little boy with developmental delay. I want to express our gratitude for Kathy, the CIS early interventionist. Even our son since Kathy came into our lives has been nothing short of amazing. She has helped him to achieve so much in so short of time. When my son turned 2 I started to notice some changes in his behavior and began to realize he wasn't hitting milestones at the rate he once had. By the time he turned 2.5 I was consumed with worry staying up late at night trying to research what could possibly be going on with him. This family was referred to CIS. Kathy didn't just educate our son, she educated our family and his teachers as well. The tools she has given us to communicate and work with him are invaluable. The way she has worked to educate has a ripple effect I feel contributes and benefits all our community. I can't imagine where our lives would be had we not met her even every time my boy looks into my eyes and tells me he loves me I am thankful. My only regret is not having met her sooner. Many Vermont children are still waiting to meet there Kathy or having met her she is unable to work with them as often as needed. CIS has been level funded since 2009 which translates into a funding decrease even as caseloads rise statewide. Last summer the child development division of the department of children and families paid consultants to study the CIS reimbursement rate. The study showed that the current statewide rate of $502 per client per month does not cover the actual cost of services which is closer to $634 per client per month. We asked that the legislature increase CIS funding by 2.4 million in the coming fiscal year a level that would bring the reimbursement rate for the statewide CIS caseload to the $634 per client per month level. CIS allows Vermont families to access what they need to support their children's development while fostering collaboration by community-based agencies working to make the most of their resources. Please consider this investment. Thank you. Thank you mother. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunities testified today. My name is Amy Brady and I'm a policy associate with Voices for Vermont's Children. How do Vermont kids fare in Governor Scott's budget? Virtually all aspects of the state budget impact children in youth. From how we fund public education to our investments in clean water and climate change solutions but even a narrower definition of spending on children reveals that we are selling our future short. At the federal level investments in children have decreased by almost 10% in the last four years placing increased pressure on state budgets to pick up the slack or not. Rather than address the pressures placed on systems as aging baby boomers use more health care and other supports with revenue reforms policy makers are restricting spending on children. The impact of this short-sighted approach are showing up in Vermont's overworked and under-resourced child protection system, struggling schools a lack of affordable childcare and a weekend safety net. General assistance and housing with vouchers. Voices is concerned with the proposal to end the GA emergency housing voucher program and the proposed absence of a centralized last resort safety net for housing and extreme weather conditions. The state has had an obligation to provide basic safety options to our residents especially families with children. It is unwise to dismantle the current system without confirmation and demonstration that community supports are fully adequate and permanently funded and are reaching everyone with the need for housing across a full spectrum of circumstances. Removing the safety net as an attempt to force communities to create more robust systems and to do so in an impossibly fast timeline as an approach that creates a risk. A risk that is born most significantly by families and children who in the event of a less than perfect transition will be forced to remain in unsafe situations of various kinds with potentially die outcomes including child care access affordability. Vermont's Child Care Financial Assistance Program is a critical resource that helps Vermont families afford child care. However, the level of financial assistance offered by the program does not reflect the current cost of child care in Vermont, meaning that eligible families and children and child care providers still struggle. Voices deploys immediate and continued progress towards the goal of ensuring affordable access to care for every Vermont child community. We let... we join once more kids and other early chair, early care and learning organizations in calling for the allocation of funds to support necessary IT upgrades and to continue to increase the rates paid by the program to reflect the most current data on the cost of child care. Child welfare and juvenile justice. Right now, Vermont is the only state in New England without enough as a child advocate. When it comes to child care, we can't access the data that we need to understand whether the system is working as intended, and the limited information we do have paints an increasingly worrisome picture. What we do know is that Vermont consistently ranks among the highest rates of out-of-home placement in the United States. It has a higher than average rate of children being placed in two or more foster homes, and Vermont's low-income failings are much more likely to turn on tap with a child protection system despite the fact that poverty is not allowable cause for child protection investigation. I'm just going to skip to reach out because I want to make sure that we get that one in and we'll finish up. Reach out income assistance. Last year the legislature approved the first increase to reach out in the last 15 years. This month, Vermont brought a maximum benefit of a family of three outside of Chittinone from $640 to $700 a month. The Department of Children and Families states that the substance income for families is almost $1,900. Vermont has failed to prevent softening material hardship. In addition, the proposed budget substantially reduces the reach out transportation program that helps participants get to work. Given that transportation issue ranks third on the list of reach out participant barriers to employment, this seems counter effective. Reach out should provide 100% of the basic needs budget calculated by DCS with no reduction penalty for disabled adults, family members. I urge you to reject the administration proposal to cut more than $600,000 out of the reach out budget, including about $180,000 in transportation supports and instead continue the effort to start to bring the reach out programs to alignment with the cost providing children's basic needs. I submit the rest in written testimony. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Jen Merz, please stop. Welcome, Jen. Thank you. Sue Winter, we have Michael Redmond. Thank you for the opportunity to comment upon the governor's recommended budget for fiscal year 2021 and for your support of the work of the community action agencies across the state of Vermont. I'm here to request that the committee reverse the cuts proposed by the governor to the micro business development program and to the Vermont match savings programs. These cuts would eliminate two critical anti-poverty programs operating throughout our state. Community agencies are known for meeting the crisis needs of Vermonters with low income, for meeting them life sustaining needs of Vermonters with low income. We have also been highly successful in assisting those same Vermonters to find economic self-sufficiency through self-employment all the while contributing to the Vermont economy and for your investment out of the thousands of people that we've helped, I just want to raise up three names. Bill Cherry came to us as an unemployed person who was brewing beer in his home and he started switchback brewing which is now a multi-million dollar enterprise and he came to see the OEO saying that we were the only third party consultant that they would need to start that he would need to start a business. Mike Patch started a green cleaning business who by himself going into homes and now is employing people to help him in cleaning and Christa with yoga was a mom abused in her home addicted lost came to Vermont found sobriety started a business and is now has one of the most foundational programs at turning point in Chindon County teaching yoga not only to find peace within herself but to find that peace throughout and sustaining her lifestyle I mean her family. These programs are the most effective out of poverty programs the five community action programs offer and we are uniquely structured to benefit those we serve. The micro business development program helps Vermont develop businesses and offers financial coaching credit counseling as well as asset building through the Vermont match savings program. This is one of the most effective outcomes of the ten years of statewide building results. 8361 low-income for monitors were served. 1165 businesses starts and expansions. 872 jobs created 10,509 303 capital dollars were leveraged at an average cost her job of operating these programs comes in the statewide cost comes under $600,000 a year. Actually $573,000 to operate all five community action programs for micro business and match savings. Thank you for the thank you please after ten years as the executive director of CVOEO I know the difference that these programs make and I'm passionate about their values and for those we serve. Thank you. I really want to start by saying thank you for your service to the body but especially this committee and I'm here as the executive director of Calstone community action one of the five community action agencies serving low income for monitors throughout the state. Calstone was established in 1965 in the war on poverty. So now we are in 2020 and finding ourselves in what from my perspective feels like a war against the poor. I say that because last week the Trump administration proposed a budget that eliminates most of the anti-poverty programs that we run that you rely on, LIHEAP weatherization community service block grant to name a few. They've also proposed significant changes to federal programs that will restrict access to other programs you rely on Medicaid Three Squares Social Security and it is in that context in which I say to you we request that you restore funding to critical anti-poverty and economic stimulus programs micro business development and individual development accounts. You know that the Vermont economy is growing steadily since the great recession. However what's key is it is not growing equitably across the economic spectrum. In 2018 66,000 Vermonters lived in poverty that's one in nine one in ten children living in poverty and we're talking about mothers single moms with children living under twenty thousand dollars and here's the key wages post-recession rose fastest for the highest paid workers so according to a report issued in the Washington Post we in 2020 are at a time when income inequality hit the highest level in the U.S. since the Census Bureau started tracking it more than five decades ago and I believe we have an enormous responsibility to turn this around and this is core to the mission of community actions. We are quite literally the front doors to people in poverty everything in our waiting rooms we find people a waiting room of 50 filled often failing waiting for food and heat housing. We see homelessness spiking last year our head start caseload 30% homeless families. We're talking about children under the age of six, 18. I wanted to tell you that when I sat in your seats during the great reception these people were statistic. Now they are my friends they are guests in our office, they serve on my board of directors and I see their play as my responsibility. We have a realistic approach to relieving poverty we provide emergency services we stabilize families in crisis and we work to move them out of poverty poverty is not a permanent condition. The very programs that this budget is cutting are those that actually drive people out of relying on state services into financial security and independence. The story yesterday of a woman who was on reach up came to capstone is now financially stable starting her own business. I want to leave with the words of Abraham Lincoln. Quote the objective of government is to elevate the condition of people to lift artificial weights from all shoulders to clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life. Thank you for supporting these critical programs. Thank you. My name is Michael Redmond. I'm the executive director of the Upper Valley Haven and White River Junction. I very much appreciate the opportunity today to provide testimony focused on Vermont's plan to restructure the general program that primarily relies on the use of motel vouchers by shifting this to a community based model supported by homeless assistance grants to local agencies administered by the Office of Economic Opportunity. Forty years that Haven has provided essential sources of support to shelter, housing, food, community services and most vulnerable people in the Upper Valley and surrounding communities. Been able to provide our shelter services to support the Upper Valley community. Evidence of this partnership about the HOP grants we've been awarded $102,000 per year for emergency shelter services which we match with community support of over $600,000 in private contributions. Last year over 200 people were housed in our shelters, received community case manager able to move on to sustainable housing. First let me say our experience with OEO and the administration in grants that support our shelters has been very positive. I applaud OEO's attention to support a new model that doesn't rely solely on motel vouchers and will allow for more coordination services and flexibility of service models that reflect regional variations of local needs and resources. It's certainly possible that in time more client centered programs will result in fewer dollars needed less use of motel vouchers and more people transitioning to more sustainable housing solutions. I would re-remiss however if I didn't provide some cautionary advice as the state continues its plans for this significant change in service delivery. OEO has laid out a timetable for the next four months in which many details need to be worked out. I believe this is an aggressive timetable for a July transition that includes rule changes at the state, state budget approval, completion of contract agreements, staffing training, contracting with motels and project implementation. In addition I will require internal approval from my board of directors who will want me to assure that this is the best path for the Haven and our clients. At present I can't make that assurance. Second, I'm skeptical that the goals of the program be achieved if the only money available for community service providers is the amount that's been spent in motel vouchers and priors about any administrative costs that the state has been using to manage the program. Community service providers will be expected to administer the voucher program, document services provided to help redirect people to other services in case management and coordinate with other agencies in needed services identify and absorb the costs of space for motel alternatives and fund motel vouchers for emergency housing support all with the same limited pot of money that's only been used for vouchers. The state has expressed its concern about the rising costs of motel voucher program which is understandable. However, if there's one last thought if there's a fixed amount of money available for the upper valley that's in our contract what happens if the winter is harsh or there's a natural disaster like Irene. At present OEO can use a budget amendment process and the state can allocate more money if that's needed. Can I do that? Or will I be expected to deliver services that are not funded or do we abandon people in need? I believe that with sufficient time and information these questions can be addressed to my satisfaction and yours perhaps during the planning process that remains we'll be able to work all through this there's a lot I don't know about the budget appropriations state budget but I would advise that this transition should occur only when it's ready if that means there's delay past July so that these and other questions can be answered that is the better path thank you very much for this opportunity Thank you Richard Williams Patrick Gallagher will follow next year's about Good morning My name is Richard Williams I'm the Executive Director of the state housing authority and I also live in the town of Morton Your committee may recall I linked the discussion my office had with your committee late last year in the legislative session on the underutilization of HUD special housing vouchers as a result of your committee's involvement section was included in the appropriations bill that required the secretary of human services to convene a work group to develop a strategy to fully utilize federal assistance for vulnerable populations secretary Smith submitted the report to legislature on November 15 here's the report we asked to reserve to load that into your documents the working group included representatives from the various departments of mental health, corrections, children, families disabilities, aging, independent living housing and community development the Vermont State Housing Authority and the Vermont Housing Conservation Board the working group tried to whenever possible to make recommendations by consensus the recommendations that did not receive unanimous support were also included in in the report but that brings me here today I'm here today to ask this committee to consider investing an additional $1 million in funding for case management services and retentions via the Department of Children and Families Housing Opportunities program the $1 million for HAAP could be split between support services for homelessness and rental re-reach assistance to prevent evictions for non-payment rent we also asked that you utilize additional service funding for permanent supportive housing programs that use a housing first approach used effectively by programs like Pathways Vermont and family supportive housing we asked $1 million for the Pathways Housing First program to expand to the counties that they are currently unable to serve with existing funding also we asked an additional $1 million appropriation to expand family supportive housing statewide to promote equitable access to family unification voucher program expanding this program from 7 to 12 HSA human service districts to promote greater equity for families that are eligible for FUB vouchers but currently cannot access them because there is a lack of service capacity we appreciate support to increase the governor's budget to expand to three additional counties but all areas of state need to be served each of the successful approving programs provides the supportive services needed to draw down additional federal rental vouchers to prevent state from leaving these precious federal resources on the table last year we returned $739,000 to the federal government homelessness is a costly problem in the politics of human lives and in consuming substantial public resources we know what works in homelessness through coordinated efforts to secure the right housing and supports that we can resolve homelessness one person, one family at a time and that gains of those we serve to our communities and to our state is clear we ask more to allow homelessness to resolve it homelessness is an acceptable condition for any of our residents an expensive public policy program we urge you to support the proposed investments in front line homeless services supportive housing and support services that save public resources and help families and individuals transition to housing, stability and hope thank you for hearing my testimony thank you for your support could you just tell me again the amount of money that is returning to vouchers in $39,000 thank you Patrick Gallagher my name is Patrick Gallagher I'm the development director of Pathways Vermont I know many of you have heard a lot about our work around the state over the years and I want to thank you for your continued support I'm here today to talk about the importance of our housing first and support line programs I'm here today to talk about the importance of our housing first and support line programs in particular I would like to focus on the need that exists in Rutland and Bennington counties and for 24-7 support line coverage over the course of 10 years Pathways Vermont's housing first program has helped to permanently end homelessness for over 800 Vermonters in six counties we offer zero barrier access to independent housing and we utilize current housing stock and work with local landlords individuals and families in apartments located throughout the state and provide long-term intensive person-centered services we know how to end homelessness it's simple housing first currently these services are not available in Rutland and Bennington counties and we know there is a high level of need for these types of services we've heard from many in these communities speaking to that effect currently the system of care in Rutland and Bennington counties are not able to provide this type of service whereas Pathways Vermont does receive funding to be able to provide these lifesaving and changing services in six Vermont counties as you may have heard a gentleman in Bennington recently died outside under a bridge in Bennington housing first services could have potentially prevented that tragedy from occurring for the annual cost of $580,000 in Rutland county and $390,000 in Bennington county these Vermont can establish teams staffed locally that can permanently end homelessness in these areas this would include funding for folks coming out of prison and as Pathways is designated as a specialized services agency part of this funding would be covered by Medicaid for services as well there is also a need to provide 24-7 coverage on the Pathways Vermont support line which was mandated by Act 79 this one-of-a-kind services designated to out Vermonters who are looking to find connection and peer support when dealing with life's challenges without the involvement of unnecessary emergency services in fact since 2013 we have diverted over 1,400 calls from emergency services our callers many of whom have experienced the same situations as the operators have faced are trained to sit and connect on a human level and not react with panic and agenda this statewide service is currently available from 3pm to 6am but we know there are Vermonters who need their service at all times of the day with an increased annual investment of $223,000 Pathways Vermont will be able to provide 24-7 coverage to those who need it most I do appreciate your time and consideration of these requests and I'm available to contact regarding any follow-up questions or information thank you for your time Susan, welcome Margaret will follow good morning good morning thank you for the opportunity to testify for the record my name is Susan and I am a senior policy planner and policy analyst planner and policy analyst for the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council and for those of you who aren't familiar the council is a creature of federal law every state has a Developmental Disabilities Council and we're almost entirely federally funded and we exist under the Developmental Disabilities Civil Rights Act to try to make the levers of government more accessible and more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities and their family members in Vermont by the federal definition we estimate there are about 86,000 Vermonters experiencing Developmental Disabilities about 5,000 are served by the Developmental Disabilities Services waiver that you often hear about in your committee so I'm here today to talk about one aspect of Medicaid funding and to quote the chair sometimes a small amount of money takes up a lot of time but when I testified at the advocates hearing about an adjustment at a point that I was trying to make was lost so I'm going to try it again it goes like this in October of 2016 the state of Vermont signed two really important documents and they signed them together the all payer accountable care organization model agreement for healthcare reform otherwise known as APM or all payer law and our global commitment to Medicaid global commitment waiver was renewed in October of 2016 while there was some overlap in the teams and negotiations I mean there was some overlap in the teams and negotiations even though there were separate documents separate federal partners but the purpose was clear to use Medicaid in the global commitment to help stand up the all payer model and what happened that global commitment waiver was that the feds CMS gave Vermont permission to spend Medicaid in a different way we were given permission to spend Medicaid on what was called delivery system related or reform depending on which document you look at the DSR delivery system related investments key thing about the waiver and the way it was presented to all of us is that these funds were going to go to the ACO and the collection of community-based organizations called in both our law and in the waiver the Medicaid pathway some of you were around them the Medicaid pathway organizations were supposed to get funding during the first round because during the second round the services these agencies provide the designated agencies will come under the financial caps so the idea was to bulk up these agencies with these delivery system reform dollars so they too would be prepared for payment reform and system reform I know my time is up I submitted this but I just want to say I think there's some simple questions you can ask to cut through the fog and that is it appears that AHS has decided to spend the delivery system dollars on one care only if that's the case how did they plan to fund the delivery system reforms necessary for the Medicaid agencies if that's not the case this time is limited I think you could ask how much more time do we have to spend the waiver under the global commitment and can there be a plan to make sure the Medicaid pathway organizations get the funds especially the funds they need for changes that are required by law electronic visit verification case management etc these agencies etc I'm going to ask you to follow up with David Agafone with some of those issues thank you very much and I do want to thank you for all the work you did in budget adjustment I know it's a small amount of money but it's a significant issue thank you good morning I live in Alberg and I work for the Champlain Housing Trust which serves Chittin and Fife-Lenin-Grandeau counties I have to clarify that I am no longer a co-chair of the Chittin and County Homeless Alliance but I do continue to serve on its governing board and I'm a member of the work group that's begun looking at the proposed restructuring of the general assistance emergency housing program and that's what I'm going to talk about today my comments will reflect the local discussions I want to start by saying that six and a half years ago the Champlain Housing Trust bought a motel called Carber Place with two objectives the first was to offer motel rooms at a lower cost to help bend the cost curve of the spending on the emergency housing program and the second was to offer a setting where people could immediately connect with housing services on site offered by partner agencies I say this because we believe that the state can successfully partner with local communities to come up with better solutions we were really excited at our first work group meeting last week about the idea of designing a better emergency housing program but we are universally agreed at the work group and at the steering committee level that a July 1 target day is not workable on a day like today there are hundreds of Vermonters sitting in the waiting rooms of economic services offices across the state looking to apply for a safe warm place to sleep tonight this is a program that served over 2500 households last year when you're talking about transitioning that large of a program onto the shoulders of local agencies it's going to take more than four months in Baltimore County they successfully moved away from using motels with a five year planning and implementation time frame we don't think we need five years but we do ask you to leave the current program in place for the upcoming fiscal year and let us use that year to design a better program there are a lot of things that we need to be thinking about let us learn from the experience of domestic violence providers who are running local motel programs how do they make reservations what do they do when there are no rooms available what do they do if people refuse to participate in services can we handle this volume of demand in the existing waiting areas of our local agencies do we need more space where we're going to find affordable space and what happens when the money runs out because that's going to be a key key question so we ask that you give us here to try to figure these things out thanks good morning good morning good morning I'm Karen Lafayette and I'm representing the Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council and we are celebrating our 48 years representing low income Vermonters before the Vermont State Legislature the Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council has many priorities that you've heard today to maintain the safety net for the short term needs for those Vermonters who are struggling and also to support the investments in those anti-poverty programs and policies that assist folks in achieving economic stability for the long term the list of priorities is long but I'd like to focus on three of those key economic programs that the legislature has continued to invest in over the years the Micro Business Development Program the Vermont Match Savings which is the IDAs and the financial capabilities are three proven strategies to move people out of poverty as you know the governor's proposed 2021 budget has eliminated the funding for both the Micro Business and the IDAs which includes the critical financial education and coaching as part of the program for participants for a number of decades these key programs have created jobs increased income grown assets and provided life-long financial skills to rise and improve the lives of low-income Vermonters you heard some of the numbers from the cap agencies 10 years of numbers from the office of economic opportunity over 8,000 Vermonters we're seeing a thousand new businesses and starts 872 jobs created and 10 million dollars of capital leverage all for a state investment of less than 3800 dollars per job since its inception 1,000 Vermonters have completed the multi-year match savings program and saved over 2.8 million dollars to start a business to buy a home or invest in post-secondary education countless more have benefited from the financial capabilities for the last three years this legislature has recognized the value of these successful programs and invested in additional 100,000 dollars each of the last three years the advisory council on poverty and strengthening families families has included these strategies along with others as recommendations for economic empowerment the 2020 annual REACHUP report shows that economic empowerment programs that enable families to build assets and learn about their finances at the same time provide a crucial income boost for low-income families please continue to fund these programs these are a unique set of programs that address critical needs for this population that do not exist elsewhere in the state they are worthy of the state's continued investment and I include excerpts and those links to those reports thank you so much thanks for the opportunity to testify thanks also for your past support for housing and alleviating homelessness in Vermont we have a protracted housing shortage and affordability gap in Vermont we provide information that's in your iPad summarizing some of that all shelters are full they all have waiting lists we have the longest average day in shelters in 18 years at 52 days no one on fixed income or working at low wage service sector jobs can afford housing in the state of Vermont without some kind of subsidy we have precious federal vouchers that are going unused because of the lack of supportive services for those with multiple needs we have solutions we all commissioned a roadmap to end homelessness a few years ago we have numbers we know what it would take in terms of investments to end homelessness in Vermont in five years you also have the voucher study in your iPad which recommends in part additional funding and investments for supportive services we provided you with our comprehensive set of a summary version and a detailed version which is also in your iPad briefly we asked for full funding for VHCB to provide affordable housing for those living on fixed incomes and including permanent supportive housing for folks with multiple needs we need more investments and financial assistance related to housing, intervention and services there are a number of programs state of Vermont funds that you all fund hot programs convention supporting housing housing first by pathways also I would add to that the corrections department's transitional housing which is being suggested in the justice reinvestment to build to receive $1 million worth of additional funding for transitional housing for folks to re-enter when they're coming out of prison also I want to emphasize the need for adequate funding for emergency housing we have been upholding out to our members who will be the first line service providers you've heard from a few of them around the concerns with the OEO proposal to devolve this to the local level there is excitement and there's also deep concern and a very broad range of concerns the upshot and the consensus that I hear from folks and that you heard from previous witnesses is that this cannot be operationalized without creating some real suffering of course and that we need a year off to really figure out how to look at the details and how to make this happen we also appreciate the governor's proposal to expand the family supported housing which is one of the pivotal programs that could help alleviate homelessness we would like to see it expand all HHS districts not just three districts and we also have some pretty mixed feelings about where the governor's budget takes that house that funding from defunds the one programs independence place in Burlington which serves a high needs population and that will still be a gap and it also which owns that property needs a transitional time period to figure out how to repurpose it thank you for the time thank you for this name thank you thank you thank you good morning I'm Joe Olsa I'm the executive director of the BNAs in Vermont I represent home health and hospice agencies so a couple things I wanted to say I'm going to talk about choices for care and I'm going to talk about the home health provider tax you've heard a lot about choices for care and your community hearings I think really you heard the human side the needs of the people that our agencies and others serve and the hardworking staff that we employ who really deserve higher wages and benefits so I'm not going to talk about any of that but what I am going to remind you of is that the program is not going to make it if we continue on the path that we are on we have a 50% turnover rate in staff statewide we are missing one out of four people that we need to provide this critical service and we are spending 27% more to provide this program than we're getting in revenue so we're just on the wrong path and this is in a program that has clearly been successful it's about half as much cost to the Medicaid program to care for these folks at home instead of caring for them in nursing homes and we've met the goals of the program for the proportion of folks served at home versus nursing homes so we've done it all the nursing home beds aren't there to go back to and we are really starting to struggle to continue to provide this service I'll leave that there the provider tax this is an issue that affects only the home health agencies in this context it's very much out of balance you may not be aware of this but you had a 10% windfall in the state revenues this year based on our provider tax so if you give us a 2% rate increase last year you got 10% more from our tax than you expected so you were planning on $4.8 million you've got about 5.5 what happened is that you taxed us on all of our revenue including our federal dollars and so if those go up if we take care of more people on Medicare the state receives more revenue so from our perspective the state received about $1.6 million more than planned in the year when our increase totaled about $750,000 we paid about an extra $750,000 as well so it pretty much was a wash the increase to our tax and the increase to our Medicaid rates it was about a wash so essentially what is happening is you're taking the revenues that we get for taking care of folks under Medicare and you're giving it to other programs and services so we're asking you to plan only on that 4.8 that you planned on last year and not plan on the number that you see in that time convent report which is about 5.5 thank you Julie Tisley Mariana Mendel good morning thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today Vermont Co-Partners is requesting that we meet the new director of the waters by increasing our appropriation by 3% a great increase of 3% for developmental and mental health services the designated and specialized service agencies are doing the work of the state in providing development for mental health services and substance use disorder services we're very focused though on low income people with complex needs and people are at risk for higher cost interventions unlike other health care providers 98% of our revenues come from Medicaid and other state sources so we're particularly dependent on that the model using community based nonprofits do the state's work is a good model of cost effective and we're very responsive to our community needs but the challenges of our rates don't go up at the same rate as state employees compensation goes up schools and other health providers then we're not able to maintain our workforce and do quality work and have accessible services so our turnover rates is at 28% now 1 in 5 of our master's licensed clinical positions are vacant we have over 400 and probably close to 500 positions vacant system wide and we're having a really hard time this year at living providers all that means that people are not able to access services when they need them over triage so each year we come to you and we present this case and you have been amazing in giving us 2% increases in the last few years and it's been a big help but at the same time even with that we've had to ask our staff to increase productivity at higher case load deferred maintenance on our buildings we're struggling with the infrastructure costs even though we had some support the EHR systems cost are much higher than that so our cash is going down our liquidity is going down our infrastructure is starting to crumble we can't ask the staff to do anymore we really can't they're really at their limits so we're concerned that we're getting more and more fragile and we're asking you to look at that and to really think about you have tough priorities to set can you prioritize the focus on our core commitments designated agencies are one of those core commitments you've got others but before funding new initiatives which are great there's nothing wrong with any of them we really think we need the essential ongoing services and I did send you a little information with some charts it shows our funding gap our liquidity our cash on hand compared to just one other health provider because we had that data we've got less than 50 days of cash on hand on average at our agencies so as we keep that keeps going down we don't really have anywhere to go so we're seeking your support we know that our services make a difference if you can provide people without patient services fewer of them are going to end up in the hospital emergency room we've been focusing on the inpatient and the higher cost interventions lower cost interventions that really make a difference in people's lives thank you thank you thank you so much for having me here today my name is Mary Ellen Mendel I'm the executive director of the United Ways of Vermont in Vermont 211 I am a former co-chair of both the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance and a current member of the work group that was mentioned earlier in Chittenden County with the emergency housing and structuring due to time constraints I won't go through the last 15 years of illustrating on any events when Vermonters relied on 211 for vetted information and referral to resources to really help meet their needs in times of disaster and in everyday needs Vermont 211 has served as a safety net for Vermont's most vulnerable and every person in Vermont for the past 15 years with support from the Agency of Human Services as well as the United Ways of Vermont we work with real time data so I'm just going to give you a couple examples of how 211 has been that safety net on Friday, February 7th at 11.32 am along with many agencies that aim to meet the basic needs of Vermonters the state of Vermont Hills we did include a lot of crudos it's such a great move calls to ESD the Economic Services Division were forwarded to 211 with about a half an hour notice where staff was there with more Vermonters to access critical basic needs like housing are most vulnerable when over a foot of snow was done on Vermont 38 people called for housing when nobody else was open to house and people still got through to schedule income tax preparation appointments free income tax preparation permits on Friday, a week later February 14th and Saturday, February 15th temperatures went below zero and conversations began early to see if conditions met the criteria for the extreme cold weather shelter to deploy in Burlington which it did not due to hotel vacancies during the duration of the event and the duration of the event hotel vacancies filled up rather quickly Valentine's Day President's Day weekend lots of skiers coming to the area another great thing to happen to Vermont at 3pm on Friday the agency made an arrangement with Vermont rideshare to transport eligible GA clients from Rutland to Burlington to another and Burlington to another district for emergency housing whether it be in a shelter or a hotel the 211 specialists connected callers with Vermont rideshare information to arrange and transport these people who otherwise would not be housed because there were no vacancies in the Burlington or Rutland area we are, if nothing, adaptable we have a 15 year 15 year history of providing a proven safety net for Vermonters for accessing health and human services statewide 247 365 not sure what 211 will do and what we will look like in July of 2020 we would need an additional $300,000 in order to stay, remain 247 365 and now the proposed GA transition as well as as well intended as it is has close great concern for Vermonters seeking services and I think you've heard the trends here earlier today and there is no safety net currently for that. Thank you all very much I really appreciate your time. Thank you. I'm Jen Morgan Steve Howard, Lori Emerson and Lori you're up. Good morning. Hi everyone. My name is Jen Morgan and I work at County Youth Service Bureau and I'm the director of the youth development program or YDP. We have a lot to offer youth. We contract with DCF to offer YDP services to youth 14 to 23 years old statewide all the youth we serve do have experience in the foster care system. We offer youth centered strengths based case management services across the state of Vermont we have 16 youth development coordinators and we are represented in all 12 DCF districts. We also offer flexible funding to youth to help them achieve their goals flexible funding can be anything from summer camp to drivers ed to work clothing to college textbooks if there is a financial barrier in the way of youth achieving their goals YDP is able to step in and help support those costs. We also are the facilitators of extended foster care in our state which is a great tool for youth who are exiting foster care system and need to avoid homelessness. We also are committed to offering leadership and advocacy opportunities to youth involved in the foster care system. Because youth voice matters we have lots of opportunities for youth to get involved and speak up and speak out about the state of our child welfare system. We have a lot of good data that shows our program is working and I've sent this data along to you whether it's education or employment outcomes, access to stable housing access to health insurance supportive adults or helping youth become independent drivers in our very rural state YDP is rocking it to be honest so what's the problem? We need more money to support more youth. Currently we're only serving about 30% of eligible youth and that's because we don't have the budget to hire more youth development coordinators. Currently we're contracted to serve 400 youth annually. We serve over 500 consistently. Last year we served almost 550 youth. We're asking for an increase of $500,000 with that increase I feel confident that we can serve at least 150 additional youth if not more. We know that the odds are stacked against youth with foster care experience. We know that our program works in mitigating those risks. Please partner with us to expand our program so that we can serve more youth, support more youth and help them thrive as they enter adulthood. Thank you. I just need clarification. $500,000 is for just Washington County. Oh no, we're a statewide program. Yes, the Washington County service bureau contracts with DCF and then we provide statewide services. Thank you very much. Please welcome Mr. Chairman. Is there anyone else who is not signed up who would like to speak? Good morning, Steve Howard. I'm the Executive Director of the Vermont State Employees Association. This morning I want to just talk with you briefly about the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility. Woodside is recognized by the Department of Justice in the 99th percentile nationally but a quality program provided to our youth. When you stay more than 90 days and it's part of the programming there, you gain two educational levels during that time. We have an excellent program that is serving our youth responsibly. I have provided Teresa's paper copies and we'll provide you with electronic version of this but our members have worked really aggressively using the administration's report of just last year where the administration strongly supported keeping Woodside open to put together two proposals that the policy committee I know is considering and will make a recommendation to you. One is for a 10-bed secure facility that is at $2.96 million cost. The other is for a 16-bed split facility that is half secure and half therapeutic for a $4 million cost. The RFP that was issued by the administration simply lists all of the services that are now provided by the monitors here at home and ask for a private entity to provide the same services that Vermont State employees are providing. We ask you not to make the same mistakes that this state made after Irene when we privatized the mental health system and we had patients backed up in nursing and emergency rooms all over the state. We think the state could slow this process down. There is no rush. We don't know why the administration seems to have an urgent desire on those wood sides that has talked forward with a comprehensive plan on how they intend to serve these children. Second issue, I just want to make a quick reference to. We are in the midst of justice reinvestment too. I would hope that this committee and the Senate committee will keep the funds that are meant to be reinvested in the Department of Corrections be reinvested in the Department of Corrections. Those budgets have been level funded for decades. You will get the correction system you fund and a better correctional system will only come at greater investment. I ask that you consider that the number one problem in the Department of Corrections is a severe staffing crisis. One of the ways in which we save money in justice reinvestment is to reduce the number of out-of-state beds. We hope to provide language to this committee and to legislators to end Vermont's setting our offenders out-of-state to a private person company. Thank you. Madam Chair and members of the House appropriations, thank you so much for allowing me time to address the Governor's question. My name is Lori Everson and I'm the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness over Vermont. I'm here to ask for a $25,000 increase to add to our annual grant that we received from the Department of Mental Health. Not only Vermont is the independent Vermont chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where a statewide non-profit 501c3 grassroots volunteer organization comprised of people who live with a mental health condition, family members and advocates. Our mission is to educate, support and advocate so that individuals affected by mental illness or mental health challenges can build better lives. We are the only organization in the state that offers evidence-based NAMI signature programs and support rooms for families impacted by mental illness. NAMI Vermont is extremely grateful for the support we've received in the form of an annual grant for the Department of Mental Health which covers approximately two-thirds of our costs. This grant is critical to our mission but it has been level funded for the past six years and has not kept pace with inflationary increases. We have four full-time employees and an average of 75 volunteers who are trained to deliver all of our free programs and classes, workshops, and 17 support groups to Vermonters. We're a very lean, cost-effective organization that receives a limited number of grants, donations and sponsorships to supplement our budget. Vermont volunteers will the extra mile to stay within our bare-bones budget by securing free facilities for educational programs and support groups and locating supplies that are free or low cost and increasing efforts to secure additional community-based grants for us. Despite inflation and an increase in requests for our services, we have managed to maintain our programs at the current level of funding but we have not been able to expand to meet the growing need. By the end of this physical year, we will have exhausted two funding sources that allowed us to maintain our programs and services. An increase in our annual grant from the state of Vermont would allow us to continue to provide the same number of educational programs, support groups and presentations throughout Vermont and respond to the increasing, pressing need to expand our services to adolescents and young adults. We're part of the foundation of the state's efforts to provide preventive community-based mental health programs and services and would like to continue to meet the needs of our fellow citizens. So we're asking you to please help support a $25,000 increase to help us maintain our programs that we are doing. And thank you so much for the consideration today. Can you remind me of what you're receiving at this time? $230,000? Thank you.