 live now. Thank you. Good morning. This is a January 6th and a public hearing being conducted by the House Committee of Appropriations on the Budget Adjustment for FY22. We're grateful to have a long group of people who would like to talk to us about the budget adjustment. We very much appreciate your being part of this conversation. Just off the bat, I'd like to acknowledge about essentially how unsatisfying it is to conduct a public hearing this way. We wish that we were in a room together so that we could see you and have conversations with you outside of public hearings and just have that ability to interact. This is the way it needs to be. We appreciate people's patience and understanding. We're in this together and we're going to do a great job together. Because so many people signed up, we're taking offering testimony for two minutes and we need to stick to the timer, to the clock. Representative Fagan will be helping in this and giving a high sign at 30 seconds so that you have a way of knowing where we are. If you haven't finished, I will ask you to wrap up. We welcome and we read. I want to assure people we read written testimony. We pay close attention. So provide us additional testimony and writing if you would like. Before we begin, and we are using the list that is on the committee, on the agenda for the House Appropriations Committee, and it is on our website. So I will be following that list which is posted on our website of folks who are speaking with us today. Before I go to the first, oh, and the other thing that I'll do is we'll do, I'll call somebody and then mention the next name so that you can get ready so you know where you are. So we'll put somebody on deck, we'll call somebody and have somebody on deck. But before I go to the first person who is, and I'm also going to be, pronounce people's names properly. So forgive me for that. Angela Contis from Jericho is going to, with the Vermont Access Network, is going to be on deck first up and then we have Brian Kravitz. But before with the adult basic ed, before I turn to you, I would like the committee to introduce themselves to the folks who are joining us today. And with that, and we pretend that we're sitting in our committee room and we're going to go around the committee table. So the gentleman to my left is going to go first. Good morning, Peter Fagan, Rowland City. Good morning, Mita Townsend, South Burlington. Good morning, Tristan Tolino, Bratibro. Good morning, Marty Seltis from London. And I think Mr. Yacoboni, a representative of Yacoboni may not be with us yet. In fact, he may be hearing testimony in another committee. Rob Harrison? Yes, Jim Harrison from Town of Chittenden. Hello, Robinshye from Middlebury. Good morning, Trevor Squirrel, representing Underhill and Cherico. Hello, this is representative Bob Helm from Fairhaven, Castleton, Hubbardton and West Haven. Thank you. And Kimberly Jessup representing Middlesex and East Montpelier. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, committee for joining us. And I am Mary Hooper and I represent the city of Montpelier. So thank you, everybody, for being with us. And as I mentioned, the first person is, and you'll correct me when we get to you, Angela Contis from the Vermont Access Network. So we're ready. I'm having a problem promoting her. For some reason. Teresa, I was able to promote her. She should be coming in the room. Oh, you did. Okay. I think we're probably doing things together, Chrissy. Okay. Competing with each other. There we are. Hi. Hello. Yeah. So please go ahead. Okay. So hi. My name is Angela Key Contis. It's a tricky one. I'm calling in from Jericho, president of the Vermont Access Network, which is made up of 24 community media centers, including around here, Mount Mansfield Community TV, where I'm the executive director. So I'm speaking on behalf of our 100 plus staff members throughout the state and hundreds of volunteers to request your support of the Vermont Access Network and its peg TV community media centers with a fiscal year 2022 appropriation of $300,000. While we TV people would be rather spending early 2022 focusing on exciting new stories to tell and ways to connect for monitors in these difficult times. We must make this request today because our work is in jeopardy. We do face increasing, sorry, decreasing traditional revenue sources while the needs of our communities are increasing and growing. So I wanted to share a few numbers today. Our network, the Vermont Access Network recently did us inventory. When it comes to municipal volunteer board meetings alone, we cover 108 towns and cities throughout the state. And I know that's a low number. And it's probably actually a little bit higher from the Brattle Burl select board meeting to the Richmond Water Sewer Commission meeting. The listing includes a growing number unsurprisingly of hybrid meeting series. And so we cover also included in all these towns, there's about 130 hybrid meetings we're all doing at the moment. And if you look at school board meetings, there's many more small towns that we can add to our quick inventory. So the Vermont Access Network is by far, as you can guess from these numbers, the largest producer and steward as well as audio visual content in the state. We're guessing we produce will actually from our annual reports, we know we produce over 18,000 hours of local programming each year, including this meeting. And that's a lot of hours and minutes that are vital to local democracy in a time when local media is struggling. And it's done by all of us on very lean budgets. We provide gavel to gavel coverage in archives of entire conversations and not just soundbites. And we've spent decades building this solid platform for Vermonters to dialogue on many topics, not always agreeing, but finding a way to work together. Ms. Contas, your time is up. Can you please just finish the sentence? Yeah, so please just help the Vermont Access Network with a fiscal year appropriation of $300,000. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. And so a reminder that we're going to that the clock is is running and at 30 seconds it turns to yellow and then at zero it turns to red and we will be interrupting you at that moment. Again, I know this is hard, but we can do it. So Mr. Kravitz from the Central Vermont basic adult basic ed is up and then after that we have Julie Tesla from Vermont Care Partners. Mr. Kravitz, please. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Brian Kravitz from Waterbury, affiliated with Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, and we serve Washington, Orange and LaMoyle counties, all 47 cities and towns. And I'm respectfully asking that you to address budget deficits due to COVID, please support the statewide adult and edit education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of $350,000 for fiscal year 2022. The adult and literacy providers serve adults in Vermont who need help with basic skills in order to access other education opportunities. The network has not received any additional financial support from the state during the entire COVID-19 pandemic. We know that increasing literacy, such as reading, writing, and math opens opportunities for students such as better jobs and careers, furthering education, developing new skills, having a better family life and being able to do basic tasks for themselves. And you know, I think of Chelsea and Cheyenne, their sisters from Orange County, they're both single parents, one with profound learning disabilities, neither with a high school diploma. Both of us historically struggled to find and keep sustainable wage jobs, which is all too common for those who drop out of high school. Frequent school closures and lack of childcare due to COVID have greatly intensified their struggles. Knowing that undereducation was holding them back, they came to us in despair with nowhere else to turn. Their dreams are to break the cycle of poverty and move to sustainable careers in healthcare. They'll be the first in their family to have high school diplomas, the first to even have the chance for real careers, and perhaps even college. The diplomas and skills that these young parents will gain through CBAB will open doors and will have profound effects on themselves and their families. For Chelsea and Cheyenne and thousands more like them, adult education and literacy is the only place they can turn for the assets and skills they need. On behalf of all of our students, we ask that you to address the budget deficits due to COVID. Please support it out of literacy with an appropriation of $350,000 for fiscal year 2022. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for your testimony. Next up is Julie Tesler and following her is Megan Sullivan with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Tesler. Hi. Good morning. Julie Tesler for Montcure Partners representing 16 Designated and Specialized Service Agencies. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. We all know the impact of the pandemic. There's increase in anxiety, depression, suicidality, substance use disorders. This is especially being felt by older people living alone, people with disabilities, and our children and families. It's also an incredible impact on our staff. We have a 20% staff vacancy at this point. At some agencies, that's 50 to 60% of direct service staff positions have been vacant, meaning that the other staff are really doing the best they can, many working over 100 hours a week to meet the needs of the people we serve, those needs that are increasing in acuity as well as demand. The staff are really burnt out and exhausted. They're amazing heroes as many people have been during the pandemic. And many still are leaving because they can find higher paying jobs with less risk and less demand. The impact on services is that we've had to close a number of our residential and crisis bed programs. We have 800 people waiting for assorted services. 88 people with disabilities are waiting for shared living providers. Some of them stuck in hotels while they're waiting. We've had a person waiting for over a year in a hotel. We've had people with developmental disabilities are not getting the level of services they're supposed to be getting. We're really below it by 20%. They're just not getting the services. And our students are not getting the level of service they need. The solution is that we need an investment for our workforce, a flexible investment. So each agency can use it for recruitment, retention bonuses, hazard pay, shift differentials. Some are paying stipends to have staff do extra jobs. So that level of flexibility and at the magnitude of the increases in payments for our staff at the state hospital and the secure residential that will really make a difference. Thank you for your support. Thank you. So next up is Megan Sullivan followed by Elizabeth Levy. Is she with us and just waiting for her to be? She is with us and we're trying to promote her into the room. Thank you. Here she comes now. Apologies for the delay. No worries. Good morning. Thank you for your patience as I'm working through this technology. Thank you for having me, Madam Chair and committee members. For the record, my name is Megan Sullivan and I'm the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Vermont is experiencing a severe labor shortage. The Vermont Futures Project found that we needed an additional 10,000 workers annually in order to meet the workforce demand before COVID and since then Vermont's labor force participation decline has been the largest in the nation. The request for the critical occupations scholarship, welcome home scholarship and CTE pilot program from the Vermont State College System all provide incentives for bringing more people into Vermont's workforce and we encourage you to support them. Vermont's housing issues are intertwined with workforce and we are supportive of the governor's funding requests for housing, including funds for VHIP, VHCB, a rental risk pool and a missing middle home ownership development pilot program. And we encourage you to look at the whole housing picture this session. The Vermont Futures Project research our housing crisis outlining three key factors, affordability, availability and suitability. There's not one solution for all of these problems nor is there one subset of Vermonters that encounter them and we need added focus on housing for those in Vermont's current and future workforce. Employers like Sugarbush Resort and Southwest Medical Center are coming up with innovative solutions out of necessity but we cannot expect these businesses to make housing development part of their business model. We encourage the legislature to consider policies that encourage the conversion of existing structures like underutilized office spaces and commercial buildings to create new housing opportunities. To modernize Act 250 regulations for our downtowns and village centers to stimulate housing where infrastructure exists and create a statewide registry of short-term rental units. There's not an easy answer that will fix labor shortage crisis. Vermont Chamber supports your efforts to look at the causes that contributed to where we are now including housing and to support solutions that put Vermont on a path forward. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next up is Elizabeth Levy. Please correct my pronunciation and then after her is Mark Hughes. Can you hear me now? We can hear you. Apologies for the lack of video here. I will proceed. Start video. Maybe that'll help. Okay. My name is Elizabeth Levy and I have served on the board of Mad River Valley Television for over 10 years. I live and faced it. I'm speaking today in support of the Vermont Access Network and it's 24 PEG TV community media centers with a fiscal year 22 appropriation of $300,000. This support is essential to the survival of this community resource. I know this because I recently developed fiscal projections for Mad River Television. My assumptions were modest. I took a 7% reduction off the cable grant annually and I applied 3% expense increases annually. With hindsight that's already too rosy a picture with inflation much higher and the grants reducing at a greater rate due to cord cutting by subscribers. What I found was rather grim. If the Mad River Television board chooses to do nothing we will run out of money in 2024. Even if we tap our rainy day fund which we were lucky enough to save for. If we work really hard and build our non-cable income sponsorships fundraising and other miscellaneous income which is a very aggressive plan we would be out of business in 2025. If we tightened our belt significantly by cutting services by eliminating our studio space and also try to build non-cable grant income by 10% a year we might make it to 2029. It's only 30 seconds. Thank you. I tell you today without hesitancy public access TV will collapse in the next few years without support from the state of Vermont. The funding challenges are too great for us to overcome. Under even the best case scenarios we do not have the capacity to make up for the persistent erosion of our cable grant. As you've heard today already the value of our services is much appreciated by our communities. Please throw us a lifeline and support this appropriation of $300,000 to the Vermont Access Network and their TV community media centers. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mark Hughes has not able to join us at this moment so I'm putting him at the bottom of the list. We'll come back to him. Next up is Aaron Malone and then following that is Kate Nicolette. So sorry for the lack of warning. Aaron Malone. There you are. Hi. Can't see you yet. Miss Malone. Can you see me next? There we go. Not a zoomer. Yep. You're here. Thank you. Please go ahead. My name is Aaron Malone and I serve on as the board chair of CCTV in Burlington, Vermont. Thank you Madam Chair and members of the Vermont House Appropriations Committee. I'm testifying to support Vermont Access Networks physical year 2022 and physical year 2023 legislative budget requests to support public educational and government peg access services in Vermont. CCTV is a pioneer in community media and operates town meeting TV which opens the doors to local government delivers media and civic education education to students of all ages and preserves local history with its 41,000 program archive that dates back to 1984. In 2021 town meeting TV produced 425 municipal meetings with and for our community in remote and hybrid formats dozens of election related programs 530 other programs with at the request of our community partners are congressional delegation and other local elected leaders and activists and shared 245 programs from around the state with local viewers from our access partners like its counterparts town meeting TV is struggling with a rapid decline of cable revenue which as you all know is it's it's primarily primary funding source and steady steady increase in expenses while the staff works to generate revenue from local government and philanthropic sources the rate of cable revenue decline is steady and threatened service delivery I strongly support Vans legislative request for FY 2020 2022 budget adjustment of 300,000 as well as their FY 23 request of 600,000 this bridge funding supports these essential services and I hope you will consider this request as part of your budget process thank you for taking my testimony and I hope that the house appropriations committee supports the essential service that peg TV provides and its vital role in connecting our communities and opening the door to local democracy thank you miss Malone and next up is Kate Nicolette and following her is Jessica Barquist miss Nicolette good morning may I may I go go ahead thank you yes thank you I'm I'm Kate Nicolette from Montpelier I'm affiliated with central Vermont adult basic education we serve the 47 towns in Washington orange and the Moyle counties please support the statewide adult education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of $350,000 for fiscal year 2022 to address budget deficits due to covid the adult education and literacy providers serve adults in Vermont who need help with basic skills in order to access other educational or career opportunities the adult education and literacy network has not received any additional financial support from the state during the entire covid 19 pandemic adult education and literacy providers offer a broad range of services that are targeted tailored and relevant to each student schools and needs for example the adult education and literacy providers like CVAB are the only providers of the free instruction that adult learners need to complete their high school diplomas or GED to learn English as new Vermonters and also to learn the basic computer skills used to navigate websites apply for jobs sign up for essential services like covid testing and so on we do all this with skill and passion and our students are really at the center of our work so please support the statewide adult education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of $350,000 for fiscal year 2022 to address our budget deficits due to covid thank you so much for your time and attention this morning thank you thank you for your time uh Jessica Barquist and following her is Sarah Robinson hi good morning my colleague Sarah Robinson is actually not joining us today it's just me thank you hi everyone my name is Jessica Barquist and I am with the Vermont network against domestic and sexual violence the Vermont network represents 15 member organizations throughout the state which provide advocacy and support to victims of domestic and sexual violence together these organizations serve every town in Vermont in 2021 member organizations supported approximately 8,000 individuals and answered 21,000 hotline calls this is a 15 increase over the previous year across the state advocates and survivors report increased severity and complexity of the violence being experienced by survivors of domestic and sexual violence because of the covid-19 pandemic the Vermont network has responded to an unprecedented needs of survivors during the past year the Vermont network is seeking a one-time appropriation of 112,000 in the FY 2020 budget adjustment to keep the only statewide legal clinic for victims of domestic and sexual violence operational in 2022 the justice for victims clinic is operated by the network and provides direct legal representation to victims of domestic and sexual violence in court proceedings the clinic also contracts with private attorneys who agree to be paid a low bono rate by the network to provide free representation to victims in their communities this allows victims in the most rural regions of Vermont to access representation in 2021 they provided representation to 427 victims this is the only pro bono legal service provider in Vermont offering representation to child victims of sexual abuse and representation to victims in child custody proceedings due to a cut in federal funding we face a one-time shortfall which is sends from January 1st through September 30th and we hope to access a federal grant in October of 2022 to support the ongoing operations of the clinic but without this bridge funding the clinic will need to be closed thank you so much for your time and consideration thank you for your time so next up is Sarah Kieblin please correct me because I'm sure I'm saying that wrong and then following her is Liz Scharf good morning my name is Sarah Kieblin I'm the director of communications marketing and philanthropy for the Vermont food bank thank you for having us all here today I live in Huntington Vermont and I've been at the food bank just six months I've been astounded to learn the true scope of impact that this organization and its 300 partners statewide hundreds of volunteers have in every corner of Vermont I ask you to support the food bank with an appropriation of $6 million for FY 22 budget adjustment to address ongoing increased food insecurity in our state last session the food bank requested 8 million from the FY 22 budget to support operational increases due to COVID crisis response we received 1 million used to purchase food to meet this increased need for context annual food distribution has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic from about 10 million pounds of food prior to a high of 19 million pounds in the first year and 17.6 million pounds of food in 2021 food insecurity is projected to continue as government programs end food heating housing costs increase and disruptions from COVID continue some of the food banks direct distribution events are seeing record attendance in the past few months evidence that the crisis continues during the past two years with federal and state emergency funding allocated to address food and financial insecurity we saw a real and positive impact according to the USDA an even deeper crisis was averted thanks to collaborative crisis response of state and federal governments and local nonprofits this effective collaboration must continue so we can ensure that our neighbors in Vermont have access to the food they need addressing food insecurity requires the state's continued support and the food bank and our partners stand ready and willing to continue to partner please support the food bank with an appropriation of $6 million for the FY 22 budget to address ongoing increased food and security thank you so much for listening thank you for your time next up is Liz sharp sharp and following her is Grant John Gordon the sharp hi good morning my name is Liz sharp i'm a resident of middle sex and director of community economic development and food security at capstone community action in berry which has central vermont's largest food shelf and this past calendar year served approximately 1700 unduplicated central vermonters in washington and orange counties with over 3200 visits we are a network partner of the vermont food bank and i'm here today to ask you to please support the vermont food bank with an appropriation of $6 million for fiscal year 2022 to address ongoing increased food food security needs these past two years have been a roller coaster ride for our food shelf we've had to adjust to the pandemic in myriad ways we moved our food shelf from indoors to outdoors on our loading dock where clients drive up and collect pre-packed boxes we are currently working on implementing an online order system so that clients can choose what goes into their box in advance thereby reducing food waste we have instituted home delivery to transportation insecure participants and we have developed a partnership with the orange county parent child center to do twice monthly mobile food pantry and meal deliveries to families and staff at the center and older vermonters who live near the center none of this would have happened without the financial support of the vermont food bank who stepped up to the plate and supported us for the purchases of freezers and storage and supplies for our loading dock provided reduced and free food free delivery and money to support our mobile food pantry over the last five months as stimulus monies have dried up and the pandemic continues to rage we have seen a steady increase in food shelf usage the cost of food at the grocery stores has increased and people's food stamps don't stretch as far which makes our food shelf a valuable community resource to help bridge the gap we could not do this without the financial support of the vermont food bank please support them with an appropriation of six million dollars for fiscal year 2022 to address continued food security needs thank you for your time and happy new year thank thank you for your testimony uh next up is grant john gordon and following him is meredith niles i'm here and there's my there's my video uh good morning i'm john gordon from fairfield and i'm here to express support for the vermont food bank budget adjustment request of six million dollars i'm a certified lay servant in the united methodist church and along with several of the volunteers i run the sheldon methodist church food shelf we currently serve about 150 families 450 people distributing about 15 000 pounds of food per month we're open five days a week and operate a variety of programs to reach families we have a dedicated time for school families stock of school share refrigerator work with cvo cvo to support families transitioning to permanent housing provide free community dinners and distribute age while grabbing go meals to put our effort into sobering financial perspective a grocery cart full of food including dairy meat produce dry goods will cost about 350 dollars at the checkout counter the food i provide each of my 150 client families in a is a similar mix of food that would more than fill a grocery cart that represents about 50 000 worth of food every month north of half a million dollars worth of food every year i do that on an operating budget of 25 000 per year about 85 of the food i provide to my clients comes from or through the vermont food bank their funding is the foundation which i leverage to accomplish what i do i'm one of about 300 network partners that sarah just mentioned the specific statistics in the operating programs as you just heard are different necessarily from mine but the key result is the same for all of us collectively we partners multiply the six million dollars of vermont food aid funding into tens of millions of dollars in direct food aid that goes to the neediest and most vulnerable families and children in every community all across our state it is a return on investment that's rather mind boggling and very hard to beat so i would encourage you to support this six million dollar funding request thank you thank you mr gordon uh next up is meredith niles and following her is pat mcdonnell good morning my name is meredith niles i live in lincoln vermont i'm an associate professor and nutrition at the university of vermont but i'm not officially representing the university today and here's a scientist who has extensively studied food insecurity and hunger since the covid-19 pandemic in vermont and beyond our team has conducted surveys of thousands of vermonters since march 2020 which suggests a strong continued need to support food and secure including through the vermont food bank please note i have submitted written testimony with additional information and links to our peer reviewed studies and policy briefs our data show that one in three vermont families has faced food insecurity since the pandemic and our most recent data from 2021 finds that still one in four vermonters are food insecure significantly higher than before the pandemic for context this is about six thousand households in washington county vermont one question i'm often asked is why is this still happening when unemployment claims are at record lows here's what our data show first most food insecure vermonters are working vermonters 71 percent of food insecure vermonters are employed homemakers or retired and 73 percent of people using food assistance programs like the food bank are also employed homemakers or retired second the pandemic has really set people back low income vermonters were more likely to lose their jobs and while 54 percent of vermonters had a job disruption only 21 percent received unemployment and finally the cost of food is rising fast and wages are not rising at the same rate inflation is at a 40 year high and food prices are among the highest increases just because people are back to work unfortunately does not mean that hunger is over in the state of vermont the food bank is an important safety net that has helped vermonters throughout the pandemic and the need continues to be strong please support the vermont food banks f y 2022 appropriation to address ongoing increased food security needs thank you for the opportunity to share our research thank you next up is pat mcdonald and following her is mike benzel representative hooper this is christie and i'm having technical difficulties promoting pat to a panelist can we go on to the next person and see if we experience the same problem of course so let's thank you let's go to mike benzel and see if we can get him in okay uh it looks like mike is successfully coming into the room here we go yeah good morning my name is mike benzel can you hear me should i get started yes please start thank you yes hi um as executive director of pride center vermont i'm grateful for the opportunity to share an initiative related to the recruitment of lgbtq plus foster parents for youth in the foster care system especially lgbtq plus youth we are currently experiencing a critical shortage of foster parents in vermont the pandemic has worsened the situation by making it harder to secure enough foster families for the vermont children in need add to that pride center has encountered many lgbtq plus adults who are hesitant to engage in the foster care process due to a long history of systemic barriers and discrimination that have prevented qualified foster parents the opportunity to provide a loving home just last summer the us supreme court ruled in favor of an adoption agency that refused to work with lgbtq plus couples over the past several months we've been working with dcf outright vermont and raise a child a nonprofit organization that works with agencies and organizations to increase the number of foster parent resources to discuss partnering on an lgbtq plus foster parent initiative this pilot would will run from february through june 2022 would include a statewide multimedia awareness campaign and a key educational events to promote foster parenting we're asking the legislature to assist us with a $75,000 budget adjustment appropriation to the department for children and families i've submitted a letter of support from dcf to the pride center for your review we believe that this would be an appropriate use of arpa funds given the critical situation vermont is in regarding lack of foster homes which has been exacerbated by the pandemic a recent for vt digger article that highlighted the critical need for a program like this and connection to the pan pandemic is also included with my testimony with your support we would love to work together to help place more kids including lgbtq plus kids in loving foster homes here in vermont thank you thank you mr benzel um christie have you been able to i promote i see pat yes pat is now with us thank you let's go back to pat and then after miss mcdonald we will have susan arn off there we go hello hi for the record my name is pat mcdonald i am speaking today on behalf of vermont access network and in particular on behalf of orca media where the for the past seven years i have been the co-host and co-producer of vote for vermont and more recently a new show called banter and beans i'm here to support the 300 000 baa request made by the vermont access network to be distributed to its 24 peg tv community media center as needed this is the first time the v an has requested an adjustment and for a very good reason the reasons mirror the struggles of many vermont businesses these days lack of staff decline in revenue and increased costs in addition because of covet the demand for media coverage of virtual meetings have dramatically increased throughout the their area of coverage i know that orca has been struggling orca has been very proactive in responding to revenue declines in the past for example two three years ago orca relocated its facilities from the city center building the montpellier to space on the vermont college of fine arts campus the rental space savings resulted in their ability to bring the level of essential services back to an acceptable place for customers like myself now however they are faced once again with a lag in subscribers one solution is to come to you the vermont legislature and request financial assistance for vote for vermont it's a matter of getting our shows edited and released in a timely manner to ensure their relevance another solution is to focus on increasing revenue through community engagement and with the help of shows like vote for vermont to get the message out to potential subscribers of the benefit of joining vermont's public access system vote for vermont covers a wide range of political issues small p and in addition this is an election year and we hope to get all candidates on the show to help them get their message out to the community at ten seconds thank you which is why we are especially hopeful that you will support van's request for three hundred thousand dollars we need your help thank you very much thank you uh next step is susan arnauth and following her is sue chase hi everyone good morning uh for the record my name is susan arnauth and i am the senior planner and policy analyst for vermont's developmental disabilities council and for those of you who are not familiar with the developmental disabilities council every state has one and territory we're entirely federally funded we do get some in kind support from the state i am a state employee we are situated in the agency of human services however in exchange for getting that federal funding the vermont agency of human services has to sign a set of assurances that promises the federal government they will not interfere with our independence and our advocacy because the council has been created by federal law to advocate on behalf of vermonters with developmental disabilities and their family members i've submitted written comments i'm not going to read from them my time is short i'm going to talk to you today as i've talked to you for the last five years about the money the medicaid money that the state of vermont keeps giving one care vermont through the budget adjustment act it is totaled millions and millions this year it's 25 million in my budget comments i gave a link to patrick flood's excellent commentary about this year's money the common the title the commentary says it all one care gets more money for doing less badly so i would just ask you before you give one care more money this year as i'm sure you will because uh you have every year since uh please apply the basics of results-based accountability to the funds you give to one care is anyone better off if so how would we know what has been a return on investment of these millions more than 40 50 million literally of medicaid our precious medicaid given to a corporation that just doesn't need vermont's medicaid funds to do its business thank you very much and thanks for all of your service each and every one of you i know how hard you work especially under these conditions so thank you and thanks for the time thank you uh su chase and following her is sarah livingston hi i'm su chase i'm executive director of care partners adult day center in st albin's i'm here representing the vermont association of adult day services which represents vermont's 11 adult day providers we lost three adult day providers in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic i want to start off saying that we really support the five million dollars this committee supported in arca funds in the fiscal year 22 budget for adult day programs when we requested the five million dollars we believe that it would carry us through the whole year as we were optimistic that the census of our programs would continue to increase throughout the year due to vaccinations and returning staff but unfortunately things have not worked out that well i can share that for care partners we are actually operating at a 50 capacity at this point in time and a lot of that is due to the ability inability to attract and retain staff our census are low in terms of of people having to call out due to exposure to cobit and there's been a lot of as many programs in the state are suffering from sort of barriers to to kind of getting things back back to normal and that but we're also very excited in terms of that we're able to serve people by helping them remain socially connected helping to alleviate depression in addition to supporting family caregivers so we of the five million dollars that was appropriated four million four hundred sixteen sixteen thousand two hundred seven dollars was dispersed leaving five hundred eighty three thousand seven hundred ninety three dollars remaining so we are requesting an additional one million one thousand nine hundred and thirteen dollars to carry us through the end of of june we appreciate this opportunity to speak to you today thank you miss chase uh for being with us um sarah livingston and following her is janet neclofen good morning and thank you for having me my name is sarah livingstone i am the grants and communication specialist at sunrise family resource center the parent child center for bennington county we are asking you all to please support the remont food bank with an appropriation of six million dollars for the f y 2022 budget adjustment to address the ongoing increased food security needs no family in vermont should have to struggle with food insecurity there is an urgent and important need right now and we look to our state leaders to fund solutions to address hunger by partnering with the vermont food bank sunrise is able to offer more fresh frozen and non-perishable food in our pantry this support is greatly needed by our program participants and is a necessary concrete support that we offer as a parent child center sunrise opened our pantry just at the end of may 2022 excuse me 2021 and to date we have had over 200 visits as food prices have steadily increased over the past past few months we expect to see an increase in the number of families accessing our pantry proper nutrition is paramount to the well-being of the children and families that we work with and this funding has a direct and positive impact on their lives this year we were also awarded grants to the vermont food bank to help with the cost of our community share agriculture program and to expand our fresh and local produce offerings and to create engaging displays and recipe kits again please support the vermont food bank with an appropriation of six million dollars for the f y 2022 to address the ongoing increased food security needs thank you for your time and your consideration thank you next up is Janet McLaughlin and following her is Liz Ruffa hi there so i'm Janet McLaughlin and the executive director of the vermont association for the education of young children so the vermont association for the education of young children is the state's largest professional organization of early childhood educators and their allies on behalf of our 500 members we want to thank you for your actions over the past two years to bolster early childhood education program and to reaffirm that we continue to have a severe crisis in early childhood education staffing in a recent survey conducted by our national parent organization 71 percent of central based programs in vermont reported experiencing a staffing shortage immediate action is needed to stave off a widespread reduction in child care capacity by investing one-time funds and initiatives to recruit and retain early childhood educators we ask that you allocate federal or state one-time funds to support the early childhood education workforce in the in four key ways one to provide no-cost child care for the children of early childhood educators by extending ccfap eligibility and benefits to provide 100 financial assistance to them two offer retention bonuses for early childhood educators these essential workers are amongst the lowest paid employees in the state despite their skills expertise and the value they bring to our families communities and economy funding should be issued to provide retention bonuses for each person working in child care plus additional hiring bonuses third ensure all early childhood educators have access to health insurance many early childhood educators do not have access to in split employer sponsored health insurance and they need dedicated navigator support from vermont health connect as well as dedicated premium assistance to ensure access to health services and fourth expand eligibility for vermont's newly established student loan repayment assistance program to early childhood educators who graduate with related degrees in the past 20 years thank you so much thank you uh next up is liz rafa and following her is shon marie oler good morning my name is liz rafa i live in dorset and work in bennington county i'm a member of dorset select board serve on the boards of the vermont food bank and the vermont community development board and work as the director of institutional advancement for work forest and farmland center in rupert i'm testifying to support vermont access networks legislative request for fiscal year 22 budget adjustment of 300 000 as well as its fiscal year 23 request for 600 000 vermont's 23 community media centers are essential communication portals for our more rural regions in the state yet are struggling due to the rapid decline of cable revenue their primary funding source and steady measured increases in expenses while these media centers are working to generate revenue from local government and philanthropic sources the rate of cable revenue decline is fast and steady and now threatens service delivery this proposed legislative bridge funding will provide much needed funds for vital coverage of municipal meetings in person and online and election coverage as well as a variety of programming and media civic education services that connect all corners of our communities genet based in southwestern vermont is a lifeline for local government our schools and our regional community at large now more than ever in addition to dozens of public meetings program highlights from 2021 at gnat include a conference that examined the housing crunch in arlington a feature of local agriculturalists the mad tom orchard in east dorset a kids create variety show the green mountain academy for lifelong learnings lecture series and uh two interesting news interviews with edward cameron who is a climate and economic development specialist that was conducted by andrew mckiever the news director links to these shows will be included in the written testimony that i will submit to the committee genets offerings are civically minded varied in topic with quality delivery and always community minded thank you for your consideration and your support of genet tv and community media in vermont and thank you madam chair and members of the committee for your time and interest today thank you uh next step is shon marie oler and following her is michelle uh foust good morning i i doesn't look like i have my i do have my video on but i don't can you see me we cannot see you well i'm i'm sorry to hear that but i won't take up more of your time so i will start i had been back and forth with up start my video sorry there we go okay we certainly understand the challenges and we still can't see you my guess is that we're having technical difficulties so i was we'd like to see you just please go ahead without i i'm happy to do that my name is shon marie oler and i do live in bennington vermont and i work at the tutorial center in in an edge and an adult education and literacy provider serving bennington county i'm here today to testify to ask you to support the statewide adult education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of 350 000 for the fiscal year 2022 to address the budget deficit due to coven the adult education and literacy providers serve adults in vermont who need help with basic skills in reading writing and math in order to access other educational or career opportunities the ael network has not to date received any additional financial support from the state during the entire coven 19 pandemic we know that increasing literacy skills reading writing and math opens up opportunities for people include in opportunities for people including better jobs furthering their education or developing new job skills having a better family life and being able to do basic tasks for themselves tutorial center students have come to us so that they can earn a high school diploma in order to get a promotion at mac molding a large manufacturing company in southern vermont or to enter the military and or to be a supervisor at walmart that's happened a few times we have helped we help these students with basic skills and we also connect them with services to help them maintain their housing connect them to childcare without adult learning centers vermont vermonters without a high school diploma have very few options to earn a diploma or improve their skills which can lead to better lives for them and their family so please support the statewide adult education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of 350 000 for year fiscal 22 to address budget deficits due to covid thank you so much for listening thank you for your testimony next up is michelle foust and following her is hal cohen good morning i'm michelle foust a resident of irisburg an executive director of northeast kingdom learning services for over 50 years any calis has provided adult education literacy services for a region that covers 2030 square miles and includes the 54 cities towns and villages that make up the tri county region known as the northeast kingdom any calis has a teaching staff of 13 highly qualified professionals who work in learning centers in canaan island pond newport st johnsbury hardwick providing in-person hybrid and remote learning options i am asking that you support the statewide ael provider network within appropriation of 350 000 for fiscal year 2022 to address budget deficits due to covid the adult education literacy providers serve adults in vermont who need help with basic skills in order to access other educational and career opportunities the ael network has not received any additional ael financial support from the state during the entire covid 19 pandemic success looks different for every student and many students success stems from a shift in mindset success for the ael providers involves us continuing to adapt revise and change in response to the impact that the covid 19 pandemic has had on us we are at a critical point in time we've done all that we can on our own the ael provider network has been financially shaken and must be stabilized now is the time to make this investment in the system that supports the future success of the students we serve accessing college and workforce training programs is relatively easy but being able to be successful in those programs requires having solid foundational skills and a growth mindset our vermont college and cte programs can only be as successful as the students enrolling the ael system primes them for success right from the start again i urge you to please support the statewide ael providers network with an appropriation of 350 000 for fiscal year 2022 thank you for your time and thank you for listening thank you next up is how cohen and following him is bob duran hi please go ahead yeah great uh hi good morning i'm hal cohen i live in middle sex i'm the executive director of vermont adult learning which serves seven of vermont's 14 counties chitin and franklin grand isle adison rutherland windsor and windup i'm here to ask you to support the statewide adult education literacy provider network with an appropriation of 350 000 for f y 2022 to address budget deficits due to coven 19 we serve vermont adults who need help with basic skills to access educational and training opportunities the adult education and literacy network has not received any any additional financial support from the state during the entire coven 19 pandemic literacy and reading writing and math results in expanded educational employment opportunities our students are generally low income over 30 percent identify as by pock many experience of disability almost all of our students lack a high school credential our work helps them build better lives for themselves and their families my own dad left high school to serve in the navy uh during world war two he eventually earned his g ed and became a successful small business owner access to education transformed my family circumstances and educated workforces and employed workforce a high school credential is essential to earning a livable wage our services and education and workforce development are tailored tailored to student goals and needs to foster success our graduates often remain in vermont forming the backbone of our local economies and communities please support the state the statewide adult education and literacy provider network with an appropriation of 350 000 for f y 2022 to address budget deficits caused by coven 19 uh thank you for this opportunity to testify really appreciate it thank you next up is bob duran and following him is lisa lumas thank you for the chance to testify thank you for the great work you do to make our state such the compassionate place that it is my name is bob duran i work as a social worker and licensed clinician at the counseling service of addison county or cc in middlebury i appreciate how our designated agencies helped so many people with a variety of life experiences we have effective and cost saving programs from residential services to working in schools from in-house therapy to visiting elders in their homes to build on these successes further funding with investment and flexible funds for recruitment and retention bonuses shift deferentials and hazard pay would be helpful there are people at seasack and likely at other designated agencies living paycheck to paycheck recently one clinician with over 15 years of working at seasack a single mother took her son to uvm medical during the intake she was surprised to discover that she qualified for a box of free food she tried turning it down since she cannot believe a clinician would qualify still she said the food was good and the money saved allowed her to buy snow pants and boots for her child people leave seasack for higher paying positions a clinician went to uvm quarter medical and said she planned to earn 72 000 a year after eight years as a licensed social worker at seasack i earned 52 000 a year considered a top salary substantial and flexible investment in our workforce in the fiscal year 22 budget adjustment act for recruitment and retention bonuses shift deferential and hazard pay would great would be greatly appreciated so we can hire and keep qualified people to help others thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you for your continued efforts in making vermont a wonderful place to live thank you so much thank you and the last person we have to testify is lisa lumis uh mark hughes was um hoping to testify but he uh is submitting written testimony so i think we will conclude with miss um with lisa lumis okay representative hooper it's christie here and i'm trying to promote her to panelists we're so close bear with me it's got a bit of a lag yeah unfortunately we're having a technical glitch with lisa um tealia is there anything you could recommend we could do to help promote lisa into the panelists group okay i'll keep trying sorry lisa yeah i tried to christie i still can't promote people yeah i'm not sure what the problem is here we did it we got lisa in the room good work thank you thank you for your patience miss lumis um welcome we we thank you're there i can see your name i and you're muted are you with us i have hit a button to ask her to unmute but i'm not getting a response either i wonder if it's just further technical difficulty lisa can you hear us see i'm still seeing her in the attendees list and not in the panelists list oh and it's funny because i see her in the room with the panelists we can see her in the right yeah but it's true teres is right she's not showing up in the actual panelists room even though we can all see her and she's gone from attendees so it sounds like we do have an it glitch and i'm wondering if teresia we can reach back out to lisa to have her scheduled for monday or provide written testimony um it did provide written testimony but our sincere apologies for this technical difficulty yeah um so miss lumis if you can hear us we are having an additional hearing on monday and would welcome your uh hearing from you then i understand that there is written testimony so we will be in touch with you uh to make sure that you have an opportunity to address us um committee as i mentioned the last person who had requested was marcus and he's not able to join us now and so we have worked our way through the list um thank you very much for your attention and the people who came to the public hearing we are deeply grateful for your testimony this is um incredibly valuable and important to our work listening to vermoners and uh hearing the needs that they are seeing and so we deeply appreciate folks taking the time to join us here um and i i must say that i am always deeply impressed with the staff who makes all of this possible uh honestly it seems a little miraculous that we're able to do this and so thank you christy teresa um delia and the other people who were behind the scenes making this possible with that committee let us adjourn until one p.m when we will see each other back in the committee room we are scheduled to debrief from the hearing and continue with testimony on the fiscal year 22 budget adjustment so please take us off live folks and um we will see the committee back in our committee room at one p.m this afternoon ready to go off live yes please