State economists say they're cautiously optimistic that Vermont's economy will continue to perform well for at least the next six months, despite recent catastrophic flooding.
Tom Kavet is the chief economist for the General Assembly.
He told legislative leaders Monday afternoon thathe doesn't anticipate a major change in the state's revenue forecast because both inflation and unemployment are still quite low.
"The economy has been chugging right along with solid job growth, very low unemployment, so we're not seeing a lot of negative effects in the economy so there's a lot of momentum to it," Kavet said.
He also said it's difficult to estimate how flood damages will affect Vermont's tax base because he expects a fair amount of federal and private insurance money to come into the state.
"One might assume that it would be negative. Awful things happened. There's obvious loss of property, all this stuff — it might not be when we're talking revenues because of the impact of that outside money that's all," Kavet said.
The Scott administration will begin accepting applications this week for a special state assistance program that will initially provide up to $20,000 in grants for businesses that suffered significant flood damage.
Kavet said the state still has a lot of unused federal pandemic and infrastructure funds on hand, which should also help stimulate the state economy.
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