Nineteen Vermonters will lose their jobs under Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s plan to balance the state’s ailing transportation budget.
In his budget address to lawmakers Tuesday, Scott proposed shoring up a $33 million deficit in the transportation fund, brought on by stagnating revenues from the gasoline and diesel tax.
Scott wants to fill a portion of the hole by redirecting $10 million in purchase-and-use tax revenue from the education fund to transportation. Beyond that, it would be up to the Agency of Transportation to make do with less, under the governor’s plan.
“I have faith in AOT to manage their way through this challenge as they’ve done before,” Scott said.
Less than 24 hours later, Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn told members of the House and Senate transportation committees that one solution to that challenge was eliminating 31 positions at his agency, 19 of which are filled.
“I do want to get out of the way immediately what I believe is probably the biggest question on everybody’s mind, and that is that the budget that I am presenting to you today … does represent 31 reductions in force at the Agency of Transportation,” Flynn said.
It’s the second round of layoffs in four months. In September, anticipating a decline in revenues, the agency eliminated 31 jobs, 16 of which were filled.
Combined, the layoffs will save about $7.5 million annually. Flynn said many employees would have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at his agency or elsewhere in state government.
The latest job cuts will eliminate 20 positions in the state’s nine maintenance districts. Swanton Rep. Matt Walker, the Republican chair of the House Transportation Committee, said he needs to learn more before he can decide whether to support the plan.
“We really want to hear what is going to not get done … if those positions are all eliminated,” Walker said Wednesday. “What work on the ground isn’t going to happen?”
“We really want to hear what is going to not get done … if those positions are all eliminated. What work on the ground isn’t going to happen?”Swanton Rep. Matt Walker
Jobs cuts aren’t the only potentially controversial aspect of the agency’s budget proposal. The plan also includes spending reductions in rail, aviation, rest areas and salt utilization. And it relies on $12 million in Federal Highway Administration funding to cover “indirect administrative costs” at the state agency — money the state could otherwise use to draw down far more funding for actual highway projects.
The cost of road and bridge repairs has tripled since 2000, according to the National Highway Construction Cost Index. Meanwhile the money coming in from Vermont’s gas and diesel tax has risen by about 30% over the same time period.
Walker said the disconnect between costs and revenues has reached a breaking point that requires “a long-term solution to make sure that our roads and bridges are taken care of.”
Scott has unequivocally dismissed any prospect of an increase in gas taxes. Instead, he wants to address the transportation fund’s financial woes by incrementally eliminating a decades-old transfer that sends one-third of the state’s purchase-and-use tax revenue from the transportation fund to the education fund. That transfer amounts to about $50 million annually. Scott wants to cut that amount by $10 million over each of the next five years.
Democratic lawmakers say doing so would put even more upward pressure on property taxes — the revenue mechanism elected officials generally turn to when they need to eliminate deficits in the education fund.
“The solution to just move money from the education fund means that we’re going to be paving the roads on the backs of … our property taxpayers,” said Brattleboro Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, the Democratic chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means. “And I don’t think that’s what Vermonters are asking us to do here today.”
