Lawmakers who have worked year after year in the Vermont Legislature to craft budgets in the face of perennial revenue shortfalls have a new dilemma: what to do with a surplus of money that has to be spent this session in order to fight the many effects of the coronavirus pandemic?
How to wisely spend a windfall and not go into the hole next year is the lens Lamoille County legislators are looking through, as some of them shared during a legislative question-and-answer virtual forum put on by the Lamoille Chamber of Commerce Monday morning.
Lamoille County Sen. Rich Westman, R-Cambridge, sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is normally tasked with taking testimony on the state budget. This year, he said, the Legislature is moving quickly on dispersing Vermontâs portion of the federal stimulus funds. That includes about $200 million to help Vermonters with rent and utility payments, Westman said.