Agency of Transportation proposes $7.5 million rescission: project delays, service reductions and staffing savings

At a joint House Transportation and Ways & Means hearing, Agency of Transportation financial officer Candace Selfish presented a rescission plan required by a July revenue downgrade that reduces Transportation Fund liquidity by about $7.5 million.

Selfish walked members through specific line items. The plan includes a $270,000 reduction in approved carryforward for fall highway projects; a delay to the Springfield garage project tied to a municipal waterline extension; a delay to the Rutland snow removal equipment building and the Rutland Amtrak platform construction (together shifting construction into future fiscal years); and the cancellation of contracted tree cutting (about $415,000) and several preventative culvert maintenance projects (about $300,000). She said agencies would maintain roughly 80% of typical in-house tree cutting even after the contracted cuts.

Other cuts and changes include a $200,000 reduction in contracted mowing, the return or repurpose of iPads bought for asset-management ($150,000), and cancellation of a highway-access permitting technology contract (the testimony referenced sunk costs and a total project spend of about $800,000 to date). Public-transit state-match needs were reduced by about $100,000 based on revised bus delivery schedules, which Selfish said did not affect active grants or service routes.

The largest single item in the rescission list was position-management savings: Selfish said a September reduction-in-force generated roughly $2,254,000 in savings included in the plan. She cautioned that, while the agency prioritized internal savings and project delays that appeared least likely to immediately harm grant obligations, ongoing shortfalls would shift pressures to municipal projects and could affect jobs and project delivery schedules over time.

Unidentified Speaker 2 and several committee members urged caution, emphasizing towns face constrained options and that continued statewide funding pressure will push more impacts to municipalities and local highway budgets. Selfish and the committee noted the plan was reviewed by the Joint Transportation Oversight Committee and the Joint Fiscal Committee in September.

What happens next: committee members asked for continued monitoring of project schedules, delivery risks, and the updated forecast expected next week; any further changes to the rescission plan would be brought back to the committees before implementation.