Committee ranks appropriations; supports additions for Ethics Commission, access network, food bank and rescue teams

Committee leadership presented a slate of appropriation requests and asked members to rank them for internal prioritization, citing some items that differ from the governor’s recommended budget.

The chair read a list of items for committee consideration: support the House recommendation to add $150,000 to the Ethics Commission; support $1.35 million in the governor’s recommended budget for the Vermont Access Network (VAN) and Community Radio and propose an additional $500,000 to expand capacity in low‑staffed and volunteer run towns; $500,000 for the Vermont Food Bank; $500,000 for Crop Cash/Crop Cash Plus; $270,000 for Vermont State Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) to continue sustainable operations; and $50,000 for the Vermont Journalism Coalition.

The chair said the $150,000 for the Ethics Commission is an addition to the governor’s recommendation and that some items listed by the House are not included in the governor’s proposal. The committee discussed the Vermont State Urban Search and Rescue request and noted that USAR operates under the Department of Public Safety and has recently been used for swift‑water and flood responses.

Members were given ranking sheets and asked to return them for tallying; the chair said she would aggregate individual rankings to produce a committee list.