Senate committee vets JFO spreadsheet to set funding priorities for appropriations

Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs members reviewed a Joint Fiscal Office chart on April 15 that cross-referenced items the committee has passed with the governor’s recommendations, the House budget and agency ‘‘asks’’ to identify funding priorities for Appropriations.

The committee’s chart, prepared by Joint Fiscal Office analyst Patrick Tifitson, shows different top-line totals: the committee has passed roughly $73 million in housing- and economic-development-related items so far; the governor’s original recommendations total roughly $50 million (about $54 million if one-time items moved to base were counted); the House budget totals roughly $41 million; and the agency ‘‘ask’’ column listed roughly $52 million. Patrick Tifitson explained the spreadsheet during the meeting and invited members to flag any items that are mischaracterized in the agency-ask column.

Why it matters: Senators said the spreadsheet will guide what the Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee tells Appropriations are its priorities. Chair Clarkson urged members to convert the spreadsheet into a prioritized ‘‘box’’ — a single dollar ceiling that each senator would use to rank items so the group can reconcile its top requests with the House and governor numbers.

Committee members and staff debated how to present priorities to Appropriations. Options discussed included a simple ranked score (1–3 or 1–10), a starred priority system, and a one-time versus base distinction for funds. Several senators asked staff to produce an editable XLSX version of the chart so each senator can record their prioritized allocations and the committee can aggregate results for a single submission to Appropriations.

Clarifying details discussed included: whether particular large items (for example, a $15 million line linked to the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board in the spreadsheet) were actually in the committee’s housing bill or only in the House package; whether some House additions should be treated as pending items; and how the committee should treat items that had been included in the governor’s recommendation as base funding but that the House moved to one-time. Patrick said he would produce an updated spreadsheet before members caucused and add columns for a prioritized ‘‘50-million-dollar box’’ and a separate column for pending asks.

The committee scheduled additional follow-up and asked staff (Patrick and legislative staff Thomas) to prepare the editable spreadsheet and to fold in a small set of supplemental items (labor relations board request and other pending housing provisions) so members can submit rankings by the next morning.