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DOC presents budget 'ups and downs' to Appropriations committee, flags vendor and program costs
Summary
Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections, walked the House Appropriations Committee through the DOC budget packet, highlighting salary annualizations, vendor fee increases, pretrial expansion funding and transitional housing line items.
Kristen Calvert, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections, walked the House Appropriations Committee through the department's budget packet and explained specific line items the department calls its "ups and downs."
Calvert identified several major budget categories: annualization of salary and benefits, a per‑shift differential and other compensation annualizations, a negotiated year‑three increase for the department's health‑services contractor (about $2,400,000), annual maintenance for a vendor management system, and an ongoing fee for a victim‑notification system in year five.
She said the department is requesting additional funding to expand pretrial services, noting a proposed allocation of $650,000 to support expansion (the department said the expansion will add another location beyond Newport, with recruitment planned for St. Johnsbury). Calvert also described a justice‑reinvestment bucket that houses funding for transitional housing and reentry support; DOC said it currently provides robust transitional housing but lacks enough provider units to expand capacity.
Calvert outlined out‑of‑state bed costs: the department currently pays for 119 beds in a contracted out‑of‑state facility, with a contract capacity described as funding for up to roughly 137 beds and a remaining contract term of about two years. She said per‑diem increases are built in annually but any savings roll over.
On offender work programs, the department said staff funding had been removed from most programs and only two staff remain funded to operate license plate production and a graphic design shop; the BAA backfill of about $3.1 million was discussed earlier in the hearing. Calvert characterized most line items in sections B335–B341 as salary and internal service fund adjustments and placed vendor increases and the 1115 waiver as reflected in both General Fund and Medicaid lines with savings routed to the Vermont Chronic Care Initiative.
Committee members asked for clarifications about counts and costs; Calvert provided line references (page and section numbers) in the packet and said detailed funding information would be available in the budget materials the committee will review.
No formal committee votes occurred during the DOC presentation; the department indicated it had included the 1115 waiver savings and projected costs in the package and will return with finer estimates as needed.
