The House Appropriations Committee on Dec. 13 heard Department of Public Safety officials outline several budget pressures, including a request to cover overtime shortfalls in the State Police (B209), continuing staffing vacancies, and a one-time system upgrade for the state’s criminal-history message switching service.

Commissioner Jennifer Morrissey and department staff said the overtime line item for the Vermont State Police is the primary budget adjustment under consideration. Staff described the shortfall as driven by trooper reclassifications, widespread use of 12-hour shifts (which create overtime hours), and ongoing recruitment and training lags. Department witnesses said vacancies remain high relative to authorized positions, with roughly 50 vacancies cited during the hearing.

The committee also discussed the department’s strategy of civilianizing some positions — converting certain sworn roles to civilian staff to carry out investigative and support work — as an interim step while recruitment and training timelines (six to eight months) slow the addition of fully trained troopers.

On systems, department staff described a $570,000 contract to migrate the criminal‑history message switch to a cloud environment because existing hardware had reached end‑of‑life; staff said the move is necessary to maintain security patches, support, and integrated services used by law enforcement, courts, corrections and other authorized users. Jeffrey Wallen, the director identified in the hearing, described the system as an integrated hub for criminal-history data used across state agencies and said the upgrade alone would not by itself speed record-check turnaround times but was required to sustain operations.

Committee members were told that the criminal-history record check fund has weakened over several years. Staff presented a crosswalk showing the fund’s revenues at roughly $2.4 million and projected budget needs near $3.4 million, producing an approximate shortfall of $1,059,000; staff proposed a general‑fund transfer to stabilize the account for FY26 operations.

Committee members asked whether other agencies that use the system could share costs; staff said the Department of Public Safety currently bears most of the expense and that the system serves many authorized users. The department said it would continue to evaluate hiring, civilianization and other options to manage overtime and shift coverage while recruit classes increase.

The committee accepted the presentations and will incorporate the department’s requests into fiscal deliberations this winter.