House Appropriations Committee reviews Budget Adjustment Act language, flags $74M reserve and technical housing appropriation

The House Appropriations Committee met Thursday to markup the Budget Adjustment Act and review a 15‑page language draft prepared by the Joint Fiscal Office.

Grady Nixon, Joint Fiscal, told the committee the document begins at section 46 and contains the language sections of the bill, while the numerical B‑section amendments the committee reviewed earlier will be produced automatically by the JFO system. “This document is only 15 pages long,” Nixon said, noting the draft was reformatted to conform to House style.

On page 3, Nixon flagged a technical correction: the draft shows a $1,000,000 General Fund appropriated to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) for the Homes for All Phase 2 and secure housing coaching programs. That funding previously appeared in the governor’s recommendation as a direct appropriation to the Land Access Opportunity Board (LAOB); the change moves the appropriation to VHCB to match where the LAOB is currently housed. Nixon said the change “is just moving that appropriation to the proper place in the bill and matching it with that act where the original appropriation occurred.” Committee…