House panel hears H.935 proposal to release reserved dispatch funds and add $2.3M in emergency appropriations

The House Appropriations Committee on March 17 reviewed H.935, an emergency-management bill that would authorize the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to use funds previously reserved for public-safety communications and would appropriate roughly $2.3 million from the FY27 general fund for several programs.

Tuck Anderson of Legislative Council told the committee that section 12 authorizes DPS to use monies held in reserve pursuant to acts in 2022 and 2023 for a “multidisciplinary computer aided dispatch system,” and read a proviso specifying that “2.25 million shall be available for immediate costs associated with establishing the multidisciplinary CAD and five years of software licensing fees provided that the department issues requests for proposal and signs contracts for services on or before January 1st, 2027.” He also identified $190,000 for cybersecurity, expanded use of RapidSOS and GIS, and $4.5 million incrementally for land mobile radio (LMR) network expansion and a statewide conceptual design.

Chris of the Joint Fiscal Office summarized the bill’s FY27 appropriations as “just over $2.3 million,” enumerating a $1 million ready response grant program to support food banks to stockpile shelf-stable food and bottled water for rapid post-disaster distribution; $720,000 to support the state urban search-and-rescue (USAR) team; $540,000 for the Vermont Access Network; and $25,000 for a technical-rescue grant program capped at $5,000 per award and $25,000 per year for the program.

Joint Fiscal specialist Ted Bernett reviewed the history of the public-safety communications task force created in Act 78 of 2023 and the related carryforward funds. He said the task force’s required deliverables missed statutory deadlines “but they are now done,” and explained the carryforward accounting that leaves approximately $9.5 million available from earlier appropriations; the bill would deploy about $6.94 million of that pool for CAD, cybersecurity/GIS, and LMR improvements, leaving an estimated $2.9 million unspent after the proposed releases.

Committee members repeatedly pressed for clarity about the plan and the criteria that would trigger incremental releases of the $4.5 million LMR pot. Representative Lisa Hango of the House Government Operations committee said DPS and the task force were “prepared to issue RFPs,” and that returning proposals could take “maybe a year or more.” Members emphasized the implementation approach would be incremental and intended to build on existing systems rather than a wholesale $36 million rebuild.

The bill also includes statutory changes outside the communications program. Committee staff described a substantial update to town forest fire warden statutes, moving some appointing and oversight authority to municipalities and eliminating small state payments that many wardens currently receive. Section 9 would repeal an infrequently used criminal-division “uniform fire prevention ticket.”

Members asked for additional materials before action: a committee-ready summary table reconciling the carryforward calculations, a breakdown of what the $2.25 million and $190,000 would buy, and written criteria the task force and DPS would use to request incremental LMR releases. Staff said they would provide those materials and follow up with the task-force co-chair’s more detailed breakdowns.

No committee vote on H.935 was recorded in this hearing. The committee did record and approve a separate procedural item (item 940) later in the session.

What happens next: staff said they will furnish the requested budget breakdowns and RFP timeline details to the committee; the committee will consider those clarifications before deciding whether to release the reserved funds or advance H.935 further.