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8B Shumlin budget slashes human services spending MONTPELIER Gov. Peter Shumlin delivered a $4.8 billion budget plan to lawmakers Tuesday that was both harsh in the reductions he outlined for an array of human services and optimistic in the investments he proposed to create new opportunities for the future. "Facing our fourth consecutive year of budget shortfalls, I am committed to making the painful choices today that will help ensure that we are not back here next year making drastic cuts," Shumlin told the House and Senate assembled to hear his budget address. "My budget puts Vermont on a solid and sustainable path to fiscal responsibility." Shumlin surprised many when he said the gap between projected revenues and spending next year was $176 million, not the $150 million that has been talked about for weeks. It grew because he said he refused to count any projected savings from the government restructuring program Challenges for Change that weren't likely to be realized. Still, he said his budget would close the $176 million gap without raising any broad based taxes such as those on sales, income or gasoline. Shumlin's speech drew muted applause and grudging praise. "Overall, I'm happy to see the governor is going to address the problem," said House Republican Leader Don Turner of Milton. "He is mostly sticking to not raising taxes and he is looking at ways to cut structural costs. That is the approach we feel you have to use." Said Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D Windsor: "Shumlin really had to make a difficult call. When it's cuts that have always been protected by the Democratic majority, that's really tough." To close the $176 million gap, Shumlin's spending plan requires significant belt tightening including $12 million in labor concessions, a $4.6 million reduction in mental health funding, $4.5 million in shrunken support for the elderly and disabled by $4.5 million and increased assessments on health care providers to raise $28 million. It also puts schools on notice that non property tax support for education will decrease by $23 million offset this year only by $19 million in federal funding. Still, Shumlin's first budget also squeezes out money to launch initiatives the Democrat outlined in his campaign: He proposes $13 million over two years for broadband infrastructure to achieve his goal of a "statewide canopy" of telecommunications by 2013. He would end Catamount Health, a private insurance program subsidized by the state, and cover the 12,500 Vermonters now on the program under an expanded Vermont Health Access Program a step toward the single payer health care system he advocates. He calls for shuffling male and female inmates to different prisons to make more efficient use of the state's facilities, reduce the number of inmates sent out of state and create savings that would be invested in services to reduce recidivism. Shumlin acknowledged some of his budget cuts were the same as his predecessor, Republican Gov. Jim Douglas. Shumlin fought against them then when he was Senate president pro tempore. "What has changed? What we face in this budget year is the reality that the hundreds of millions of stimulus funds that were allocated by the federal government to cushion the blow of the worst recession in American history are now gone," he said. "We all knew this day would come. It is now our responsibility to make difficult choices and find a balance between compassion for our most vulnerable citizens and the imperative to put our state on a solid fiscal footing. I believe this budget achieves that balance." Shumlin and his staff described the budget as a work in progress and invited other ideas. "We aren't saying this is a masterpiece that can't be improved," Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding said. Lawmakers and lobbyists welcomed this openness to change a switch from the Douglas administration's approach toward its budgets. "One of the most heartening things is he is willing to entertain different ideas and we will take the governor up on that," said House Speaker Shap Smith, D Morristown. "The tone of the new administration is different," said Christopher Curtis, staff attorney with Vermont Legal Aid. "It's like the difference between an open door and a brick wall. In fact, we already have a meeting set with the Shumlin administration to discuss concerns and questions we have about the budget." ReactionA budget with millions of dollars of human service reductions was bound to draw cries about the pain it would inflict. "It is a budget that has casualties in it," said Eric Grims, executive director of Northeast Kingdom Human Services and president of the Vermont Council of Developmental and Mental Health. He said he didn't see how the network of community mental health agencies could maintain services with a $4.6 million cut. "We are out of efficiencies," he said, adding that as a parent of a client who uses mental health services, "It scares me." Tina Zuk, coordinator for the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont, said the budget would "decimate the portion of Vermont's Tobacco Control Program that helps smokers to quit and educates youths and others about the harms from smoking and the services available to quit." The proposal would slice $1.7 million from the program. Zuk warned cutting preventive services would lead to increase health care costs. Health care providers will feel the pinch of an increased, or in some cases, new assessment. "We aren't happy," said Bea Grause, president of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Care Systems. Hospitals and nursing homes face an $18.7 million tax increase. "We are going to take the governor at his word to make the budget better." A few advocates found proposals to praise. Bob Bick of the Howard Center, for example, cheered Shumlin's plan to provide $300,000 "to unlock the waiting lists for methadone treatment." Bick said that would help address some unnecessary incarcerations.