A disagreement between Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Phil Scott over the future of Vermont鈥檚 emergency motel housing program could lead to the first gubernatorial veto of the 2025 legislative session.
The Vermont Senate advanced a Tuesday that would allocate $1.8 million to preserve expanded eligibility for a program that currently provides shelter to about 1,400 vulnerable Vermonters.
The current eligibility requirements are scheduled to expire on April 1. Washington County Sen. Andrew Perchlik, the Democratic chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said failure to supplement funding now would result in the same kind of mass unsheltering that Vermont saw when the program wound down abruptly last September.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not the best program for sure,鈥� Perchlik said Tuesday. 鈥淏ut we don鈥檛 wind it down by just exiting people indiscriminately onto the street or into the forest to camp.鈥�
鈥淕iven the uncertainty at the federal level, we believe that we should not be doing any sort of additional spending that is not critical as part of this mid-year adjustment."Administration Secretary Sarah Clark
Administration Secretary Sarah Clark said the program does little to address the underlying needs of Vermonters experiencing homelessness.
鈥淚 think we believe that the hotel/motel program does not provide positive outcomes for the individuals in that program and that we see better outcomes in other more shelter-focused alternatives,鈥� Clark said.
She said the Scott administration also wants to hold off on any major spending decisions until it knows more about how President Donald Trump鈥檚 proposed federal funding cuts will hit Vermont鈥檚 state budget.
鈥淕iven the uncertainty at the federal level, we believe that we should not be doing any sort of additional spending that is not critical as part of this mid-year adjustment,鈥� Clark said.
The motel housing line item is one of several appropriations in the so-called budget adjustment act that the Scott administration opposes. And Clark indicated Tuesday that the governor will likely block its enactment if Democrats don鈥檛 substantively revise the legislation before final passage.
鈥淲e are very concerned with the state of the current budget adjustment, and it is not something that we will be able to support, that the governor will be able to support,鈥� she said.
Scott also thinks the budget adjustment act is the wrong legislative vehicle for the millions of dollars House and Senate lawmakers have allocated for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, which would use the money for affordable housing and shelter projects. Clark said those policy considerations should be reserved for a broader debate over the fiscal year 2026 state budget
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Perchlik argued the initiatives demand more urgency. Vermont, he said, is in the midst of a "housing crisis." And lack of funding for the motel program, he said, could see individuals with severe medical needs and families with young children exited from their only shelter option. The fiscal year 2026 budget likely won鈥檛 be enacted until May, he said, well after existing funding for expanded motel housing eligibility expires.
Democrats lost their supermajorities in the House and Senate during the last election cycle and no longer have the ability to override the Republican governor鈥檚 vetoes on their own. If Scott does veto the legislation, it鈥檒l be the first time he and the new Legislature are forced to negotiate a compromise over a key spending bill.
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