FY2015 Budget Sources and Uses

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed budget for fiscal 2015 calls for spending $5.6 billion next year, an increase of $288 million over the budget passed for fiscal 2014. The lion’s share of the new spending—62 percent—will be for human services, which is the largest component of Vermont’s budget. Education, the second biggest component of the budget, will account for 25 percent of the new spending, and 12 percent will go to the state’s transportation system. Those three items—human services, education, and transportation account for 99 percent of the new money the governor proposes to spend next year.

The primary sources of revenue to pay for Vermont’s annual appropriations are:

• Federal money, typically in the form of matching funds
• General Fund taxes and fees including the personal income tax, sales tax, rooms and meals tax, and corporate taxes
• Education Fund revenues, which include homestead taxes paid by Vermont residents, non-residential property taxes, receipts from the Vermont Lottery, and a portion of sales taxes.

These three sources will account for 88 percent of the new revenue to cover the additional spending proposed by the governor for fiscal 2015. New federal funds are projected to be about $115 million, 40 percent of the additional revenue for next year. Additional money from General Fund revenues is projected to be $88.5 million, just over 30 percent of all of the new revenue.