The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 2: Legislature

Chapter 015: Joint Fiscal Committee; Joint Fiscal Office

• Subchapter 001: JOINT FISCAL COMMITTEE

• § 501. Creation of Committee; purpose

  (a) There is created a Joint Fiscal Committee whose membership shall be appointed on or before January 15 of each biennial session of the General Assembly. The Committee shall consist of five Representatives and five Senators as follows:

  (1) the Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations;

  (2) the Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means;

  (3) the Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations;

  (4) the Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance;

  (5) two members of the House, not both from the same political party, appointed by the Speaker of the House;

  (6) two members of the Senate, not both from the same political party, appointed by the Committee on Committees; and

  (7) one member of the Senate to be appointed by the Committee on Committees and one member of the House to be appointed by the Speaker.

  (b) The Joint Fiscal Committee shall meet immediately following the appointment of its membership to organize and conduct its business. The Committee shall elect a chair, vice chair, and clerk and shall adopt rules of procedure. The Committee may meet at any time at the call of the Chair or a majority of the members of the Committee. A majority of the membership shall constitute a quorum.

  (c) For attendance at a meeting when the General Assembly is not in session, members of the Joint Fiscal Committee shall be entitled to the same per diem compensation and reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses as provided members of standing committees under section 23 of this title. (Added 1973, No. 128 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Jan. 24, 1974; amended 1977, No. 247 (Adj. Sess.), § 202; 1983, No. 88, § 12, eff. July 3, 1983; 1997, No. 61, § 273; 2019, No. 72, § E.127, eff. June 18, 2019; 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 502. Repealed. 2019 No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.

• § 503. Functions

  The Joint Fiscal Committee shall:

  (1) hire the Chief Fiscal Officer;

  (2) carry on a continuing review of the fiscal operations of the State, including revenues, budgeting, and expenditures;

  (3) accept grants and approve any related limited service positions, gifts, loans, or any other thing of value, approved by the Governor, under the provisions of 32 V.S.A. § 5;

  (4) establish prioritization for the work of the Joint Fiscal Office; and

  (5) keep minutes of its meetings and maintain a file thereof. (Added 1973, No. 128 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Jan. 24, 1974; amended 1977, No. 247 (Adj. Sess.), § 187, eff. April 17, 1978; 1997, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 17; 2019, No. 72, § E.127.1; 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 504. Repealed. 2019 No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.

• § 505. Redesignated. 2019 No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 11(c).

• Subchapter 002: JOINT FISCAL OFFICE

• § 521. Creation and purpose

  The Joint Fiscal Office is created as a permanent agency to provide the General Assembly with services relating to the fiscal operations of the State, including revenues, budgeting, and expenditures. (Added 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 522. Chief Fiscal Officer; employees

  (a)(1) The Joint Fiscal Committee shall employ an individual to be the Chief Fiscal Officer of the Joint Fiscal Office.

  (2) The Chief Fiscal Officer shall employ fiscal, research, and other professional staff as needed to carry out the duties of the Joint Fiscal Office, except that requests for new, permanent positions shall be subject to the approval of the Joint Legislative Management Committee.

  (b) All individuals employed by the Joint Fiscal Office shall be subject to the personnel policies adopted by the Joint Legislative Management Committee.

  (c) The provisions of 3 V.S.A. chapter 13 (classification of State personnel) shall not apply to employees of the Joint Fiscal Office unless this exception is partially or wholly waived by the Joint Legislative Management Committee. (Added 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 523. Functions; confidentiality

  (a) The Joint Fiscal Office shall furnish:

  (1) nonpartisan research and administrative services of a fiscal nature to the Joint Fiscal Committee and, at the direction of the Joint Fiscal Committee, to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, the Senate Committee on Finance, the House Committee on Ways and Means, the House and Senate Committees on Transportation, the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions, and the Senate Committee on Institutions;

  (2) nonpartisan research and administrative services of a fiscal nature to other legislative committees and members of the General Assembly, to the extent practicable; and

  (3) fiscal and budget assistance to the Joint Legislative Management Committee and to the other legislative offices.

  (b)(1)(A) All requests for assistance, information, and advice from the Joint Fiscal Office, all information received in connection with fiscal research or related drafting, and all confidential materials provided to or generated by the Joint Fiscal Office shall remain confidential unless the party requesting or providing the information designates that it is not confidential.

  (B) Any draft of a report or other work in progress generated by or submitted to the Joint Fiscal Office shall remain confidential until it has been finalized. (Added 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; amended 2023, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § E.127, eff. July 1, 2024.)

• § 524. Budget

  The Chief Fiscal Officer shall propose a budget for the Joint Fiscal Office to the Joint Legislative Management Committee. (Added 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 525. Intergovernmental cooperation

  For the purposes of carrying out its duties, the Joint Fiscal Office shall have access to and the right to copy any public record of all executive, administrative, and judicial departments of the State, except income and franchise tax returns and other documents classified as confidential by law unless permitted under 32 V.S.A. § 3102. (Added 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 5.)

• § 526. Basic needs budget and livable wage; report

  (a) As used in this section:

  (1) “Basic needs” means the essentials needed to run a household, including food, housing, transportation, child care, utilities, health and dental care, taxes, rental and life insurance, personal expenses, and savings.

  (2) “Basic needs budget” is the amount of money needed by a Vermont household to maintain a basic standard of living, calculated using current State and federal data sources for the costs of basic needs.

  (3) “Livable wage” means the hourly wage required in an urban or rural area for a full-time worker who lives in shared housing and has employer-assisted health insurance to pay for the basic needs budget.

  (b) On or before January 15 of each new legislative biennium, the Joint Fiscal Office shall report the calculated basic needs budgets of various representative household configurations and the calculated livable wage for both urban and rural areas for the previous year. This calculation may serve as an additional indicator of wage and other economic conditions in the State and shall not be considered official State guidance on wages or other forms of compensation.

  (c) The methodology for calculating basic needs budgets shall be built on methodology described in the November 2023 Basic Needs Budget Technical Advisory Committee report, modified as appropriate by any statutory changes made by the General Assembly and subsequent modifications adopted by the Joint Fiscal Committee under subsection (d) of this section.

  (d) The Joint Fiscal Committee may adopt modifications to the methodology used to determine the basic needs budget calculations under subsection (c) of this section to account for public policy changes, data availability, or any other factors that have had an impact on any aspects of the methodology. Changes or revisions in methodology adopted by the Committee shall be effective no later than November in the year preceding the release of the report.

  (e) It is the intent of the General Assembly that the methodology for calculating the basic needs budget and livable wage shall be updated every six years or more frequently to ensure that it continues to reflect the actual cost to maintain a basic standard of living in Vermont. (Added 2005, No. 59, § 1; amended 2007, No. 202 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2019, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 11(c) (redesignated from 2 V.S.A. § 505); 2023, No. 123 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. July 1, 2024.)