When you’re proud of an idea, when you really think you’re onto something good, you showcase it to the world. You present it openly, in a way that maximizes its chances of coming to fruition.

On the other hand…

There are times when you roll out an idea like it’s a flaming bag of poop. You leave it on the doorstep and head for the hills.

Which brings us to Administration Secretary Sarah Clark’s latest proposal for addressing Vermont’s crisis of unsheltered homelessness — a crisis that’s largely the result of deliberate policy choices by the Scott administration and the Legislature.

This here administration has been desperately trying to kill the GA Emergency Housing program, a.k.a. motel vouchers, for years now. But it has never, ever proposed anything like a real alternative. Instead, it has put forward some notions that have managed to be totally inadequate and financially wasteful at the same time. The policy equivalents of flaming bags of poop, they are.

Its latest bag was delivered on Friday, because of course it was. Friday is newsdump day, don’t you know.

Even worse, it was proposed too late to be seriously considered. Clark delivered the bag at a February 28 hearing of the House-Senate conference committee formed to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of H.141, the Budget Adjustment Act. This committee was primed to act quickly because the two versions weren’t all that different. Its members certainly were in no position, or mood, to consider a new idea floated at the very last minute.

Because aside from the horrible timing, which strongly suggested that the administration never expected anyone to seriously consider its latest brain fart, the proposal was never presented to the governmental bodies that would have to implement it, and would actually cost more than the voucher boost in the BAA that the administration opposes because it, ahem, would be a waste of money.

It’s a testament to the professionalism of conference committee members that they didn’t just laugh Clark out of the room.

Recall that the House and Senate added $1.8 million to the BAA to extend winter eligibility rules for the GA program through the end of June, in order to prevent a sudden forced exodus of voucher recipients in early spring. Scott has talked of vetoing the entire BAA over this relatively minor addition. Clark has argued it would be unwise to spend the additional money when the threat of federal cutbacks is hanging over our heads.

So of course the answer is to spend more money on a worse idea.

Clark’s proposal is to spend $2.1 million which, please check my math, I’m pretty sure is a higher figure than $1.8 million. The money would be given as grants to towns and cities to spend as they see fit on addressing shelter needs.

The response from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns was “sharp pushback,” according to VTDigger. They don’t want this problem dropped into their laps with little notice, no preparation, and nowhere near enough money to fund effective solutions.

There is no way in Hell this money could be spent as effectively by ill-prepared communities around the state as it could by the existing program with existing rules and existing procedures and existing administrative support.

In short, the administration accuses the Legislature of wasting money and its alternative is to spend MORE money LESS effectively. Great.

You might also recall that one of the arguments floated by Legislative Republicans is that the Democrats were wrong to implement a policy change in a budget adjustment. Well, now we have the Republican administration proposing not just an extension of a current program, but a brand-new and untested program. I guess that argument about policy changes in the BAA is no longer operative.

This idea will enter the administration’s Hall of Bad Ideas on Homelessness alongside last spring’s ridiculous temporary congregate shelters and last fall’s Potemkin-village “family shelters” with a maximum capacity of 17 households. And alongside every single time they’ve tried to kill or diminish the voucher program without proposing an alternative solution. Besides, you know, mass unshelterings of vulnerable Vermonters.

Obligatory reminder: This is the governor who says, at every opportunity, that one of the core principles of his administration is protecting the most vulnerable. When it comes to Vermonters struggling to find shelter, he flouts that principle at every opportunity.