Think your taxes are high now? If a majority of Vermonters vote to adopt Proposal 4 on the November 2026 general election ballot, you can expect your taxes to go up – waaaay up, not down.
One year ago, America lost a young man whose life was far larger than his years.
The midterm elections are close at hand and sad as it seems to be, Christians fail to turn out to vote in these elections. Each may have their reason, but honestly, none are adequate considering what is at stake.
“Young girls need strong role models and people within the school system saying, ‘You know what? Maybe you’re not a boy—maybe you’re just a strong girl.’ Why aren’t we advocating for that?”
Our family has a motto: no matter the task, big or small, we leave it on the field. I decided to run for the State House about eight hours into labor with my daughter — because I’ve learned there’s no perfect moment to act, only the decision to do the work.
A few months back the University of New Hampshire ran a poll showing that 86 percent of Vermonters found the state to be unaffordable and 64 percent of prime working age folks 18-34 were actively planning to leave. Last week the Fiscal Alliance Foundation followed up with another poll, this one asking (among other things), what would it take to make someone change their mind and decide to stay. The number one answer – don’t spill your popcorn here – LOWER TAXES.
Many VDC readers know me through my 2020 campaign for Lieutenant Governor, my time as president of the Ethan Allen Institute, or my other work in Vermont’s political and policy spheres. Today, I would like to tell you about an initiative that carries deep personal significance for me.
Wind and solar can produce large amounts of electricity, but they don’t produce it whenever customers need it. Meanwhile, grid watchdogs have warned about reliability risks as older coal and other power plants retire.
While skeptics often view chemtrail concerns as unfounded, history reveals a pattern of secrecy and manipulation that warrants critical consideration. Could modern weather modification efforts be hidden in plain sight, or are we witnessing natural phenomena misunderstood?
In addition to his 85th Birthday earlier this week, Senator Bernie Sanders has much to celebrate. His deep involvement in transforming America into a Socialist country has gained traction in several congressional districts throughout the country. The crown jewel of this is close to home: the election of socialist Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York City.
For decades, Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE) has been a watchdog looking out for Vermonters, our communities, and the environment.
“It turns out that over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own, sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other and coordinated to break the restrictions imposed upon them by the company.”
A $9.5 billion organization intends to demolish a Vermont farmstead even as it aggressively pursues ownership of more of Vermont’s working lands, which it sometimes monetizes for its own benefit.
In plain terms: once it’s in, no legislature can ever make union membership optional or stop mandatory dues agreements. It’s a permanent shield for the dues-collecting machine that keeps pouring money and ground troops into Democratic campaigns.
The author will be VDC editor Guy Page’s guest today on Chronicle Conversations at 12:30 PM on WVMT AM 620, FM 101.3, and wvmtradio.com. Calls are welcome at 888-414-0303.
Here’s the problem with their manufactured outrage and attempts to take credit… each of those provisions were first put forward in the Governor’s proposed FY26 budget.
Under the Act, K-12 schools that refuse to grant vaccine exemptions for students on the basis of their religion will not receive educational funding from the government.
There was a remarkable amount of pearl clutching over an amendment intended to give working farms some additional room to adapt.
Continuing to counsel from a Genesis 1:27 perspective could eventually expose Christian professionals to discrimination complaints, lawsuits or regulatory action.
I began to feel bad for my fellow freshman Democrat legislators who were regularly and strongly coerced into voting along with their party on each bill coming to the floor. They couldn’t vote for their constituents or according to their conscience.
Copeland Hanzas knew she was lying when she made this “definitively, no,” claim in March, because by her own admission these potential problems were brought to her attention last December. Which is also an untruth because many people – like me! – have been raising this sirens-blaring, arms waiving, red flag for literally years.
Partisan divisions in Connecticut have sparked controversy over a new law that offers public schools a curriculum focused on Islamic and Arab studies. Proponents say the initiative rounds out multicultural education and does not conflict with the separation of church and state. Opponents object that the law will favor a particular theological perspective.
Let’s say it out loud: selling drugs is a violent crime. The perpetrators are criminals who destroy lives for profit. It is obvious and pervasive criminality and needs to be removed from Burlington’s streets. Passively allowing drug markets to persist is neither just nor merciful.
While we urgently need more action from the State, I also want to recognize the incredible efforts of our City – which are collectively making progress, even if that progress is incremental.
Dems already backing Far-Left-Lori Houghton for Speaker.
What was difficult was the everyday reminder: the constant news and ever-present neighbors and friends providing assistance. It went on for weeks, months, and longer.
Free speech includes the best of satire!
Duwaji and every other genocide accuser will have a tough time explaining Israel’s genocidal intent, given that the population of Israeli Arabs has grown from 156,000 in 1948 to more than two million today – one-fifth of the population.
VT Dems go full communist.
In this thoughtful video essay, Vermont native Morgan Gold examines the demographic and economic pressures that are making the Green Mountain State increasingly difficult for ordinary residents.
America did not become an economic superpower because Washington controlled business. It became great because ordinary people were free to dream, invest, invent, build businesses, own property, and reap the rewards of their hard work. Our Founders understood that liberty and economic freedom go hand in hand.
If only 35 units are approved and construction started, will the project succeed, and if not, what debt will Dorset be obligated for?
So why is Bennington Battle Day a state holiday, and why should a minor battle fought 240 years ago still matter to Vermonters? The answer is that Vermont probably wouldn’t exist today if not for the Battle of Bennington. August 16th is our “Independence Day.”
The recent sleeper TV debate between the two DA contestants in Burlington was far less interesting than a Facebook discussion that followed.
Many things in life exhibit both positive and negative results. Global warming has detriments and benefits.
Burlington spent hours this week arguing over “Burlington Forward,” a Democratic-backed public-safety resolution aimed at open drug use, homelessness, threatening behavior, theft, encampments and disorder in public spaces. Democratic councilors moved it to committee over the objections of the mayor and Progressive councilors.
Time to avenge Jack McMullen.
Glyphosate, PFAS, and food dyes.
Proposed Constitutional Amendment is another con job.
Consider, today, that the American and French revolutions shared several core ideas and tactics. Both rebellions, being born in the Age of Enlightenment, pushed back against perceived tyrannies. However, they unfolded differently… severely so.
This situation highlights examples of Vermont’s dilemma with unelected bodies and the State’s ongoing efforts to centralize and control. As decades of poor policy have compounded, it is imperative to evaluate the current situation and assess potential solutions. The same bodies created to address our problems have exacerbated Vermont’s affordability challenges.
At last February’s legislative breakfast held at the municipal offices in Stowe, Rep. Dave Yacovone (D-Lamoille) put forth the bold proposal—as his solution to a question (which I don’t remember now) someone in the audience asked—to levy a tax on everyone in Vermont who makes over $500K a year.
On June 25, President Trump issued an executive order broadly supporting regenerative agriculture. It’s a meaningful step in the right direction.
Without buyers for the wood forest management generates, good forest management activities become economically difficult, or impossible, to carry out. And without sustainable management, we believe Vermont will lose the forest benefits we care about, and — worst case — significant acreages of forest.
The pitch is appealing: more democracy, more equality, none of the gulags or secret police. But socialists themselves have been making that exact claim for more than a century—about societies we now recognize as textbook authoritarian disasters.
Pollster Nate Silver breaks down who makes up the DSA.
Womanhood isn’t confined to a handful of passages or biblical heroines. It’s a thread woven throughout the entire story of Scripture.
The present cohort of Vermont volunteers/trustees is aging, and the pool of volunteers/trustees behind them is not growing; contemporaneously, the number of nonprofits keeps proliferating.
Ten jobs employ more Vermonters than any others. Here’s what each one leaves under your nails by dinnertime — including the one that leaves nothing you can see.
It’s worth looking back to see how a free people dealt with their health problems before government intervention accelerated in the 1930s.
Becca Balint and Charity Clark have hypocritically indicted themselves. Hank Poitras will win his challenge, preserving the political liberties that Americans have long enjoyed despite persistent Democratic efforts to punish “misinformation” while spewing it endlessly themselves.
It would write into the Vermont Constitution a permanent ban on any future right-to-work laws for public or private sector employees, meaning future legislatures would be constitutionally barred from passing legislation banning union-membership-as-a-condition-of-employment agreements.
Your website declares you want to get rid of the Presidency, the U.S. Senate, Homeland Security and ICE, State and local Law Enforcement, private businesses, prisons, our United States Constitution. What world will we live in with your ideas?
It’s campaign season. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a candidate looking for your vote. Here are a few questions to ask.
Vermont makes a serious mistake when it treats more housing and a larger population as automatic progress. Every subdivision cut into a field, forest edge, hillside or former farm permanently removes part of the landscape that makes this state worth living in.
Does CNBC’s “Best States” ranking make any sense?
Education. Government. Health care. Prop 3 would clear obstacles to a general strike freezing activity in all three sectors.
“July 20th was my mother and her mother’s birthday,” VDC reader recalls.
Twenty-three percent of Vermont residents are over 65, placing it second nationally to Maine, with 24 percent.
Not all historic buildings will be able to be preserved
64 percent want to leave, mostly citing high cost of living and high taxes.
Now, Vermont has a unique opportunity to put many of those ideas into practice. Through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, the state is expected to receive nearly $1 billion over five years to strengthen healthcare access, support providers, expand the workforce, and improve health outcomes. Combined with this year’s healthcare legislation, Vermont has an unprecedented opportunity to reshape healthcare delivery.
As the economist Milton Friedman famously observed, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure.”
Vermont’s display on the National Mall during America’s 250th birthday celebration was a significant embarrassment on many levels.
Why we should care about the country
The Governor’ claims the decision came down to cost and time, but that explanation rings hollow. They had 45 days to prepare, and this was not a surprise invitation to a backyard picnic. It was a national celebration.
For anyone planning to attend, you can find the Vermont booth at the end of the Fair grounds closest to the Capital on the northeast side of the Mall.
Perhaps the Democrat majority doesn’t want you to find out that Prop 4 is actually an UNequal rights amendment that intends to provide the legal framework to defend Vermont’s existing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and implement even more DEI programs, all at taxpayer expense.
Amber is striking because it preserves a moment forever—a leaf, a wing, a fragment of life suspended in golden resin. It allows us to look backward through time, capturing a world exactly as it once was. But what makes amber so mesmerizing is also what makes it dead. The moment inside can never change again.
Vermont should watch the air-conditioning fight carefully
The more a country embraces capitalism, even a little bit (see China here), the better it does, and when a country falls back into the trap of socialism it doesn’t take long for things to turn to a steaming crap.
Just how independent are millions of Americans whose daily lives are enslaved by addiction and debt?
They believed future generations deserved something better. They believed in a nation where government answers to the people—not the other way around.
How should we think about the American Revolution on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence? The American revolutionaries can help us answer this question.
Time to rethink almost everything
Too many Vermonters are struggling under the weight of extraordinarily high health insurance costs, high health care prices, and too few choices.
Vermont’s U.S. representative incorrectly interprets decision
Other organizations rank states for economic competitiveness, economic outlook…. But “momentum?” What’s that all about? So, I asked my new AI pal Claude to help me define the term, and, yeah, what is shows is Vermont is pretty screwed.
Will the use of artificial intelligence promote a human-centered economy which recognizes the natural desire of the human person to work towards some end which is his own? Or will artificial intelligence become a new means by which some few impose their will upon the economic sphere and create a machine economy which treats people as objects with no higher needs than the energy required to keep the data centers of industry humming?
As the state pours money into flood resilience, the historical record and the latest science complicate a familiar story.
Can Vermont ever clean up 480 million pounds of legacy phosphorus?
A member of the House energy committee says the subject of wind power never came up when H.710 was discussed.
It’s no wonder people die on the water.
If the past few years are any indication, by the end of summer we will have had to put down or provide similar authorizations for dozens more bears to end acute conflicts that threaten human safety.
The rugged Christian faith of the heroic founders was vitally interwoven with their patriotism and is inextricably linked by a sacred thread of purpose to the Great Awakening.
The MAHA movement is going strong…
Several major electric utilities have recently announced that their residential customers will have lower electric bills because of major investments in new power plants and the electric grid, enabled by data centers.
Staying the course is not a viable option. It only gets worse from here if nothing changes. We are aging, shrinking, and pricing out our own children, workers, and entrepreneurs. Schools face consolidation, taxes are climbing, and employers struggle to fill jobs. We’re too dependent on federal funding to support state spending. A housing shortage is driving up prices, slowing economic growth, and leaves young people feeling forced out.
How we got here: farms, industry, policy
Almost 40 years after the VT Supreme Court rendered its Brigham decision, supposedly ensuring equal educational opportunities for all Vermont kids, the opportunities to be academically proficient in Vermont schools remain decidedly UNequal.
Vermonters have every reason to be frustrated with the state’s healthcare system. Costs continue to climb, insurance premiums consume a growing share of household budgets, and access to care remains uncertain for many families. That frustration helped fuel support for S.190. But good intentions do not always produce good policy. Breaking down the problem with S.190 will help Vermonters understand the Governor’s veto and why this legislation was not a real solution.
Some reading this might be familiar with stories which may have, over time, taken on an almost mythical quality regarding George Washington’s apparently indestructible nature. But for those who aren’t, we will look at a few of these instances which, when seen amidst the whole tapestry of divine orchestration in the weaving together of our republic, must certainly be regarded as one of the most spectacular threads.
H.710 got very little testimony in the House Energy & Digital Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, with a brief stop in the Senate Finance Committee. As it passed through the various committees, it was clear that legislators did not understand the bill. There was much confusion about what it meant.
Monday morning, FYIVT published an article examining Vermont’s latest “Tax the Rich-ish” campaign and the economic data behind it. By the end of the day, FYIVT had experienced the largest coordinated login attack recorded in the site’s history.
Jobs, revenue, and the future Governor Scott just protected
Everyone still has the same rights except non-citizens who arrived illegally, but when the US Supreme Court declared that it is unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act to use discrimination (race) as a means of drawing congressional districts, Vermont had to act.
The pot calls the maple trees black.
What a dissident Quaker, the Salem Witch Trials, and today’s disinformation debate have in common
Father Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan Friar of the Third Order and a well-respected author and teacher of moral philosophy recently noted in his article, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, “What we cannot predict becomes what we must fear.”
Sunny Lowdown is going to open the show with a solo performance. After a quick set with my old bandmates, we’re going to have a Blues Jam where local players can try their hand at wooing the crowd. There are slew of other great players, too numerous to mention, who are playing on supporting the Vermont Blues Society’s event.
