Vermont’s taxes, whether real estate, income, or taxes masked as fees, are at the breaking point. So why be concerned about government employees’ salaries when the real culprit is spending? Because, except for a few nonprofits, we are not keeping up with what it takes to attract skilled folks to move here.
Here’s the thing, if the thought and spirit of an organization doesn’t align with the body and letter, there is a fundamental and incompatible legal conflict between the purpose of the corporation and their governing actions.
Time for new thinking — and maybe some new lawmakers — not just new money.
Three forces — Vermont’s Act 181, the UN’s 2030 Agenda, and Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership — are converging on the same outcome: the managed hollowing-out of rural life.
These examples continue to emphasize the need for the Vermont legislature to wake up and squarely address the affordability crisis in Vermont. The House majority party continues to block our efforts to do exactly this. Stay tuned as we fight the affordability battle for you. The choice couldn’t be clearer.
Our current system is also failing those in need of those mental health services, as well as the victims impacted by these cases. Individuals are often effectively warehoused in correctional settings while refusing or unable to participate in evaluations, resulting in prolonged court delays without meaningful treatment or progress toward restoration. At the same time, victims and families are forced to relive their trauma again and again through repeated postponements — often stretching on for years with no resolution in sight. This ongoing cycle is not only ineffective, it is deeply harmful — to the individual, to the courts, to public safety, and to the victims who are left waiting for accountability and closure.
Concerns for aspects of Act 181 and its recent Rally at the State House has awaken rural Vermonters and landowners to the real possibilities of additional severe restrictions on their property rights.
Childcare licensing bill is a real head scratcher.
At the Statehouse, a coalition is forming to bring forward a constitutional amendment which will take another biennium before it can be introduced, but the time is now to promote it. The primary purpose for it is to fulfill this goal: to put Vermont at the helm of progress, to initiate a growth of small- and medium-scale organic farming, to encourage and expand local gardens, and to totally dedicate ourselves to the cause of sustainability in harmony with Nature.
Today marks five years to the day since I lost my mother and my brother-in-law to the same hospital machine.
A recent video shows Vermont’s senior senator in conversation with Claude about AI and privacy. When the same questions were tested against unprimed instances of the same AI, the answers came out differently — sometimes dramatically so.
Sometimes I wish we Christians had more courage
The draft includes a notable protection for communities with small schools: articles of agreement must prohibit school closures for three years without approval of the electorate in the town where the school sits. After three years, closure requires a union district-wide vote.
A practice that looks as if it has produced wide-scale and unnecessary chronic disease among kids they will have to live with their entire lives. A problem that the vaccine or bust crowd isn’t even willing to talk about, people who shout conspiracy theory if you suggest we consider safety trials that have never been done.
Given that the state has only added 1,698 people since 2020, a decline of 6,000—or more if we include vacation homes in non-ski towns—it is very likely that Vermont will have fewer residents in 2030 than in 2020. And since most of the ski towns are in southern Vermont counties, their population picture will look even grimmer than it does today.
Vermont’s forest economy businesses must compete and innovate and grow just to stay viable. But too often, our regulatory system makes that harder instead of easier.
Behind the headlines, protests, and growing anxiety is a more basic question: how does Vermont’s dairy industry rely on migrant labor in the first place — and why doesn’t federal visa law actually fit the job?
Hold press conferences and take a stand. If you don’t, it could be all over for a great institution founded over 200 years ago.
“Foundational” first step toward Cap & Invest Carbon Tax passes on a near party line vote after Republican fight.
Some worry that an overemphasis on environmental protection will violate existing property owners’ rights and force everyone into dense, restricted living situations—sometimes described as “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFO), a term usually reserved for large agricultural facilities.
The push to legalize the world’s oldest profession fizzles (for now).
The cost of operating public schools in Vermont has been “a runaway train,” and no one seems to be able to get on board to control it. However, cost also comes in other forms that are not necessarily quantifiable in dollars and cents.
VNRC isn’t listening to Vermont. They’re doubling down.
Senator Hinsdale: the invitation to join us is genuine. But joining us means asserting your leadership to get results—not publishing a commentary explaining why delay is the response we needed.
This isn’t about urban versus rural. Every part of Vermont depends on working lands, housing, open space, and economic opportunity.
The ‘Cave Dwellers’ are catching on.
Vermont is one of only three states with no safety-valve restrictions on how much a property tax bill can increase in a given year. In the months ahead, the Legislature should examine how the other 47 states manage this issue, identify policies that could work here, and adapt them to Vermont’s unique circumstances. Property taxpayers deserve both immediate relief and long-term predictability.
The Green Mountain State favors criminals above public safety.
The fundamental mission of state wildlife agencies is not animal welfare—it is resource management for human use and profit.
If you had Exxon, Shell, Occidental, BP sitting on one side of the negotiating table, people would be up in arms! Why not the same for the heavy handed teachers’ unions. We also need to identify all legislators who have received political donations from these same unions and call them out on their voting records.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote, “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” the definition of those words mattered. All 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence had to understand exactly what the document claimed, and agree with it, before they would sign their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor to defend its cause.
Latest evidence: Their overdose prevention center fiasco….
For years, the state has made itself unusually welcoming to people who are in the country illegally – and less welcome to rural families who have lived here for generations.
He is the second most recognized political figure in the world and yet we know little about him. But a new book changes all that.
Vermont Republicans are committed to moving toward the allowable growth formula in Act 73 that more closely aligns a community’s spending with the with taxes. If that change doesn’t happen, future legislatures may run out of tricks to keep taxes down, and voters may need to send another message to the Democratic Majority in Montpelier.
When “shining a light” is a blinding distraction.
Vermont keeps buying time. The structural problems keep compounding.
Echoes of dystopia: Sanctuary Districts in DS9 and Burlington’s permanent homeless pods
The Vermont political leadership, at the federal, state, and local levels (except for Governor Phil Scott’s administration), has made numerous announcements about how they wish to control residential rental housing in Vermont. They have made it their mission to stigmatize those who are residential rental landlords with comments such as, “they are gouging their tenants, making huge profits while providing minimum services.”
From planning to policy
A newly leaked memo says over $4000 per household, $2.23/gal “tax” on gasoline.
Politics in Vermont’s largest city not so sweet
The Barre Auditorium was heating up despite punishingly cold winter conditions outside. The number four seed Mid-Vermont Christian School (MVCS) Eagles took on the number one Richford Falcons in a battle of high soaring offenses and tight clawing defenses.
I am seeking corrections or the removal of the story and I have filed an ethics complaint with the management of Seven Days. Errors are common and mistakes happen, but not in these amounts. But I’ll leave you with one last thought, would Alison have reported about me if I had gotten a job at McDonalds or a gas station or really anywhere else than at her competition?
Stop giving it more money!
SDGs, dogma, and the shrinking space for debate
Considering Thomas Jefferson was an experienced lawyer, the Declaration of Independence reads more like poetry than a legal document. In what many believe is the greatest breakup letter of all time, Jefferson clearly explained, to the entire world, that the problem was not the colonists in America, the problem was the king.
Now Democrats copy his misleading accusations that Republicans were the root of the problem.
The following testimony from Retta Dunlap, Woodbury, VT was submitted to Senate Natural Resources Committee.
Documented arrests in Vermont show that ICE operations here have involved individuals with serious criminal histories.
Working families are priced out of existence
Vermonters expect their elected officials to represent them diligently, especially when Congress is in session. Yet too often, it appears our senior senator, Bernie Sanders, is focused elsewhere.
Abenaki people who happen to live in Vermont are not fakes, not liars, and not deserving of this public hate campaign.
A great power like the United States has two enduring imperatives:
• Maintain dominance in its own hemisphere (“Monroe Doctrine”).
• Prevent any peer competitor from achieving regional hegemony elsewhere.
How much of my $150 month electric bill is going toward fighting global warming?
ADF clients dismiss appeal after state officials rescind decision to revoke their licenses
Our elections system is currently designed to maximize cheating.
Efficiency Vermont, the wholly owned division of the 40-year-old Winooski, Vermont nonprofit, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, has done a remarkable job over the past 25 years. Let us accept this and repurpose its funding from Vermont’s electric rate-payers.
Vermont’s long-term obligations for retiree health care benefits remain a major financial burden, even as the state has begun setting aside more money to address them.
It would be easy to label these debates as hunters and trappers versus those who oppose hunting and trapping. But that false assessment would trivialize and misdirect the debate as well as ignore the findings of a major values survey that shines a bright light as to just why these controversial wildlife practices are so protected by FWD.
Join us on February 20 (if you can)!
Something for everyone
It’s anti-children, anti-education, and anti-taxpayer.
Prop 4 states equal treatment under the law cannot be denied on account of a person’s, “race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin.”
History is not a children’s morality tale. It is a record of power, conflict, negotiation, and survival.
I now know from personal experience.
An open letter to Vermont legislators and citizens
First published February 16, 2016. Note the similar problems and proposed solutions, 10 years later.
Direct hydro for Vermont data farms: reliable, renewable, local
The SAVE Act passed by the narrowest of margins in the House of Representatives, where only one Democrat (Rep. Henry Cuellar – TX), voted in favor of the bill. But it also needs to be passed by the Senate, where the vote will again be very close. Sen. John Fetterman (PA) is the only Democrat who said that he will vote for it. However, the two TDS-infested Republican Senators – Murkowski (AL) and Collins (ME) say that they will vote against it.
Rights are surprisingly fragile things. Declared “unalienable” in the Declaration and billed as constitutional in state and the federal constitutions, their power is largely dependent on the character of the people. When the people are virtuous, our rights are secure. But if we are bull-headed, then we tend to smash them in some fit of pique.
We must do better in Montpelier and be laser-focused on the affordability crisis Vermonters sent us here to address, not set tax dollars on fire trying to light the way for foolhardy initiatives.
A campaign is underway to bring mountain lions to Vermont, led by the nonprofit Mighty Earth. As the state agency that would be responsible for these cats if Mighty Earth succeeds, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking mountain lion advocates to slow down.
The land that you think is “your land” might well become “my land” in the State’s eyes. The time is NOW for you to find out how the State’s Act 181 may impact your use of your own land.
Why is the department keeping Springfield taxpayers in the dark about such a dangerous and serious case?
These are several of the currently unanswered questions related to H.545, which have raised constitutionality concerns as well as consumer protection issues for Vermonters. A lawsuit has been filed against a key supporter for H.545, the American Academy of Pediatrics. The lawsuit alleges “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), against the American Academy of Pediatrics for its central role in an enterprise that has defrauded American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule for several decades.”
Well, Rep. Laura Sibilia (I-Dover), the Ranking Member on James’ committee and perhaps the biggest booster of the Clean Heat Standard, spilled the beans, let the cat out of the bag, dropped the dime on the real agenda in an interview for Climate Dispatch.
Gas was prioritized for home heating, forcing power plants to burn expensive oil instead and to import Liquified Natural Gas from foreign countries in container ships at 3-5 times the normal, unconstrained cost of Marcellus Shale gas. Wholesale electricity prices (called LMPs) spiked dramatically, with peaks over $660/MWh on January 27 and averages far higher than normal during the event. For comparison, the most recently reported average annual wholesale cost of ISO-NE electricity was $40/MWh for 2024.
Across the political spectrum, Americans agree on very little. But there is one reform that draws rare, overwhelming consensus: term limits for members of Congress.
Open letter to Rutland and other municipalities looking to adopt resolutions or policies prohibiting or limiting federal ICE Enforcement activities.
How toxic is it?? It’s been a very bad week for Vermont’s climate warriors.
How post-national governance is quietly redefining borders, sovereignty, and political legitimacy
We need strong incentives or disincentives to change the status quo. We need to make the school systems feel a little more financial pressure from the taxpayers.
As America’s 250th anniversary approaches, the Declaration of Independence will take center stage with celebrations all over the country. Many Americans still recognize parts of the document, such as All men are Created Equal, and Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. However, what about the first paragraph? Can the same be said about the terms “one People” and “the Laws of Nature and of Natures God?”
Be sure to send the message you intend to send with your vote.
The apathy rate of Burlington voters is high, just like the city’s crime rate.
Drescher’s judgment—the ability to confront hard facts, resist political pressure, and act deliberately—is precisely what we should seek in a justice on Vermont’s highest court.
Senator says we need to be discussing return on investment, and YEAH!
A nation without borders is not a nation, and a democracy without clear voter eligibility rules is not a democracy.
Québec takes care of its own people first
The University of Vermont and Middlebury College each have a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), while Dartmouth College lists two similar but separate programs: Palestine Solidarity Coalition of Dartmouth Students (PSC) and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine. But where are their organizations to protest and advertise the occupation and subjugation of other unrecognized peoples?
Fixing the roads is a core government responsibility, DEI is not.
An open letter to the Vermont Legislature
This past Tuesday Governor Phil Scott delivered his 2026 Budget Address to Vermonters and the General Assembly saying the time for structural reform is now. With federal stimulus dollars winding down and revenue forecasts downgraded, Vermont faces a pivotal moment that demands discipline, innovation, and collaboration.
The former Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, once said, “The Mid-East needs a success story.” And here in Vermont, that is precisely what we need in 2026.
Pushes left-wing narrative despite evidence.
In an era defined by hesitation, that alone is a notable accomplishment.
University of Vermont President Marlene Tromp silent on dorm squalor while she lives with her entire family in ‘free’ campus housing.
State subsidies and regulation made childcare more expensive, less available, and less effective.
Vermonters deserve an elections system that is convenient, but also secure and accurate. We have the former, but we do not at present have the latter. Moreover, multiple polls by a wide spectrum of pollsters such show around 80% of people support Voter ID. Passing H.670 should be a no-brainer.
