Bills that will impact Vermonters are difficult by nature, and part of the serious business of a legislature. But votes shouldn’t be difficult because we don’t know how they will impact Vermonters or whether they will at all. None of these three bills should have made it to the Governor’s desk.
The House will certainly be a very different body next year — a perfect opportunity to bring more balance to Vermont.
True Vermont discourse isn’t found in carefully managed press releases or media sound bites that paint everyday citizens as extremists. It happens when elected officials open their inboxes, answer their constituents, and listen to the people who actually have to live with the laws they pass.
Other important bills will hopefully benefit from balanced and open-minded negotiations as we wrap up the session this coming week
It’s been a busy week in the State House, yet as for Education Reform, Taxes, and the Budget… nothing.
After reading the language and reviewing the testimony, I do not believe this amendment is written correctly nor do I believe it delivers on the promise of equal rights for all. That is important because this is not just some law that can be undone. There is a four-year process to make a constitutional amendment. It should be difficult and should be done correctly.
The House is voting today, Wednesday May 6, to repeal the Road Rule and other rural property restrictions in Act 181. You might ask, what’s the next environmental injustice we need to correct? The answer is Act 59.
It’s time for Vermont to step back and develop a clear, transparent, long-term strategy that looks at the full picture and puts Vermonters back at the center of these decisions.
Climate change is indeed very real; however, initiatives proposed in the GWSA were never going to have any measurable effect on the problem of carbon emissions.
It did seem that the Act 181 Road Rule and Tier 3 that threatened so many rural Vermonters was an unshakable mountain that could not be moved. But, by the small faith of many, working together, hearts and minds were changed, and that mountain is being moved.
Fixing our education system is hard, but we must do the hard thing, because it is the right thing to do.
When the people rise up in unity over an issue and are not driven by deep-pocketed activist organizations, but by their own recognition that their rights are being trampled, the legislature had best take notice. We’re in such a time.
Yesterday, many excuses were used by Republicans as to why we are in the position we are today, but there was no mention of the ten years of a Republican administration’s failure to solve the problems we’re still facing today.
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.
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.
As cross-over day in the VT Legislature came and went on Friday and more electric buses burst into flames, so did many of our hopes for any real progress this legislative session toward solving Vermont’s affordability crisis. To make any significant change we need more legislators who are serious about addressing this crisis.
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.
Five legislators will answer your questions on what happened in the Legislature this year, and what they believe should happen next year.
Organizers say the forum is an opportunity for Vermonters to hear about plans to address affordability and other challenges facing families across the state.
The GOP leaders who held the line on property taxes and stopped the Clean Heat Standard say there’s much more to be done. They’ll dish, listen and take questions at a forum in Ludlow Thursday, 6 PM September 4.
Orange and Washington County lawmakers review how the actions of the 2025 Legislature affect Vermonters’ safety and prosperity.
House Speaker Krowinski announced the full House would come back on June 16, which was the date previously put on the calendar for a potential session to address any bills that the Governor vetoed. The plan is now for the education conferees to continue meeting over the next few weeks to hammer out an agreement that can also satisfy Governor Scott. Stay tuned.
We are seeing the beginning of some strong legislative winds, and not necessarily in the same direction.
