Introducing the Citizens’ Checkbook — and five questions the state should answer

Bird call recordings to discourage Montpelier vagrants. Fallout of dairy, paper mill closings. Connecting defund the Police and violent crime in Burlington. Incumbent Phil Scott gives his take on Dems electing progressive-backed Janoo to oppose him in November.

The Waterbury State Office Complex needs an $8 million slate roof because the old slate is beyond its life expectancy and cannot be replaced with cheaper materials due to historic and architectural significance. 

The salary of Vermont’s governor has risen about $100,000 since 2017, putting the chief executive of the nation’s second-least-populous state among the highest-paid governors in the country.

The project is the state’s latest effort to fill the need created by the 2019 closure of the Woodside secure treatment facility in Essex Junction.

This decline in approval comes as Scott prepares to seek a sixth term as governor and is running unopposed for the Republican nomination. If reelected, he would become the longest-serving governor in Vermont history, beating out Howard Dean who served from August 1991 to January 2003. Scott won reelection in 2024 with 73% of the vote.

According to the commission, tissues collected during its public and private truth-telling sessions — symbolizing the tears shed as Vermonters shared their experiences — will be offered in a ceremonial fire as a gesture of healing.

Since his November write-in election to the unpaid county post, and after he accompanied an anti-Israel activist Mohsen Mahdawi to a detention hearing in Colchester in April, 2025, Helali was reported by a Vermont community newspaper to be living in Russia. 

Clark and the others AGs say the “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections” rule would unconstitutionally interfere with state-run elections. They are calling for the immediate withdrawal, arguing it would create a “one size fits all” federal mandate that ignores the unique voting laws of states like Vermont.

“What absolutely is not the right approach is actively pursuing ways to lessen the value of rural property, an approach that is all too often on display,” farmer Becky Castle said.

This budget reflects a period of relative fiscal discipline as the state navigates the end of “abundant” pandemic-era federal funding.

The American Lung Association gives Vermont an “F” for tobacco prevention funding. The Legislature has received $840 million from Big Tobacco and spent 86 cents of every dollar on Medicaid instead.

The statement by a member of the regulatory board charged with writing rules for implementing Act 181 comes a week after Chair Amy Sheldon and every other member of the House Environment Committee, as well as House Speaker Jill Krowinski, announced plans to repeal the rural development restrictions passed in 2024 over Gov. Phil Scott’s veto and slated to take effect this summer. 

Vermont refers children to child welfare services at three times the national rate. It’s also first in the nation in placing foster children with relatives. However, the state’s mandatory reporting system needs updating, and the state’s provision of services to child abuse victims is twice as low as the national average.

A bill increasing current fiscal year capital construction budget spending from $112 million to $123 million passed the House yesterday and now moves on to the Senate. 

“The State has refused to bargain in good faith and interfered with employees’ exercise of rights…., through unilaterally implementing changes to telework protocols,” The VRLB said.

The wetlands updates are required by the Flood Safety Act, Act 121, passed in 2024.

Salary increases for Vermont’s statewide elected officials are moving forward as part of a broader biennial bill that adjusts state employee wages based on collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).

Burlington Democrat Rep. Bob Hooper’s statement of resignation from the Vermont House published in the Tuesday, March 17 House Journal underscores several points he made in his Monday, March 16 interview with the Vermont Daily Chronicle. 

During a recent budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Vermont officials cited a specific example of what multilingual access can cost: approximately $18,000 to translate one statewide policy into 13 languages and produce an American Sign Language (ASL) video version.

“Voting should be based on the character, integrity, and capabilities of the nominees, and the integrity and independence of our judicial branch, rather than the chaotic time we happen to be living in,” Gov. Scott said.

Should Vermont tax dollars be used to quell civil unrest in Burlington? During discussion of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, Senate Pro Tempore, Philip Baruth (D/P-Chittenden Central) proposed policy language to expand H.790 to allow the allocation of up to around $39 million of taxpayer funds to reimburse anticipated public safety costs in some of Vermont’s most populous municipalities in the event of increased federal immigration enforcement operations. 

Gov. Phil Scott on Tuesday unveiled his proposed FY2027 budget, saying the $9.4 billion plan reins in costs, provides targeted property tax relief, and begins addressing long-term structural challenges in education, transportation, housing, and human services—without raising broad-based taxes.

Employers must register through the Vermont Saves portal, provide employee census information, and facilitate payroll deductions at their own cost.

Two former prosecutors in the tough federal criminal justice system have been nominated to sit on the Vermont Supreme Court.