GOP leaders in the House and Senate said ‘amen’ to Gov. Phil Scott’s plans announced Tuesday to increase housing and the number of workers, and cut taxes. The Democrat leaders in both houses liked Scott’s plans, too.
Vermont’s housing and worker shortages aren’t going away. Time to hit them with unprecedented amounts of federal dollars, Gov. Phil Scott recommended Tuesday in his budget address.
There’s finally a deal to cut billions from the State of Vermont unfunded pension liability. Now just $2.5 billion to go.
Beth Novotny, Heather Gray, and Justin Jiron have been appointed to Vermont Superior Court judgeships.
Legislative committees are set to act on a recommendation barring from the State House lawmakers who won’t show proof of Covid-19 vaccination or submit to a PCR test.
Will lawmakers, staff, and even members of the general public need to show proof of vaccination or take a PCR test before entering The People’s House in January?
Joe Biden and Maine Gov. Janet Mills will speak for U.S. governors at Joe Biden’s virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ tomorrow.
The State of Vermont has ticketed $5 million of federal recovery money to help restore rundown buildings into much-needed housing.
Vermont doctors say THC concentration above 15% causes mental and physical health emergencies that are burdening Vermont emergency rooms. The industry says diluting below 60% is too expensive. Guess whose side the state’s Cannabis ‘Control’ Board is taking?
TJ Donovan says Meta’s own info shows Instagram is causing depression, eating disorders, and suicide.
Vermont ranks 30th overall in quality of highways and bridges. We’re #1 in one important area and almost dead last in others.
The Vermont Legislature will gather Monday, Nov. 22 to consider municipal mask mandate legislation.
It’s a myth that Vermont state employees and public school teachers are underpaid. They’re in the top quarter of Vermont wage earners, a new Campaign for Vermont study says.
Vermont Department of Public Safety has revoked the explosives license issue to the proprietor of a Castleton quarry.
Liberal D’s and Progs demand another State of Emergency and a universal mask mandate. The nation’s highest vaccination rate and all of the vax mandates just aren’t working, apparently.
Every Vermont municipal Board of Civil Authority will review an advisory plan for single-member districts only in the Vermont House of Representatives.
When the State of Vermont says people shouldn’t participate in a public meeting because of the color of their skin, that’s called discrimination.
The Biden administration decided yesterday that vaccinated Canadians may enter the U.S. for ‘non-essential’ (family visits, tourism, etc.) travel.
A Vermont Climate Council public hearing not open to white people was cancelled at the last moment Tuesday due to ‘Zoom security issues.’ It’s been rescheduled for next Tuesday.
The 21%, permanent boost in 3SquaresVT payments more than replaces the ‘temporary’ 15% hike implemented during the pandemic, and set to expire September 30.
Grant money from the EB-5 Court Settlement is available to Newport businesses and organizations. Newport Renaissance, Take Two.
A state agency disbursing federal pandemic relief aid to Vermont businesses may have paid out $4.4 million more than merited. And that money may need to be paid back.
100 Afghan refugees – reportedly eager to find jobs – will be resettled in Vermont. Plenty of work here for people who want it.
More than $1 billion is coming to Vermont from the federal government. The Legislature is asking you how to spend it.
A strict masking policy is now in effect in the Vermont State House.
Ethan Allen Institute President Rob Roper, liberal VPIRG, and Vermont’s racial equity director agree: single-member legislative districts are preferable to multi-seat districts.
Federal enhancements to monthly ‘food stamp’ benefits will continue through October.
It’s not safe to discuss the State’s cyber-attack defensive strategies on Zoom.
The climate-conscious State of Vermont will now give you a $75 gift card for commuting to work in something besides your Single Occupant Vehicle.
$13 million of non-pandemic federal money has been allocated to build housing for the needy across Vermont.
Rep. Becca White began public speaking career as a champion debater while a freshman at Hartford High School. Now she’s talking about the employment crisis (not enough meaningful work) and the Pledge of Allegiance (doesn’t like “under God”). One thing she won’t discuss: defending local police against their critics.
The State of Vermont is distributing $5 million in a second round of federal pandemic funds to adult day centers to provide financial stability after an extended shut down due to COVID-19.
A legal settlement expands emergency housing services for disabled Vermonters.
Some state employees already receive $300/week reimbursement for child-care. Now their union wants more.
Vermonters’ overall personal income was down in July. One-time federal money stimulated personal spending and sales tax receipts.
Gov. Scott is looking for a new chair for the Natural Resources Board, which oversees Act 250.
Gov. Phil Scott has asked the State Department to send Afghan refugees to Vermont.
A privately-run youth detention center in Newbury would replace the closed Woodside facility in Essex Junction.
The Dept. of Health official building BIPOC partnerships during the pandemic will lead the state’s refugee office.
Actually, Madame Chair, one press person DID show up.
State spending jumped 25% in two years. That’s not even counting a dozen more pending, huge expenses.
President Joe Biden has named the architect of Vermont’s gay marriage law to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Two former GOP lawmakers have been named one of Vermont’s Act 250 review boards.
The federal government has authorized the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Agency of Education (AOE) to provide temporary food benefits to students (Pre-K to grade 12) who would normally receive free or reduced-price meals at school.
Federal millions$$ once ticketed for Vermont’s 14 county governments will instead be given to cities and towns.
A sugarhouse near an historic site and a firearms shop expansion both faced unexpected, questionable opposition during the Act 250 review process, according to today’s Burlington Free Press.
Gov. Phil Scott stands behind the need for equity and diversity training of state employees, but said he is unaware of any plans to implement an ‘equity audit’ on state employees.
A revenue surplus powered by a resurgent state economy has added $52 million to the state pension fund.
Two Vermont State Game Wardens were recognized by Governor Phil Scott and Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter today in Montpelier for their exceptional performance. Warden Asa Sargent of Hartland received the […]
Vermont’s cut of a national legal settlement with opioid manufacturers is about $60 million.
A state analyst says the State of Vermont is moving too quickly on its plan to replace its decrepit unemployment insurance computer.
Governor Phil Scott has appointed Vermont utility executives Patty Richards and Dan Nelson to the newly established Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB). Richards will serve as chair and Nelson will fill one of four board member positions.
A straw poll taken by a legislative committee today favors live streaming committee meetings and restricting the number of people in committee rooms.
656 Vermont state employees earn $100K or more – up 13% from June, 2019, according to data.vermont.gov.
Gov. Phil Scott will meet with President Biden today about spending on infrastructure.
President Biden has appointed Governor Phil Scott to the President’s Council of Governors for a two-year term.
Former South Burlington lawmaker Frank Mazur reports that what prompted several Florida legislators to initiate a new association of former state lawmakers is the increased centralization and overreach of national government that put state sovereignty at risk.
The State of Vermont will extend for two weeks its free hotel-motel housing of the homeless.
Police visits to some of the state’s hotels and motels have been commonplace since the State of Vermont converted them into much-needed housing for the homeless.
Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) and Operation Lifesaver of Vermont (OLVT) officials are reporting that trespassing on or near railroad tracks in Vermont has increased since the suspension of Amtrak services in March 2020.
Key legislators discuss banning non-vaccinated Vermonters from part or all of the Vermont State House.
For now, the federal government is reimbursing the state for most of the $79 million cost to house up to 2000 families per night in ‘homeless hotels.’ Projections for state fiscal year 2022 pegged the cost rising to $108 million if the program did not undergo changes.
Gov. Phil Scott said he hasn’t heard from his fellow governors in Texas and Arizona about their plea for help from other states to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants.
Some Vermont counties are set to get more money from the federal government in one year than they have gotten from Vermont taxpayers in the 21st century.
Temporary Open Meeting measures enacted by the Vermont Legislature tied to the State of Emergency will no longer be in effect as of midnight tonight, when the SOE expires, the Vermont Secretary of State’s office said.
After the state took her kids, a drug-abusing mom got cleaned up – and got her kids back.
A map of recent appointees to Scott administration boards and commissions shows more than half live along the I-89 corridor in Washington and Chittenden counties.
A Burlington legislator is arguing a novel ‘legislative privilege’ defense to withhold two documents sought by a former city employee using the Public Records Act.
Alex Farrell as deputy commissioner of the Department of Housing and Community Development.
“Through my years as an officer, I have never seen any officer discriminate because of wealth, color, religion or sex. Believe me if I did, I would step in and correct it,” said a letter from a 20-year Vermont police officer. “Here is a saying that is true: no-one hates a bad cop worse than the good ones.”
A large Massachusetts-based police labor organization stands behind the ‘thin gray line’ of the Vermont Department of Corrections.
The People’s Republic of China’s propaganda war paints the U.S. as a declining nation and blames us for starting the global Covid-19 pandemic, China policy expert Gordon Chang reports in the May 5 issue of Strategika, a Hoover Institute publication. Vermont’s elected officials in Washington and Montpelier have done little to fight either claim.
The Vermont Climate Council, the 23-member climate change task force whose numbers have swollen with the incorporation of a multitude of outside subcommittee members, want more money for themselves in their efforts to make your life less affordable.
A Vermont state senator objects to a recent Vermont Dept. of Corrections ban on the ‘thin gray line’ flag meant to show support for corrections officers.
A $75/day home expense benefit created for the 2021 Zoom Legislature has resulted in $653,184 of claims through May 4, state officials say.
The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the work search requirement for unemployment claimants will be reinstated beginning Sunday, May 9 for all claimants in regular UI and specific claimants in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
The minimal efforts towards repeal of old boards take on an even greater importance in light of the dozens and dozens of new boards proposed for creation this year. Vermont Daily has reviewed hundreds of pending bills in the Vermont Legislature and identified countless new boards that have been proposed.
t takes 1,680 average oxycontin pills (.269 grams) to make a pound. Some pills are heavier, some are lighter. Using the oxycontin pill standard, Vermonters turned in an estimated 12,037,200 pills.
“It’s time for Vermonters to pull out the whole tick out of State Government,” T-shirt creator and model John Klar says on this VTLiberty.net video. Klar and the organization he founded have planned a series of events around the state during May.
About $125 million of federal recovery funding will help the State acquire longterm housing for Vermont’s homeless, Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference today.
The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to reopen the public comment period related to the proposed construction of massive surveillance towers in Derby Line and North Troy.
The Vermont Republican Party has already collected 780 signatures in an online petition to stop the proposed expansion of the sales tax to services.
Governor Phil Scott and his administration today presented a plan to invest $1 billion in one-time federal money to jumpstart economic recovery and support long-term economic growth.
Former Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman took the nearly $200,000 budget he inherited from then-Lieutenant Governor Scott and increased it by more than 27 percent in a single year. As a result, current Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray inherited a much more favorable budget than was the case just a handful of years ago.
Governor Phil Scott announced yesterday that he has appointed James Pepper of Montpelier, Julie Hulburd of Colchester and Kyle Harris of Montpelier to the Cannabis Control Board (CCB).
Vermont was ranked low, 41 among 50 states, when it comes to taxpayers’ return on investment (ROI). In other words, taxpayers pay in to Montpelier but don’t see much overall for their investment.
Heading into 2020, Vermont had one of the most solvent unemployment insurance (UI) trust funds in the country. Indeed, Vermont’s unemployment rate was the lowest in the nation, and there were far more people paying into the fund drawing down from it. However, that all changed with the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, policymakers are scrambling to determine how to get out of their current predicament.
State Game Warden Sergeant Travis Buttle of Shaftsbury is Vermont’s Game Warden of the Year. A game warden since 1996, Buttle was nominated by his peers and received the award in recognition of his excellent service.
The Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) has mailed all-new 1099-G forms to 180,000 recipients, with the final batch in the mail today, according to a DOL statement.
Through February 19, Vermont lawmakers have claimed $218,144 in the $75/day per diem permitted for at-home expenses.
Chandler Music Hall owes its existence to private philanthropy on a scale that might be difficult to imagine, according to chandler-arts.org. Chandler was a gift of Colonel Albert B. Chandler, a Randolph native, who kept up visits to his hometown of Randolph across his life. As a young man he served as a telegraph operator to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
A cyber-insurance policy taken out by the State of Vermont in 2019 will save almost $7 million in projected losses from the inadvertent disclosure of many 1099-G forms last month, the Scott administration announced today. Thanks to the policy, the State of Vermont will owe only the $250,000 deductible, rather than an expected $7 million expense.
Bills related to prison sentencing and transition have been introduced into the Vermont Legislature.
The feds sent little Vermont $4.8 billion dollars. That comes to $7,729 per person. That sum puts Vermont second among the 50 states, trailing only New York, which got $7,840 per person. Even so, the state budget department is projecting a $180 million General Fund shortfall for next year.
Republicans are committed to doing everything in our power to hold the line that our caucus did last year to make sure that as much money as is legally possible goes into the hands of those Vermonters who have been affected. We will avoid the temptation of some to use COVID funding as a way to channel that money back into existing state programs that have struggled because of prior financial mismanagement, not because of COVID and the response.
Recommendations proposed by State Treasurer Beth Pearce would, if successfully enacted, reduce the pension fund shortfall and maintain defined benefits, she said in a January 15 report.
Vermont’s policing and Act 250 decision-making will fall under more state control than ever, as a result of two executive orders issued by Gov. Phil Scott.
The pension funds are just 66.4% and 52.3% funded, respectively. The clock is ticking toward calamity, including downgrading the state’s credit ratings.
Governor Phil Scott today announced a handful of new appointments and promotions in the Agency of Administration, Agency of Human Services and on his senior staff.
Rep. Mary Hooper (D-Montpelier) has been named chair of the House Appropriations Committee, succeeding retired chair Kitty Toll of Danville. Appropriations prepares the state budget bill, a/k/a the “big bill.” Hooper is a former mayor of Montpelier.
