Has the Vermont Legislature lost its compass?

by Don Keelan

I  can’t believe the content and future ramifications of several bills adopted by the 2024 Vermont Legislature. To quote the banking industry term ‘extend and pretend,’ they stretched out the problems and pretended they had done well for the State. 

Vermont can now establish, in a year, a drug injection site in Burlington that will initially cost $1.1 million to set up. Only one such site exists in America, in New York City.

What a terrible experience for tourists visiting what was once the “Queen City.” An injection site is where drug addicts will frequent seven days a week to inject themselves, supposedly under supervision. Of course, waiting outside the site will be the drug sellers seeking active users for their wares.

The tourists already dodge homeless encampments, marijuana stores, suboxone distribution centers, and now, this latest attraction. Let’s hope it stays in Burlington.

The Legislature congratulated itself on resolving the critical housing crisis by passing and then overriding the Governor’s veto on the ACT 250 reform bill.

The bill, H.667, had been lauded as necessary to relax the State’s environmental laws and permit more housing development, particularly in village settings, at the expense of development in rural areas. It would not be unreasonable to note that very few legislators read the 200-plus-page tome, which will not have its accompanying regulations published until 2027. 

Even with such reform, new housing at $300 plus a square foot, and home mortgage interest rates hovering around 7%, a buyer of a new 1,000-square-foot house would need $114,000 in annual income to secure an 80% mortgage. That is before any college or vehicle loans. The Legislature has now gone home, patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

The Legislature could not close up fast enough after telling the Governor they had no intention of changing the Education Yield bill. They settled for a 14% increase, down from initially 18%. Notwithstanding, this action has crippling financial implications for many Vermonters. 

The average value of a Vermont house is now close to $400,000, and the real estate taxes are approximately $8,000 (some could be higher or lower), of which nearly 80% ($6,400) goes to the State Education Fund. A 14% Education Fund tax increase translates to $7,360 in 2024, or an increase of $960 for the above-valued home. And the future does not have any relief coming.

The above was not enough mischief for this year’s Legislators. They felt it was time to go after another deep-pocket resource to fund the State’s failing (and long-neglected) infrastructure by adopting S-259. 

The Governor did not sign the Senate bill; he let it pass without his signature. He did note that it would cost the State a considerable amount of money to go after the big oil companies for allegedly providing a product that has polluted Vermont over the past 25 years and caused considerable damage.

Speaking frankly and courageously, Legislators should inform their constituents that the State does not have the funds to pay for education or maintain its infrastructure. It was recently reported that the deferred maintenance tab for Vermont’s schools is close to $6 billion, which needs to be addressed over the next ten years.

With construction costs now at historic highs, the amount needed will only become more expensive. One can see why the State has not provided any funds for school construction since 2008 and then only 30%. 

Missing from the above and the elephant in the closet is the critical financial health of Vermont’s medical institutions.

The Legislators have now gone home until January 2025. Still with us are the same crises that have existed for some time in health care, education taxes, housing, illegal drugs, failing infrastructure, and the changing State’s demographics, lots of older residents and fewer younger ones.

These chronic issues are ones that the Legislature should resolve. I wish they would feel the same and stop adopting costly band-aid fixes.