The following testimony was presented last month to the Vermont Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy and the House Committee on Environment.

By Sharon Stearns

Many Vermonters have worked the land in Vermont for their lifetimes.  I have grown vegetables, logged the woods, hayed the fields, managed fields for many farm animals, worked a mini farm with varied productive farm animals, owned a horse farm and taught riding lessons, rescued dogs that others couldn’t manage, and taken care of wildlife on our land for more than 50 years.    I also put myself through college nights for many years, eventually graduating with a master’s degree, became licensed in a difficult licensing test that many can’t pass, and now have several successful businesses.

The land taught me to work hard, it taught me that mother nature doesn’t always do what you want, it taught me patience, and it raised my children and helped to develop many responsible humans, horses and dogs.  Every day on the land in Vermont is a gift!

But, then the VT Legislature decided that me working hard to buy and care for my land wasn’t enough.  Caring for the grasses, the weeds, the weather, the wild and domestic animals, paying my income, sales, payroll, and property taxes wasn’t enough.  

Farmers and the working class and poor settle next to moving water.  They always have.  It was insurance when you own animals and it is cheaper land when you are poor or starting out.  Idle water is where the rich settle, with their gas and oil boats and their septic systems right next to the water.  Those folks, who can afford attorneys. are not affected by the Tier system and Act 250.  None of the rich men’s sports are affected.   

But the farmers and the working class and the poor are now being told, after they have done cleanup around their land and the water for years and years, that it isn’t good enough.  They must now not be able to do anything without a VT legislator deciding how that will be done, how much it will cost, and stealing their land value if they want to sell.  Selling or developing should be the right of a landowner, but not in Vermont, where the VT legislative majority believes they always know better than the native Vermonter, the citizen, the taxpayer.

Vermont has losts thousands of good businesses in my lifetime in Vermont because of Act 250.  They spent $100,000-$250,000 and they walk away.  Vermont seems to be proud that only government, hospitals, and colleges can survive unless Vermont wants that type of business and gives handouts and then watches them walk away too after the handouts end.  This affects our tax base, our economy, our people, and our future. 

Now, let’s do the same to the working class, the poor and the farmers.  That will surely get them out of Vermont, right?  The people who work the land and those who care for animals are not the type of people the VT legislature wants here anymore, right?   I wonder if the VT legislative majority had a party where they celebrated what they could steal from the working poor, the farmers, with a 5-member board and a highlighter, while wrapping it in pretty pink paper, or the word “conservation.”  

Conservation is a lie that VT uses to take what they want.  If conservation mattered, the creeks would be clean and not dumped full of city and town sewer.  If conservation mattered, there would no septic systems next to any lake.  If conservation mattered, those of us who are already taking care of it and the wildlife, would be rewarded for that, instead of penalized by an arbitrary “taking” of value and use of that land.

Democrats believe that their public use and priorities supersede the taxpayer and citizens’ beliefs, lifestyle, tradition and uses of land a person paid for with blood, sweat and tears.  Republicans believe that responsible ownership includes proper care of the land without government interference or theft, finding ways to make the land pay for itself, and strengthening the options to nurture that land  We have far too many Democrats that have flawed beliefs and that is why Vermont is failing in environment, education, economic gain, transportation infrastructure, affordability, housing, medical care, and medical insurance.  Vermont is failing badly.  Yet, the only solution has been to STEAL from landowners who pay their taxes.

Driving through Vermont over the last 50 years used to be a favorite past time.  It is amazing to see the landowners’ efforts at caring for their fields, their lawns, their properties.  Now, as more and more move to Vermont and don’t have that knowledge or pride to take care of their properties, we see grown up fields taken over by invasive weeds, promoting insect growth, waterways that are plugged up and can’t flow for the animals who depend on that water to be clean and not standing, predatory animals taking over where legislators thought birds would live, woods that are impassible for the wildlife due to excessive brush and ticks, threatening health and safety in so many ways for Vermonters and its native species.

But as we drive by lakes and see the wealth, the camps, the boats, and many working class gave that up because the water is being contaminated and our animals and people are getting skin and health issues, we know the VT legislators turn a blind eye to that, because those folks have big money and big lawyers.

So, clarity and thought exposes that the Democrats have a plan in plain daylight that steal land and value from working class, working poor and farmers in Vermont, while helping the rich people to continue damaging the same environment, while also promoting septic dumps into our waterways that flood onto farm fields and private property, without compensation for the environmental damage it does, while publicly chastising farmers and landowners.

A smart person knows the game being played.  Blame the working poor, the working class, the farmer, to protect the rich’s lifestyle to include water use and chemicals for ski snowmaking, gas/oil/septic in lakes, stamping out wildlife for downhill and cross country skiing, destroy productive property with fields of solar arrays in a state where VT is ranked 46th in the country for sun, all while wanting to build huge apartment buildings in our downtowns next to some of the most beautiful historic homes that Vermont has to offer.  This is a systematic takedown of what Vermont was, piece by piece, while destroying the natives and their land wealth, all they have.

In addition, what is not being told, is that, just with the flood plain conservation that has removed thousands of acres of productive land from the tax rolls after giving tiny payouts, everyone else will be taxed more to make up for an ever increasing budget and taxes.  So, while it appears that you are stealing wealth from those who are working class/poor/farmers, you are also taking it from those others that don’t think they are affected, by increasing their taxes, just as has happened with the flood plains.  This is not conservation for the animals or the people.  Taking productive land out of the people’s hands and limiting use has created a huge problem with wildlife, more coyotes, more nuisance animals than ever before, because those legislating don’t really understand biology.

The Vermont legislative majority continues to harm Vermont with their failed policies, their over taxation, their control of every facet of life that they can’t effectively manage, and this time, steals from both the poor and the rich!  Genius!  Except it harms a lot of people that should have the right to do with what they want with their land.  It is our land, not VT legislators land.  We are not the wild west, settling and designing a system, we are a state with ALOT of private land that the Vt legislators should not be taking from us, and that is the goal, because when you legislate that you can’t do anything with it, it does the same as the flood plain land, and most of it isn’t really flood plain, but made so with a highlighter.  Further, delegating highlighter control to a 5-member board creates the same board system that Democrats have used for years, so they don’t take blame for their failed decisions that harm Vermonters.  The public service board, the Green Mountain “care” board, the public utilities commission, the land use review board, and the list goes on, has become a game of unaccountability for democrats.  They answer to no one, and they have all harmed Vermonters exponentially.

Shame on the VT legislative majority!  Many of us will continue to expose what you have done to Vermonters every single day we are alive.  You may be able to steal from us, but you can’t hide what you are doing any more because people are figuring it out. Please wake up and repeal this horrendous THEFT legislative action and step up and buy land yourselves and donate it for conservation if that is what you believe should be conserved.  It is NOT right to take from others to live out your dreams!  Without full REPEAL, landowners value is affected NOW and everyone ELSE pays more!!!   REPEAL is the ONLY Way to correct this GROSS LIE and THEFT from Vermonters!

-Sharon Stearns, Brandon