This two-minute analysis published by the Lake Champlain Chamber outlines key challenges facing the Vermont Legislature: housing, public safety, and affordability.
Housing:
- There is ubiquitous agreement that action is needed on housing, but how? The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs will start the effort with a plan to vote on the housing bill in early February.
- Act 250 reform will be the center of the bill and seek to drive compact settlements with protected green spaces and a reduced ability to abuse the system to stop needed development.
- Four studies during the off-session on Act 250 and land use regulation have supposedly coalesced into proposed legislation that represents a “grand bargain” for the long-promised dream of modernization.
- Without something done on housing, the state can’t tackle its workforce woes, which continue as the state is at a historic low of 2.1% unemployment, and if every person on unemployment took three open jobs, there would still be unfilled jobs in Vermont.
- These are all driven by our demographic crisis, spelled out in a recent report, and go beyond the workforce to affect tax revenues, housing needs, and volunteerism.
- The Governor highlighted that we need about 6,800 new homes in Vermont right now, which would cost about $3 billion.
- READ MORE BELOW
Public Safety and Quality of Life:
- Meanwhile, the escalating public safety crisis in Vermont has lawmakers unable to look away, as the State’s cherished image and quality of life face erosion in certain areas. A joint hearing on public safety is already scheduled for January 17th, and legislators are primed to address retail theft, court staffing, and recidivism. Read more below.
- However, not all proposals will be helpful; some will be pushing to refer more cases outside the legal system, eliminate cash bail entirely, and revive a “homeless bill of rights”with vague language that might legalize some anti-social behavior if “associated with homelessness.”
- Statutory language to enable two Safe Injection Facilities (H.72) will be among the first priorities for legislators this session after some pre-session testimony on these issues, though this legislation will inevitably be vetoed. Read more here.
Budget and Tax Battles:
- Budget shortfalls will make all of this more challenging. The entire budget is looking at a 1.5% inflationary increase as one-time federal dollars dry up.
- The Governor will try to hold the line at a 3% budget increase.
- Meanwhile, the education fund is looking at a gap of almost three-quarters of a billion dollars that could result in an 18.5% spike in the property tax rate, as forecast early in December.
- This comes at a time when there is considerable angst about how our unique system of statewide education funding is implementing per-pupil weighting changes, and school capital construction costs have snowballed to nearly $6 billion.
- Flood recovery will add some stress to the budget while climate resiliency will be high on the agenda and integrated into most conversations, given the two catastrophic flooding events the state faced this year.
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Categories: News Analysis
once upon i time i found myself home less///the first thing i did was to get off my dead back side and buy a one half acre of land///1500.00 dollars///then bought a used camper trailer/// 1200.00/// of course i had go to work every day to survive///this was 50 years ago/// now you would need ten times this amount or more/// do you like inflation/// do you like the federal reserve debt credit system/// no gold backing/// enjoy your 15.00 ham sandwich ///
Well, accountability and responsibility are no longer required or esteemed measures of one’s personal character. All that is required is to stomp one’s feet and scream that they are “owed” or “deserved” of everything everyone has worked for to achieve. And the government relies on that to introduce their Communistic ideologies.
The fallacy in this list of Chamber talking points, in every point made, is that some sort of government action is required to address these challenges, real and imagined. And the best current example listed here, of the failure of government in Vermont, is with regard to housing and homelessness.
As reported on Vermont Public, while Vermont has the highest per-capita homelessness rate in the country, Vermont also provides the most per capita support to the homeless community.
In other words, there appears to be a correlation between the amount of homeless support VT taxpayers provide and the number of homeless folks who live here. The more we pay, the more we will pay.
“When government– in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the costs come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom.” – Milton Friedman
But this dysfunction has been going on now for too long. When did Milton Friedman make his observance? How long since Ronald Reagan uttered ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language’? ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ That was 35 years ago. Meanwhile, some of us, many of us, have been reiterating the logical fallacy of government effectiveness on a regular basis since then, and even before.
No, only a fool would believe these are pursuits based on good intentions. Government corruption, censorship, and conflict of interest are simply too blatant to be considered merely poor judgment. And most of us know better too… that we are being terrorized by bad people. At best a few are good people doing bad things.
We must begin to understand the underbelly of human nature. As Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, exposed in his 1963 experiments focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience, in an autonomous state – people direct their own actions, and they take responsibility for the results of those actions. But in an agentic state (expressing agency or control on the behalf of another) – people allow others to direct their actions and then pass off the responsibility for the consequences to the person giving the orders. In other words, they act as agents for another person’s will.
This is the best that can be said to describe our current circumstance. If those who perpetuate this need to control others, whether they base that desire on ‘good intentions’, or on someone else’s authority, and they do so over and again while making others suffer, if they continue after even minimal introspection, it can only be characterized as evil.
I will just put out this link. I hope people will see it and learn.
https://rumble.com/v455xbf-a-republic-not-a-democracy-by-dan-smoot-1966-apr-18.html
Can you say tyranny?
When people ? When?
An excellent link for people of faith, in our republic or in God, to watch. Unfortunately, as long as the Marxist collective controls our education system, we won’t see this clip, or the principles it espouses, being taught in our public schools. In fact, anyone who repeats these ‘republican’ ideals in school is chastised and discriminated against. Unless and until the education system reflects the liberty and freedom our constitution is intended to protect, the less protection we will have. Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic that this change will occur in time to save us from what appears to be an inevitable conflict.
“If you build it, they will come” wasn’t just some line out of a movie. I have experienced this phenomenon many times throughout my life. The more you give, the more people want and then expect. My pops used to say, “I give you an inch and you take a mile”. I used to roll my eyes at that statement, but I get it now. In a big way.
I’ve written this several times, but I will say it again. Remove the non-residents from the state who are taking advantage of our generosity and stupidity. Require proof of residence from someplace. Require payback of time, effort and or money. That will automatically reduce the number of homeless. Provide actual mental health, in residential facilities, for the few that are struggling and without proper and effective care. Provide drug rehab with stiff consequences for failing and recidivism. And equally stiff benefits to those who stay clean. There goes the other big population and what remains are a few hardworking people who just need a hand up not a handout. (I know I write in a great many trite cliches and phrases but they are repeated often because they are correct and they work.)
But like so many have said much more eloquently than I, and, in more detail, this isn’t about solving a problem or problems in our society. It is about the complete takeover of our society and civilization and then destruction of same. They may not have a central leader and be organized, but when you’ve been indoctrinated into the same mindset, the goal is the same, whether or not you belong to a hierarchical institution.
I think we should get set up to do ballot harvesting since it is legal here in Vermont.
Oh, and Mr. Eshelman, you might get a “kick out of this”, my district representative has a blog and writes often. He is a bloviated, trust fund, always anxious and therefore always under the influence, mindless tool. He wrote an article last year and basically stated that he didn’t think the famous quote by Ronald Reagan was the scariest phrase in the English language. In case you might be interested…
https://tristanroberts.org/news/the-9-most-terrifying-words-in-the-english-language.
There are many who feel that nothing they can do will change this juggernaut of a supermajority. I say, the power of all of us would be terrifying if we were of one voice and organized. But we choose to dither and dally and get distracted. And frankly, I don’t know how to galvanize those folks any more than anyone else. I do what I can on my own but is the equivalent of spitting into the wind. I pray for guidance and inspiration daily.
Respectfully,
Pam Baker
Interesting link, Pam. Very telling.
Re: It was a stressful week, but as I drove home I reflected on how safe I feel in Vermont.
This remark by, one of our progressive legislators, is an example of pure sophistry. In other words, it was a stressful week, *but* I felt safe anyway.
Yes, the roads were being plowed. The electricity was still on. But not one mention of the resultant excessive cost and suffering that is occurring. That’s all we have? Plowed roads and electricity.
Never mind that we have the 9th highest utility costs in the country – or the 4th highest State and Local tax rates. Never mind that homelessness, crime, drug use, and suicide rates are increasing. Never mind that our children aren’t learning to read, despite the highest per student costs – *in the world*. Never mind that Vermont actually has to recruit people with financial incentives (insufficient as they are) to live here.
Imagine what would happen if Vermont expanded its cost-effective School Choice program to everyone. People from all over the country would want to move here because they could choose what’s best for their children. Property values would increase while property taxes decline. Student outcomes would improve. The economy would flourish without the government having to do the hiring. And we’d still have electricity and plowed roads.
That’s the thing about the collectivist perspective. When everyone fails equally, no one can tell the difference between success and failure. Rome is burning. While our legislators and their special interest groups fiddle on.
Mr. Eshelman, I’ve never said this about another human being but in my opinion, he is an abomination. You should see what he had on there before someone did an expose and he yanked it all down. It was reprehensible. The really sad part is he is an expert politician by nature. He is congenial and very artsy-fartsy and so the old school liberals all love him blindly. It is truly sad. I tried to get him to do financial break down of some bill and he couldn’t follow the math and basically said, “I’ll let the government figure it out.” He breaks private property laws, traffic laws, doesn’t pay his service people… I could go on but it’s literally soul killing reading his words or discussing him.
He is having a coffee hour early Monday morning. I am going because Senator Nader Hashem and Rep Sibilia will also be there and a cohort of mine would like the moral support. It’s in Wilmington at the Village Roost at 8 am if you have any interest, I would love to have you discuss school choice with these folks. I know that is incredibly early considering where you hale from but am hopeful you might consider an early morning drive.
And indeed, Rome is burning and these dodoheads (sorry for the grammar schoolspeak) are throwing money at it and taking selfies. Ridiculous.
Respectfully,
Pam Baker
Re: “I’ll let the government figure it out.”
Pam, and anyone else still on this specific thread, you raise an important point.
I was asking the folks who proposed the H.405 School Choice bill (that’s been tabled in committee for nearly a year) if they consulted with anyone on the ‘construction’ (the language and technical references) in the bill. Now, in this case, these are republican representatives, conservatives on ‘our side’, and, in my learned opinion, not only is the bill well-constructed, it’s one of the most important and consequential legislative proposals I’ve seen in 40 years. Which is why I asked the question. They explained to me that government staff attorneys actually write the operative language in bills they propose.
If you watch the video record of committee meetings, you can see that our legislators simply ask questions of, and listen to, various consultants, almost all of whom are associated with special interest groups, and who lobby for language that suits their special purposes. The legislators have little, if any, idea what the details are in the bills they’re putting their names to.
But this should be no surprise. It’s actually the way government has always worked. It’s why the Founders created a constitutional republic that is designed to limit what the government does – because the government cannot possibly function as efficiently as a free market.
Unfortunately, most of us have never figured this out.
The corporation is insolvent. The regime may have designer clothing and snappy new haircuts, but the trough they feed off is emptying out. The real numbers don’t lie. Why do you think the war drums are beating in a frenzy? Why does Fed Chairman Powell and Grammy Yellen look like they’ve seen a ghost (the Holy Ghost perhaps?) Fear not (referenced 365 times in the Good book) as all this must come to pass before we see His glory. They know it and that’s why they are losing control of all of it. God wins!
Unfortunately, Melissa, the corporation is not insolvent. It has a virtually unlimited line of credit – from taxpayers. It has a super majority on its board of directors that allows them to over-ride its impotent CEO, Governor Scott.
Read up on the Milgram experiments. They were conducted in an attempt to explain the actions of the otherwise good people who went along with the Third Reich, up to and including the ‘final solution’ during WWII.
And before anyone tries to flip this characterization, in a psychological projection, on conservatives, consider the profound difference between conservative ideology and that of the Marxist collective. We conservatives really don’t care what progressive liberals do with their own lives – as long as they don’t adversely affect our freedom and liberty. OTOH, collectivists rely on their ability to assert power over the rest of us – for our own good, ostensibly because we’re not capable of improving our standard of living based on our personal merit. Therefore, if any one of us conservatives succeed in our personal endeavors without the assistance of ‘the State’, it diminishes the collectivist argument that only the government can save us.
This is, unfortunately or inevitably, fast becoming an existential conflict – one way or the other.
For the record, I am not a conservative. I rebuke being labelled other than I am a child of God, which is how I arrived on this plane and continue dwelling here for the time being. I do stand by my assertion the corporation is bankrupt and the current slave system (here and globally) is about to be upended in grand fashion. No one is immune to a failing system – all those marbles being played for are about go flying in every direction. Declared and decreed. All civilizations rise and fall – we are in the free fall currently.
No one, certainly not I, described ‘you’ as a ‘conservative’, Melissa. I simply pointed out that the corporation (of State) is not insolvent – financially at least. It may be insolvent morally. But you didn’t differentiate. I am a conservative, an advocate for free markets under our constitutional republic. And others, who see themselves in this way, I characterize as being conservative. Under my perspective, as a conservative, you may be whatever it is you like to be, as long as you don’t force your will, or your perception of God’s will, on others. Let the marbles fall where they may.
Happy January 6th to all the traitors and cowards who would rather destroy our democracy than take the loss. Knowing that Boomers love reruns, can’t wait for Trump to go down in flames again, I could watch that show all day.
You should watch the video clip cited above by Shannon McLamb. If you take the time, perhaps your understanding of ‘democracy’ (two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch) will be more accurately refined.
I know how you guys like it both ways. Overturn Roe? We’re a Republic. Racial Gerrymandering? We’re a Republic Refusing to accept the people’s votes for President? We’re a Republic. Kick Trump off the ballot for inciting an insurrection? Let the people decide!!!!
Mr. Eshelman, I commend you sir for remaining civil and responsive to the drivel sometimes posted here. Sometimes you just have to let the yappy dog yap until they get tired and wander off. Some folks just like to be miserable and difficult and actually seek it out, bizarrely. Whaddya gonna do? *shrugs*
Respectfully,
Pam Baker
Pam, I wouldn’t throw stones about yapping, I just clicked the link that you sent about your Rep. and your suggestion for saving democracy is a Survey Monkey to the constituents before every vote? Thanks for making me spit coffee all over my screen this early in the morning. Would LOVE to hear your other ideas. Maybe we could have that vote held on Front Porch Forum
clap trap pretentious nonsense//// the jury has returned a verdict/// not guilty/// the judge sits on the bench/// what will be his remedy///
yale ///, 322 skull and bones/// any questions
be advised m. c../// we have the names of the clintons body count///no remedy/// corrupt governments///
I remember when freshmen and sophomore UVM students had to live on campus not that long ago- what was that like 2004?-(about when all the elites in Burlington started buying up every house to build their new rental empires) Going back to that and forcing the school to build housing would certainly help Burlington’s issue.