News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Rob Roper 
The Vermont Senate Republicans dropped a post earlier this week outlining just how out of control state spending is and has been for a long time. Though they cite a figure for FY27 spending of $9.1 billion (projected) and a 1.6 percent year-over-year increase, where I see a $9.34 billion number coming out of the … Read more
For the past two years, Vermont politicians have been telling Vermont property taxpayers that they heard us after 2024 and are working to reform our education system to provide property tax relief. It’s not happening. The debate today as we close out the 2026 legislative session is whether to pay for 4%-plus increase in spending … Read more
A collection of Vermont legislators led by Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D-Chittenden SE) and Treasurer Mike Pieciak (D-VT) gathered in the Cedar Creek Room of the State House to decry and bemoan proposed reforms to the SNAP (Supplemental NUTRITION Assistance Program, aka Food Stamps) that would disallow taxpayer-funded EBT cards from purchasing junk … Read more
Rural Vermonters have certainly woken up to the dangers of Act 181, the state land use law that threatens to basically steal the property rights away from landowners living outside the 2.5 percent of the state deemed to be “urban settlement.” The “Vermont Act 181” Facebook group has exploded almost overnight to 11,400 members, the … Read more
If there is one thing I’ve learned watching and often finding myself neck deep in Vermont politics over the past quarter century, it is that you have to evaluate every word that comes out of Democrats’ mouths for linguistic loopholes. This, after all, is the party of “it depends on what the definition of “is” … Read more
Many Vermont Democrats are giddy over the prospect of a genuinely competitive opponent to take on Phil Scott for the first time in 10 years: Aly Richards. All I can say is, it’s cute that you think that. While I’ll buy that Richards is likely to put up a better show than Esther Charlestin or … Read more
The Vermont State House recently hosted “Manufacturing Day” to highlight the successes and concerns of a key – and it turns out declining – sector of our economy. Amy Spear of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce kicked off testimony before the Economic Development Committees, “Manufacturing employment in Vermont has declined 11.3% since 2020. And Vermont … Read more
Go to any social media platform these days (Maybe not Bluesky. I’m not on it so don’t know, but this could explain quite a bit.) and you will see some version of a video of New York governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) mocking her wealthy, tax-averse constituents with the 2022 taunt, “Jump on a bus and … Read more
How a non-vote exposed the Democrats’ true attitudes regarding the housing crisis When new Vermont House members receive their orientation to how things work in the legislature, one point of etiquette driven home is that it’s not good form to spring amendments to bills onto the floor without a healthy heads up. “No surprises,” goes … Read more
Vermont is suffering from an early childcare availability crisis and an affordability crisis. We are suffering under crippling state taxes, particularly, but not limited to, property taxes. If you want to solve these issues, a hard NO vote on S.206 – An act relating to licensure of early childhood educators by the Office of Professional … Read more
Welp…. Looks like the Democratic Socialists in Vermont learned nothing from the 2024 election that saw massive public opposition to their Clean Heat Carbon Tax, which played a starring role in the shellacking they took the hands of the voters. Today the House Democrats voted near party line (by my count only four broke ranks) … Read more
I read the Vermont Democrats’ post-mortem report following their 2024 election debacle, in which Republicans picked up 19 House seats, 6 Senate seats, and the lieutenant governorship (the first time an incumbent LTG was ousted from office since 1815), ending their supermajority status in both chambers. The key insight in the document leaves me wondering … Read more
Remember back in 2024 when the Democrats and Progressives in the Vermont legislature passed H.72 (Act 178), establishing a much hyped “overdose prevention center” in Burlington? (No Republican voted for it, and the Governor vetoed it only to see that veto overridden by the supermajority.) The law basically gave the Queen City around $2 million … Read more
Vermont ranks low when it comes to political ethics accountability. According to the Coalition for Integrity’s S.W.A.M.P. (States With Anti-Corruption Measures for Public Officials), Vermont ranks in the bottom ten nationally. The Center for Public Integrity gives us a D-. The general reasoning behind the bad grades is we have few rules governing our politicians’ … Read more
The Cost of Joining New York’s (Still Non-Existent) Cap & Invest Carbon Tax Scheme As the Vermont House Energy & Digital Infrastructure (HEDI) Committee debated whether or not to blow $800,000 (and $500,000 every year subsequent) establishing a new fossil fuel registry (H.740), Treasurer Mike Pieciak (D-VT) chimed in with a February 25, 2026, letter … Read more
Stop Giving It More Money! As Vermonters gear up for Town Meeting Day and prepare to vote on the local school budgets that will determine our statewide property tax bill, please consider that the post-Act 60 public school system we have created is destroying our state. It has become a money-sucking vortex of incompetence eating … Read more
Voter ID Is Critical, Especially Now In order to ensure anything we decide as a society by voting – elections, referendums, budgets, etcetera – is a fair and accurate reflection of the voting public, the system has to be able to safeguard the principles of one person/one vote and the secret ballot. If the system … Read more
A provision of the federal law H.1, aka the One Big Beautiful Bill, allows taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on your federal income tax of up to $1700 for contributing to a state-based 501c3 organization classified as a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO). The SGO then uses that money to, as its name suggests, … Read more
Just before I took off for a week’s family vacation, Senator Andrew Perchlik (D/P-Washington) held a press conference flanked by Secretary of State Sara Copeland Hanzas (D-VT) where they were handing out $10,000 and $5000 checks to a bunch of local media outlets. Oh, this is bad, I said to myself with some excitement. I’ve … Read more
Going into the November 2026 elections, Vermont Democrats are eager to impress voters with the notion that the Clean Heat Standard, the “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax scheme they passed over the veto of Governor Scott in 2024, is dead and gone. A bad but fading memory to be hopefully forgotten about by this coming fall. … Read more