Rob Roper

Rob Roper is a freelance writer covering the politics and policy of the Vermont State House. Rob has over twenty years of experience with Vermont politics, serving as president of the Ethan Allen Institute (2012-2022), as a past chairman of the Vermont Republican State Committee, True North Radio/Common Sense Radio on WDEV, as well as working on state statewide political campaigns and with grassroots policy organizations.
Vote, ballot, ballot box

45 Days of Early Voting Is Ridiculous and Bad

Monday was the first day of school in Vermont, and this weekend, we celebrate Labor Day – two milestones at which point voters, so says conventional wisdom, start paying attention to politics. Let’s certainly hope so because live ballots will be mailed out to all voters on the checklist in less than a month! While … Read more

Taxes crushing vermont original Photo by Chris Andrawes on Unsplash

Who Voted to Make Vermont So Freakin’ Unaffordable?

The Vermont primaries are over, and the official general election campaign season of 2024 has begun! With property taxes increasing by unprecedented amounts, energy costs rising with a new, potentially massive tax on home heating fuels up for a vote in January 2025, another double-digit premium increase for health insurance just announced, a new payroll … Read more

Taxes crushing vermont original Photo by Chris Andrawes on Unsplash

What IS Your Cost Ceiling for the Clean Heat Carbon Tax?

For going on half a decade, beginning with the lead-up to the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) in 2020, the Democrat/Progressive majority’s Voldemort number – that which shall not be named – is what these greenhouse gas reduction policies will cost Vermonters. They have already spent millions of our taxpayer dollars on … Read more

Learning the Wrong “Phil Scott” Lessons

Phil Scott is by some accounts the most popular governor in the United States with an approval rating of around eighty percent. Ergo, lots of political pundits and big dollar donors who want to change the direction of state policy advise aspiring politicians to “be like Phil” to get elected. Yes and no. But mostly … Read more

Bullying of Conservatives on Campus

We Are Governed by High School Bullies

There were a couple of nuggets in a couple of VT Digger stories that, taken together, are worth noting because they highlight a real problem with how things currently run under the Golden Dome – that is, with a maturity level found in your average middle school cafeteria. The first piece comes from a story about the … Read more

EV Fees Should Go to Road Maintenance and Repair

The recent—and unfortunately more regular—flooding Vermont has experienced since last summer has damaged a lot of infrastructure, but the impact on our roads due to washouts is a big one—and an expensive one for the state and local municipalities. This raises a critical question of where the money is going to come from to fix … Read more

What Tar and Feather Situation Have You Gotten Us Into?

If you are a rank-and-file Democrat in the Vermont House of Representatives – a soldier in the Supermajority – you are told by Party leadership how to vote. The majority leader will, in fact, hold up a paper sign, Yes or No, informing you how to cast your ballot on key issues. And you better … Read more

Cash money bills

Economic “Assisted” Suicide or Murder?

When Agency of Natural Resources secretary Julie Moore testified to the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee back in January 2023 that the cost of the Clean Heat Standard program would be $2 billion over the first five years, 2026-2030, — an amount that she said would result in an additional 70¢ per gallon for home heating … Read more

Flushing-Money-down-the-toilet

“Please, Sue Us!”

Of course, we knew this was coming. In fact, they told us so. It was one of the very first Behind the Lines stories back on January 30, 2023 (I started this column on January 11th of that year) that shared the video clip of The Conservation Law Foundation’s Chase Whiting testifying to the Senate Committee on Natural … Read more

debt-forgiveness-taxes

Who Will Save Us from Crippling Education Taxes? Not This Crowd!

The Democrat/Progressive supermajorities that voted to override Governor Scott’s vetoes of laws that resulted in the massive property tax bills most Vermonters are receiving this month are now spinning the line that they did the responsible – nay courageous — thing by kicking the can down the road and appointing yet another panel of (mostly) … Read more

Money cash

Make Big Oil Pay? Court Says Nope!

Just this past May, the Vermont legislature passed Act 122 (S.259), the Climate Superfund Bill also known as “Make Big Oil Pay!” The idea behind it is that Vermont taxpayers will blow $600,000 hiring a bunch of consultants and bureaucrats to manufacture a sciencey-looking, totally serious – no really — accounting of the damage done … Read more

Vermont logo with chinmey

Clean Heat Standard Will Hurt Poor Vermonters on LIHEAP Heating Assistance

The Equity Advisory Group (EAG) to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) heard testimony on July 9th from Richard Giddings of the Department of Children and Families about how the Clean Heat Standard law would impact low-income Vermonters who receive home heating assistance in the winter. The news was not good for LIHEAP (Low Income Heating Assistance … Read more

Vermont logo with chinmey

“Green” Energy Policy Punishes Those on Home Heating Assistance

The Equity Advisory Group (EAG) to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) heard testimony on July 9th from Richard Giddings of the Department of Children and Families about how the Clean Heat Standard law would impact low-income Vermonters who receive home heating assistance in the winter. The news was not good for LIHEAP (Low Income Heating Assistance … Read more

Cartoon hit with taxes

No, a 14% Property Tax Increase is Not a Decrease.

If you thought the biggest, most brazen political lie from this past week was “Joe Biden is sharp as a tack,” you would be wrong. That prize has to go to Vermont state Representative Mike Mrowicki (D-Putney), who said in an op-ed that he and the Democrat/Progressive supermajority “…lowered property tax rates — with a yield bill that’s fiscally responsible.”

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Who’s Banning Books Now?

The legislature passed just this year S.220 – An act relating to Vermont’s public libraries. The ostensible need for the law was summed up by the WCAX headline, “Vermont Senate advances bill to discourage book banning.” This was, in great part, a reaction by our legislators to parents around the country objecting to highly sexualized materials … Read more

Who Wins “Biggest Dunce” Award for the Biennium?

This is the 150th Behind the Lines post since I started this page eighteen months ago at the beginning of the 2023-2024 legislative biennium. Thanks to everyone who has subscribed, shared, and grown the audience over the past year and a half, and welcome to many new subscribers who have joined in the last few weeks!

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