We heard from developers, both subsidized and market rate, this week that things need to change if we are going to hit our target of 7,000 new units of housing annually. It's not one thing, it's all the things. Lengthy appeals processes delay projects and drives up costs. The cost of materials skyrocketed during Covid and has not come back down. The shortage of labor is really impacting both the cost of doing business as well as construction times. Cost of financing development is also too expensive, particularly for developers as they can face interest rates double that of homeowners to cover construction costs.

The bill proposes to exempt the House and Senate Ethics Panels from the requirement to consult with the Executive Director of the State Ethics Commission regarding any complaints referred to them by the Commission. It includes a repeal of a prior ethics oversight legislation and amends the procedure for accepting and referring ethics complaints. A new draft of the bill would also exempt the judicial branch and executive branch attorneys from the purview of the Ethics Commission.

The Education establishment provided mixed feedback on Governor Scott's education reform proposal this week. They generally focused on the need to provide "sufficient funds" for education and predictability in funding. Of course, the teachers union already took a shot at the Governor because they rightly concluded that cost-savings would be generated by staffing reductions (both teachers and administrators). We already know that a driving factor in Vermont education spending is our ultra small class sizes; it seems like others are also catching on. They also took the opportunity to attack the 3500 students in tuitioning districts who chose to take their tuition dollars to independent schools.

The bill aims to regulate the use of synthetic media (deepfakes) in elections by requiring clear labeling of realistic, deceptive AI-generated content in the 90 days before an election and giving prosecutors and candidates new tools to respond to harmful deepfakes.

What is the right way for our state to engage on climate change and environmental protection? As someone who considers themself an environmentalist, this is a question I have been asking myself frequently in recent years as we’ve started to see the impacts of climate change here in Vermont.

This week Governor Scott gave his budget address for FY2026 and we learned more details about his plan to overall Vermont's education system.

Governor Scott gave is budget address on January 28th, proposing a $9B budget for FY2026 with heavy investments in housing and other areas while simultaneously cutting taxes for the most financially vulnerable Vermonters.

This week we received the broad strokes of Governor Scott's plan to transform Vermont's education system. It is undoubtedly the boldest policy proposal he has ever put forward; doing away with local control and 52 supervisory unions and consolidating our 119 school districts down to 5.

After much teasing, Governor Scott's team introduced a comprehensive education reform that is undoubtedly the boldest policy proposal he has put forward during his career in public service. It would make dramatic changes to the way that Vermont's education system looks and functions.

Vermont taxpayers hard hit by the recent property tax increases and in the line of fire for another increase this year may be alarmed to know Don Tinney, the President of the state teachers’ union, recently said “We’re not spending too much money on education. We’re having a difficult time funding it.”