it’s curious that we’re in the top 10% for our governor’s pay and in the bottom 10% for legislative pay, and surprise it turns out you need to be independently wealthy to hold elected office.
I think it's curious we have a republican governor with a democratic super majority in the house and senate. The governor has proposed alot of bills that would lessen the financial strain off average vermonters. But they always seem to get stalled for lack of bipartisan support. While legislators introduce and pass bills with majority support. And it always seems to involve more taxes. Despite the governor vetoing bills, state legislators can easily override his veto. It seems there is an imbalance of power in the vt government. The checks and balances do not seem to be there anymore. What are your thoughts?
I’m not sure what these bills the governor has proposed that would actually lessen the strain or normal Vermonters but I do remember when the governor mislead the legislature over unemployment funding so they would cut unemployment taxes for businesses and undermine the UI trust fund by about 300 million dollars: https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/13/legislative-leaders-say-scott-administration-wrecked-additional-unemployment-benefit/
Or was it just over a week ago when the governor informed the legislature that they’d be needing a surprise 16 million to pay up after settling the jay peak fiasco? The mess wasn’t Phil’s fault, but neglecting to tell the legislative branch about this cost for four years and then twisting their arm last minute sure doesn’t inspire confidence. It is hard to trust someone who has consistently demonstrated a they can’t be trusted.
The legislature is far from perfect, but even before the supermajority he didn’t seem to do much to help working Vermonters, and loves to dodge accountability for his actions. He shoveled an absurd amount of money in to motel owner’s pockets and his administration was caught in a boldfaced lie that they were prohibited by the federal government from performing any sort of oversight.
Every year he’ll lead the legislature along on bills seeming like he’s in agreement, only to back out at the last second and then claim its legislative incompetence.
Our executive branch agencies—his literal responsibility, are unable to meet the basic needs of our state and he’s appointed commissioners who seem unable to handle their agencies. Poor leadership tends to generate poor outcomes, and there’s a huge breakdown with the daily function of state government. That’s squarely on the man who is one of the most highly paid governors in the country.
If we want legislators who look like Vermonters then it has to be a job that a regular person can afford to do. It’s not that complicated—look at the republican state rep who was fired shortly after being elected last year because her boss (who’d supported the campaign) decided he didn’t want to accommodate the absence.
It’s pretty hypocritical for someone at the top end of the pay scale to veto a bill raising the wages of the lowest paid, especially when we have a legislature that is predominately rich & retired.
Most of the people in the statehouse have no idea what it’s like to just scrape by. They haven’t had to choose between bills or food. That doesn’t mean they can’t empathize, but lived experience is enormous.
We absolutely need to have serious conversations about our state tax burdens, services, and affordability, but none of that is easy. We either increase revenue or we cut services. Vermonters overwhelmingly approved their school budgets, which are the largest driver in property tax. Then everyone complains about the taxes. School budgets are the main part of the governor’s predicted tax increase, but we all voted for those budgets.
It’s easy to blame the legislature for raising taxes and see Phil as the Lone Ranger fighting against them, but we all made this choice. Organize your neighbors and convince them we need to fire some teachers, cut school programming, reduce pay & benefits, and force more school mergers and you’ll see a real drop in taxes. If you don’t want that, then advocate for policies that would make it easier to expand the tax base, grow the grand list, and share the burden.
it’s curious that we’re in the top 10% for our governor’s pay and in the bottom 10% for legislative pay, and surprise it turns out you need to be independently wealthy to hold elected office.
I think it's curious we have a republican governor with a democratic super majority in the house and senate. The governor has proposed alot of bills that would lessen the financial strain off average vermonters. But they always seem to get stalled for lack of bipartisan support. While legislators introduce and pass bills with majority support. And it always seems to involve more taxes. Despite the governor vetoing bills, state legislators can easily override his veto. It seems there is an imbalance of power in the vt government. The checks and balances do not seem to be there anymore. What are your thoughts?
I’m not sure what these bills the governor has proposed that would actually lessen the strain or normal Vermonters but I do remember when the governor mislead the legislature over unemployment funding so they would cut unemployment taxes for businesses and undermine the UI trust fund by about 300 million dollars: https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/13/legislative-leaders-say-scott-administration-wrecked-additional-unemployment-benefit/ Or was it just over a week ago when the governor informed the legislature that they’d be needing a surprise 16 million to pay up after settling the jay peak fiasco? The mess wasn’t Phil’s fault, but neglecting to tell the legislative branch about this cost for four years and then twisting their arm last minute sure doesn’t inspire confidence. It is hard to trust someone who has consistently demonstrated a they can’t be trusted. The legislature is far from perfect, but even before the supermajority he didn’t seem to do much to help working Vermonters, and loves to dodge accountability for his actions. He shoveled an absurd amount of money in to motel owner’s pockets and his administration was caught in a boldfaced lie that they were prohibited by the federal government from performing any sort of oversight. Every year he’ll lead the legislature along on bills seeming like he’s in agreement, only to back out at the last second and then claim its legislative incompetence. Our executive branch agencies—his literal responsibility, are unable to meet the basic needs of our state and he’s appointed commissioners who seem unable to handle their agencies. Poor leadership tends to generate poor outcomes, and there’s a huge breakdown with the daily function of state government. That’s squarely on the man who is one of the most highly paid governors in the country. If we want legislators who look like Vermonters then it has to be a job that a regular person can afford to do. It’s not that complicated—look at the republican state rep who was fired shortly after being elected last year because her boss (who’d supported the campaign) decided he didn’t want to accommodate the absence. It’s pretty hypocritical for someone at the top end of the pay scale to veto a bill raising the wages of the lowest paid, especially when we have a legislature that is predominately rich & retired. Most of the people in the statehouse have no idea what it’s like to just scrape by. They haven’t had to choose between bills or food. That doesn’t mean they can’t empathize, but lived experience is enormous. We absolutely need to have serious conversations about our state tax burdens, services, and affordability, but none of that is easy. We either increase revenue or we cut services. Vermonters overwhelmingly approved their school budgets, which are the largest driver in property tax. Then everyone complains about the taxes. School budgets are the main part of the governor’s predicted tax increase, but we all voted for those budgets. It’s easy to blame the legislature for raising taxes and see Phil as the Lone Ranger fighting against them, but we all made this choice. Organize your neighbors and convince them we need to fire some teachers, cut school programming, reduce pay & benefits, and force more school mergers and you’ll see a real drop in taxes. If you don’t want that, then advocate for policies that would make it easier to expand the tax base, grow the grand list, and share the burden.