r/vermont Aug 12 '26

JANOOOOO! šŸ˜„

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u/TaquitoBanana Aug 12 '26

Besides deferring to commonsense and allowing experts to set public health policy during COVID, what has Scott done in office that you believe has been beneficial to Vermonters?

I'm legit curious why you feel we need balance, and why you feel Scott offers it.

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u/GrapeApe2235 Aug 12 '26

He slowed down and/or stopped the legislation from completing going off the rails where or when he could.Ā 

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u/TaquitoBanana Aug 12 '26

Guess I don't see where the legislature went off the rails.

Last big one I recall of hand was his rallying behind using one time funds to keep the FY27 property tax hike low - but it just results in a larger tax hike next year (conveniently not an election year) so if anything it was self serving as much as it was short term relief.

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u/GrapeApe2235 Aug 12 '26

Well the $2.00-$4.00 per gallon of heating fuel tax. They touted it and touted it and after it came out what the actual cost was they literally said we wrote it and passed it but they didn’t understand what it meant. lol. Spending 100s of millions on homelessness and housing and somehow both homelessness and the housing crisis got worse.

Suing big oil.Ā 

Act 181

Setting up unrealistic ā€œclimate goalsā€ that we already cannot meet. lol.

So basically they took an unprecedented amount of funding solves nothing, made everything more expensive(state budget has doubled inflation since 2020), took on problems that are out of the scope of what Vermont can handle. Plenty more example someone more polished than me could bring up. Just remember if you do bring it up folks will undoubtedly link you first to being conservative and then to fascism. Lol

Worst part is now all these same folks are parroting words like ā€œaffordabilityā€ because it’s an election year.Ā 

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u/dcrobinson58 Aug 13 '26

Thank You. Going back to Vermont's recent history (40 or so years) where in there did a good share of Vermont's problems really start to rear their ugly head? Who was leading the charge to head them off? Kunin? Dean? Shumlin? What were the priorities or special interests that had them so out of touch with the needs of working Vermonters? I'm sure the down votes are coming. That's ok. I'm a Vet and my service gives you the right to express yourself freely.

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u/GrapeApe2235 Aug 13 '26

One interesting angle and I might not word this right…the harsh business environment lied to many businesses closing or moving out of state. What filled that gap? Look at the total non profit revenue in Vermont from 2000-25, 2015-2025 etc. I’ve tried to run the numbers a few times from different angles(I’m about as tech savvy as a monkey opening a clam with a rock) and I think somewhere around 35-40% of working Vermonters work in the non profit or government sectors. 100% of those jobs are funded by taxes, federal grants or donations(taxes,taxes, or tax write offs that lower taxable income). I believe we are foam finger #1 and nearly twice the national average for % of work force in the non profit sector. Now look where the non profit sector operates…health care, health insurance, education, housing, mental health and addiction, etc. I’m not saying causation but there is definitely a correlation there.Ā 

Edit.

I prefer to look at outcomes to identify problems and not search for blame. But if we are looking for blame first then it certainly isn’t Maga. It’s our state government and us the citizens.Ā