Tag Archives: Phil Scott

I’m Not Predicting a Legislative Exodus, But It Wouldn’t Surprise Me

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State Rep. Jim Harrison, one of the most respected members of the House Republican caucus, will leave the Legislature shortly after the new year. Harrison has represented his district in rural Rutland County since 2017; before that, he’d been a Statehouse fixture for decades as head of the Vermont Retail and Grocers Association. He told The Rutland Herald that a move to Wilmot, New Hampshire is in the works simply because he and his wife have decided “it’s time to move on.”

Well, this is sudden, definitive, and puzzling. A Statehouse lifer and loyal Republican is bugging out for no particularly compelling reason. And I have a feeling that Harrison is an early canary in the coal mine. The conditions are right for a wave of resignations and retirements among Democrats and Republicans alike.

For starters, the Statehouse is a grind. The hours are long and often tedious, the demands are great and the financial rewards laughable. Honestly, it’s a wonder that anyone sticks around for very long. And then you get to the fact that this year’s session was tougher than usual, and next year’s is likely to be worse.

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I Wouldn’t Trust ANY of These People to Reform the Public Education System

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On Monday, Tax Commissioner Bill Shouldice issued his annual December 1 letter estimating property tax rates for the coming fiscal year. It was completely predictable bad news: Shouldice projects a roughly 12% increase in property tax bills, a figure largely attributable to Our Political Betters’ decision to kick the tax can down the road this year by using one-time money to cut a double-digit increase down to one measly percentage point. They knew, at the time, that (in the words of T Bone Burnett among many others) There Would Be Hell To Pay.

Almost as predictable as the 12% increase is the practically unanimous response from Our Betters: They plan to double down on Act 73, which (a) would have no effect whatsoever on next year’s taxes and (b) promises future cost savings that are unproven at best and chimerical at worst.

Gov. Phil Scott: ““The choice before lawmakers in 2026 is clear: show courage by working together to keep moving forward with [Act 73,] our bipartisan transformation plan.”

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth: “Last session, the Governor and the Legislature worked together to pass a framework for transforming our education financing system. It was not easy; too many opposed any approach but the status quo… The truth is that Act 73’s success depends on even harder work being accomplished this session. I am committed to continuing this mission – in collaboration with the Governor, the House and my colleagues in the Senate…”

Oh, WHAT a brave man, heaping scorn on those who didn’t fall in line as “oppos[ing] any approach but the status quo,” when, in fact, NOBODY wanted to continue the status quo. They just happened to not like Act 73.

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Just Another Sad Example of Scott Administration Fecklessness

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This isn’t a big deal. It’s not nearly as consequential as the Scott administration’s fumbling (and/or deliberately sabotagey) response to widespread homelessness or its stubborn stay-the-course policy on substance use or its failure to produce a coherent policy on public education or its coddling of subpar administrators. But it’s yet another entry in the big fat ledger of incompetence that the administration is assembling.

I’m talking about Auditor Doug Hoffer’s latest audit (downloadable here), which reviews how the Department of Health’s Food and Lodging Program has been addressing complaints about unsafe or unclean conditions at our state’s hospitality businesses. “Examples include,” his cover letter helpfully enumerates, “complaints alleging bedbug infestations… serving expired food, and handling ready-to-eat food with bare hands.” Hoffer found that the Program often failed to respond promptly to complaints or make sure that offending businesses obeyed improvement orders.

Reminder that the tourism industry is a cornerstone of our economy and public image. It ain’t great if a tourist family comes down with food poisoning or checks into a charming B&B only to find that the beds are full of crawly, bitey things. The Food and Lodging Program is there to safeguard public health and to undergird the state’s tourism industry. Complaints and inspections might be a buzzkill, but they are necessary to ensure that visitors have a positive experience while they’re here.

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Nothing to See Here, Just Your Garden Variety Ruling Class Mutual Back-Scratching

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So, the Scott administration finally did the long-rumored thing. It signed a five-year, $2.3 million lease for commercial office space in Waterbury. Office space that’s only necessary because of Scott’s back-to-commute order that would overload the state-owned buildings in town.

Now, that $2.3 million is only part of the price tag for this deal. It costs real money to prepare office space for full-time occupancy. Will we ever get a full accounting of the cost? I wouldn’t bet on it.

The immediate beneficiaries of this deal are some good friends and political supporters of, ahem, Gov. Phil Scott. VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson got a lot of this story, but not all of it.

As Robinson reported, the lease involves 22,000 square feet of office space in the Pilgrim Park complex, the former headquarters of Green Mountain Coffee. It’s now owned by Malone Superior, LLC, a real estate firm co-owned by Wayne Lamberton, Patrick Malone, and Randy Lague. As Robinson reported, Malone Superior is located at the same address as Malone Properties, also owned by Patrick Malone. And as Robinson reported, Malone Properties donated “about $12,000” to Phil Scott’s gubernatorial campaigns in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

But there’s more, quite a bit more, that Robinson missed.

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They Didn’t Fail, Governor. You Did.

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After the School District Redistricting Task Force* recommended a voluntary plan instead of new district maps, Gov. Phil Scott responded with guns a-blazin’. And as is often the case when you go guns a-blazin’, there was a bit of an accuracy problem.

*Seriously, who named this thing?

Then again, one couldn’t really expect him to identify the real culprit: the governor himself.

For those just joining us, Scott said that the Task Force “didn’t fulfill its obligation” under Act 73. “They were supposed to put forward three maps for consideration, and they failed,” he said on Thursday. (Not true, actually; more later.) And he blasted Task Force members for being “OK with the ever-increasing property taxes, cost of education, and they don’t want to see change.”

I understand his dismay but he’s being a bit harsh on a group of Vermonters who know more about public education than he ever will, and who gave of their time, sweat and tears to try to meet an unreasonable deadline. He could have at least thanked them for their service. Even if he didn’t mean it.

Especially since the real author of this failure isn’t anyone on the Task Force. It’s the governor himself.

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This Is How a Bunch of Distinguished Vermonters Tells the Governor and Legislature to Go Fuck Themselves

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Well, the panel tasked with drawing new school district maps for the entire state has essentially turned down the assignment and tossed the whole mess back into the laps of Our Political Betters.

Instead of completing the assignment contained in Act 73, which was to draw up to three different maps for the Legislature to choose from or ignore), the School District Redistricting Task Force* instead proposed a plan to incentivize voluntary mergers among school districts.

*That name will never not be funny.

WCAX-TV called it “a departure” from the process mandated in Act 73. VTDigger, equally polite, said the Task Force proposal “in a way, flouts Act 73’s directive.”

“In a way,” my ass. This was a flat rejection of the Act 73 mandate and a slap in the face of the governor and Legislature.

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There Is Nothing Like a Dame

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Congratulations, I guess? to Paul Dame for his re-election as Vermont Republican Party chair. He overcame a challenge by state Sen. Russ Ingalls in a 50-47 vote at the party’s convention on Saturday.

The margin does not speak of a rousing endorsement for a two-term incumbent. Quite the opposite, in fact. Dame has been in office since 2021, and almost half of the VTGOP’s ruling class wanted him gone? That’s not a positive indicator for Dame’s third term or for the party itself.

Completely absent from the convention, and from the Dame v. Ingalls campaign as a whole, was Gov. Phil Scott. It was a return to his pre-2024 abstention from the Republican political scene, which doesn’t bode well for the party or Dame as we enter a 2026 campaign season likely to be dominated by anti-Trump backlash.

Did the party make the right call? No idea. Ingalls was correct in pointing out that Dame has failed to improve the VTGOP’s dire financial situation, but would the senator have done any better? We’ll never know.

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Julie Moore, Off the Top Rope

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I don’t know whose idea it was to make Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore the lead signatory on an opinion essay aimed squarely at Vermont’s environmental community, but… it’s… a choice, that’s for sure.

The Moore op-ed, co-signed by Public Service Commissioner Kerrick Johnson, is entitled “Vermont’s Housing Needs Require Decisive Action – Step Up or Step Away.” The unfortunate echo of Donald Trump’s infamous “Stand Back and Stand By” remark aside, the essay is a direct attack on the environmental groups that Moore frequently interacts with — and hopefully cooperates with. I guess not, eh?

The essay posits environmental advocates as The Enemy in Gov. Phil Scott’s effort to ease Vermont’s housing crisis. I mean, “Step Up or Step Away” comes across as a very thinly veiled threat.

Before I go on, I must point out an inadvertent admission in Moore and Johnson’s essay. It’s right there in the second sentence: “The cost of housing has skyrocketed with median home prices in Vermont more than doubling in the last 10 years, putting both homeownership (sic) and rentals out of reach for many.”

To which I immediately thought, well, who’s been governor of Vermont for almost the entire last decade? Oh yeah, Phil Scott, that’s who.

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Phil Scott’s Back-to-the-Office Order Is Going to Cost Something, Whether He Wants to Admit It or Not

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There are questions circulating in legislative circles about the potential cost of Gov. Phil Scott’s return-to-office mandate, which takes effect on December 1 and requires at least three days a week of office work for state employees. Questions, but few answers.

Well, my headline gives away the real answer: It will definitely cost some amount of money at a time when the state faces a severe financial pinch due to Trump administration fuckery with federal spending, including a government shutdown that Congressional Republicans are in no hurry to resolve.

The governor couldn’t have foreseen the shutdown when he issued his order in late August. But the current situation would seem to call for reconsideration. Because we don’t know how much it will cost to accommodate state employees returning to office work, but we do know one thing for certain: It’s gonna cost something. And we really can’t afford it right now.

Last week, Agency of Human Services staffers rallied in Waterbury to protest the potential impacts of the back-to-office order. They pointed out that the Agency doesn’t have enough space to accommodate its entire workforce. They pinned the shortfall at 250 desks; later, the administration gave an actual figure of 254. Administration Secretary Sarah Clark suggested it wasn’t so bad because staffers working part-time on-site could share desks! Wow, that’d boost morale. And productivity.

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A Band-Aid on a Broken Arm

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Welp, Gov. Phil Scott has unveiled his 14-point “short-term action plan” (his words, underlining the lack of sustained commitment) to improve public safety in Burlington. And, unsurprisingly, it’s a combo platter of disappointing, punitive, and cheap. It’s more political than policy, aimed at demonizing Vermont’s biggest and most important city and avoiding his administration’s culpability for the problems that beset all of our communities.

Kudos to Seven Days’ Courtney Lamdin for spotlighting, near the beginning of her story, the most crucial shortcoming in Scott’s plan:

Conspicuously missing from the plan is an expansion of homeless shelter capacity in Burlington or elsewhere in Chittenden County, despite the dire need for it. The plan also ignores specific asks that Burlington city councilors made of Scott in a resolution they passed in August.

Yeah, ignoring dire needs is kind of Phil Scott’s jam. Remember in June, when I headlined a post about his veto of H.91 “Phil Scott Doesn’t Give a Fuck About the Homeless”? His Burlington “action” plan validates my point. He is, quite literally, the Levite averting his eyes as he walks by a wounded traveler. His plan is heavy on the punitive and light on the humanity. The goal is to remove the unfortunate from his view shed, not to actually help them. The best outcome for Scott’s plan is some short-term cosmetic improvement while the underlying economic and social causes of our problems continue to exact their toll.

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