Tag Archives: Phil Scott

…On the Other Hand…

3 Replies

It has been suggested to me that I’m dead wrong about Zoie Saunders’ prospects in the Senate. I would like nothing better, and I can see the argument although I’m not entirely convinced because, well, I have so little faith in Our Solons to do the right thing.

My take was that the Senate was likely to rubber-stamp Saunders’ nomination as education secretary after a brief, polite interrogatory. The latest piece of evidence: a press release from the Agency of Education touting Saunders’ first day on the job and blithely ignoring the Senate’s duty to ratify her selection.

I interpreted the press release as an expression of confidence. But it could also be seen as whistling past the graveyard. Like, maybe the administration is worried about the Senate process and trying to pretend it isn’t a real thing.

This would be of a piece with the Saunders rollout from the very beginning. She was introduced at a hastily-convened press conference on a Newsdump Day. Her nomination was announced a bit more than three weeks before her first day on the job, which is a very short time frame for an executive who has to exit an important position elsewhere and make a 1,500-mile relocation. The administration snapped back, perhaps too aggressively, at initial skepticism of the pick with overblown accusations of misogyny and anti-Florida prejudice. And then the administration asked the Senate Education Committee to hold off on a Saunders hearing until next week, giving her a faint aura of incumbency in advance of the Senate vote. Every step seems to line up.

Plus, I have a new piece of evidence that the administration isn’t feeling too secure right about now.

Continue reading →

A Few Words for Anyone Expecting Full Scrutiny of the Zoie Saunders Nomination

1 Reply

Welp, the Scott administration has put out a press release trumpeting Zoie Saunders’ first day on the job as Vermont’s education secretary. Nowhere does it mention that her appointment is pending approval by the state Senate, which won’t even begin considering the matter until sometime next week.

Quite the opposite, in fact. The press release says that “Saunders will travel around the state in the coming weeks” and “In the months ahead, Secretary Saunders will kick off a formal listen and learn tour.”

Yeah, the fix is in. The Senate will put on a show of performing due diligence, but honestly, there’s no way in Hell they’re going to send her back to Florida.

Continue reading →

“Will You Be Putting Somebody in a Wheelchair Out on the Street?” “Hopefully Not.”

2 Replies

It appears that the Senate Appropriations Committee is ready to kill a House-passed proposal to extend the motel voucher program that shelters thousands of homeless Vermonters. So says the chatter in the hallways, which I would not take as gospel — except that the committee made its intentions more than clear in a recent hearing.

On April 2, the committee heard from Commissioner Chris Winters of the Department of Children and Families and some of his top deputies. The panel had asked him to prepare a presentation on the challenges of implementing H.883, the House-passed FY2025 budget bill that includes a broader version of the voucher program than the administration has proposed.

Mind you, the panel made no effort to hear from anyone in the House to tell their side of the story. The committee took no testimony from housing advocates or clients of the program. They sought counsel only from the very administration officials who have been responsible for repeatedly fumbling the program and trying to kill it. Committee members rarely pushed Winters or challenged his testimony. They pretty much took his word on every issue. You might think the committee was on a fishing expedition looking for reasons to kill the House plan.

Because that’s exactly what they were doing.

At one point, committee chair Sen. Jane Kitchel was seeking assurance that nothing bad would happen under the administration’s plan. She lobbed Winters a softball: “Will you be putting somebody in a wheelchair out on the street?”

And Winters replied, “Hopefully not.”

How reassuring.

Continue reading →

Phil Scott Prioritizes Corporate Profits Over Public Safety

1 Reply

The headline might seem outrageous, and I’m sure it won’t make anyone on the Fifth Floor happy, but it’s the plain truth.

Vermont’s judiciary system is grossly underfunded and understaffed. The result is a huge backlog of pending cases measured, not in weeks or months, but in years. Gov. Phil Scott’s solution? Cut a few more positions from the courts.

This is the same governor who said, in his State of the State address, that public safety was one of his top priorities. The House decided to boost the Judiciary instead of strangling it, and approved a bill that would pay for more positions in the court system by increasing corporate taxes and fees by a skosh or two. This appears to be a no-go for Scott, who would rather kill any kind of tax or fee increase than, I don’t know, fully fund the judicial system at a time when he claims that we face a public safety crisis.

Continue reading →

Here’s a Funny Way to Express Confidence in a Cabinet Nominee

4 Replies

Rather devastating piece has been posted in an unlikely spot, Forbes Magazine, about Zoie Saunders, Gov. Phil Scott’s pick for education secretary. It’s written by Peter Greene, a longtime schoolteacher turned education commentator. We’ll go through some specifics, including a lengthy quote from an unidentified writer at something called The Vermont Political Observer*, but this must be addressed right off the top.

*Hey Peter, next time check the “About” page.

Governor Scott’s office, which did not yet respond to a request for
comment for this article, has said that Saunders will not be doing any
more interviews until she’s in office.

Hoo boy. Batten down the ramparts, boys. Pull up the drawbridge. Sound red alert. Someone go below decks and look for a hull breach, because I think we’re taking on water.

The administration’s refusal to make Saunders available for interviews can only be taken one of two ways: They don’t trust her to speak contemporaneously, or they’re very, very nervous about her prospects for Senate approval. Neither is what you’d call a good look.

Continue reading →

Phil Scott Whips Out His Favorite Implement

2 Replies

Maybe it’s just me, but I see a veto as a failure of leadership. It’s a last resort, to be used only after all other options are exhausted. But Gov. Phil Scott seems to take pleasure in the exercise, to judge by the frequency of his vetoes. He long ago surpassed Howard Dean’s total (in far fewer years as governor), and Dean had been, by a country mile, the most enthusiastic vetoer in Vermont history.

To be fair, Scott faces the difficult task of trying to manage the state in concert with a Legislature dominated by the other party. But it’s the hand he has been dealt. It’s his responsibility to try to find ways to cooperate with the House and Senate. Hell, he talks constantly about the importance of cooperation and working across the aisle.

Except when he’s slamming the Dems or racking up another veto.

This time it’s S.18, which would have banned the sale of flavored tobacco products and e-cigarettes. And as is often the case, it kinda looks like Scott went fishing for an excuse to veto instead of doing his utmost to avoid using the bluntest instrument in the gubernatorial toolbox.

Continue reading →

The Phil Scott Shelter Clusterfuck Takes Another Bad Turn (Plus, Bonus Eclipse-Related Unsheltering)

Leave a reply

No foolin’ this time: April 1 brought yet another mass unsheltering for no good reason whatsoever, and the blame appears to fall on the Scott administration’s failure to communicate with clients of the motel voucher program.

It seems that somebody realized sometime last week that roughly 800 households — which, by the standard calculation of 1.6 persons per household, would be about 1,280 individuals — were eligible to stay in their state-paid motel rooms, but in order to do so they had to apply for reauthorization by April 1. And they hadn’t done so.

According to designated unsheltering pool reporter Carly Berlin, a mad scramble ensued. Well, she used “scramble.” The “mad” part is mine. Berlin:

The [Department of Children and Families]’ pleas were captured in an email sent to service providers on Friday afternoon, in which a DCF official said more than half of the 1,600 households “have an authorization that ends on 4/1/24 that has yet to be renewed.” In the message, Lily Sojourner, interim director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, asked for providers’ help in securing residents’ renewals.

To clarify: Sojourner “asked for providers’ help in doing the job DCF should have done.” Ugh.

The scramble brought the number of evictions down to about 360 households (570 individuals) as of early Monday afternoon. Great!

On top of this comes the cheery news from Seven Days that in Chittenden County, “more than 150 households” (at least 240 individuals) will lose their rooms on Saturday and Sunday nights so motel operators can rent ’em out to eclipse tourists at extortionate rates. It’s unknown how many will lose their shelter outside of Chittenden County. There are eight other counties in the totality zone, so the total unsheltered could be much higher.

Continue reading →

Phil Scott To Sleep Outside Tonight in Solidarity with Struggling Vermonters

11 Replies

April 1, 2024, Montpelier, Vermont — In a surprise announcement, Gov. Phil Scott told a hastily-assembled press corps (numbering in the mid-single digits) that he would sleep outside tonight.

“At a time when so many Vermonters are having trouble keeping a roof over their heads, they need to know their governor stands with them,” Scott said, standing outside the Statehouse clad in white shirt, tie, and tactical vest. “Therefore, I’m going to spend the night sleeping outside, here on the Statehouse lawn.”

As he spoke, a crew from the Department of Buildings and General Services was pitching a tent of the style depicted above. “At the same time, in order to perform my duties to the best of my ability as all Vermonters expect, I will require the fully-equipped, state-of-the-art ‘outdoor overnighting facility’ you see before you,” Scott added, as BGS staff hooked up a power supply and rolled in a 60-inch flat-screen TV, space heater, and mini-fridge.

Nearby, Vermont State Police troopers were setting up a mobile command post to maintain security for the nighttime hours. Floodlights were placed in a ring around the tent, pointed downwards and outwards to enhance security without disturbing the governor’s slumber.

The Vermont Office of Emergency Management was also there, erecting an eight-foot-high security fence in a wide circle about 100 feet away from the tent and topping it with razor wire.

When asked about the price tag for the one-night installation, a spokesperson said a cost estimate was not immediately available.

After the brief announcement, Scott returned to his office on the fifth floor of the Pavilion Building. When would he return to the tent for his overnight stay? His staff, citing security concerns, declined to give any further details.

“Why don’t Vermonters want to work for Phil Scott?”

4 Replies

This Just In: According to the Phil Scott administration, the Phil Scott administration is a terrible place to work. This is the implicit conclusion of the Department of Human Resources’ Workforce Report, whose most recent edition covers fiscal year 2023.

The report doesn’t offer that conclusion, but it’s the inescapable takeaway from its pages full of facts, figures, charts and tables. They show a state government that’s experiencing very high employee turnover and having trouble hiring new workers. it all adds up to unsustainably high vacancy rates in many areas of state government.

All those empty positions have a tangible benefit for the Scott administration, whose FY2025 budget is “balanced” only because it banks on the savings from having so many positions unfilled.

As for what this is doing to the quality of government services, well, it can’t be good.

Continue reading →

Somebody Made Phil Scott Really Mad, and It Might Have Been Me

8 Replies

Ruh-roh. Governor Nice Guy is putting his hard-won reputation at risk.

This morning his office put out a press release slamming critics of Zoie Saunders, his unqualified choice for education secretary. It’s a real piece of work, and I’d like to think I had a hand in inspiring this outpouring of wrath.

Not just me, of course. There are plenty of people who’ve questioned the Saunders nod. But you know, hope springs eternal.

Saunders’ nomination is subject to Senate ratification, and there are signs it might be in some trouble. A sizeable number of senators are raising questions about her selection. It’s unclear how many will sign on, but Saunders isn’t going to get a quick rubber-stamping. The governor’s people clearly see this, which is why he is striking back so aggressively.

Continue reading →