Tag Archives: Phil Scott

The House Does a Big Thing that Phil Scott Won’t Do

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The Vermont House of Representatives did something kind of impressive a couple weeks ago. Not that the media paid much attention, due in part to all Trump all the time — and I let it pass by for that same reason, but I can play catchup when events call for it. So here I am, belatedly.

Way back on April 2, the House approved H.91, the “Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing Program.” Quite a mouthful, but the acronym is VHEARTH, which is catchy indeed.

But that’s not the impressive part. What the bill’s writers managed to do is create a new state program from scratch. VHEARTH is meant to replace the much-lamented and chronically underfunded General Assistance Emergency Housing Program, d/b/a/ the motel voucher program. Yep, legislative leaders had been begging Gov. Phil Scott to propose an alternative to vouchers for years. Seems they finally got tired of waiting for the chief executive to do his damn job.

I first learned of this five days later, when the Barre Montpelier Times Argus published a front-page story (paywalled, sorry) about H.91 gaining House approval. I was so surprised to learn of a major Statehouse development in my sadly reduced local paper that I had to check and double-check to make sure I hadn’t missed a story in the more customary outlets like VTDigger, Seven Days, or Vermont Public.

But I hadn’t. Those usually dependable organizations either missed a major piece of legislation achieving a milestone, or they deemed it unworthy of their attention. If it was the latter, well, they were sorely mistaken.

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VTDigger Does Phil Scott a Big Fat Photographic Favor

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This is a social media post from VTDigger spotlighting the top story in Friday’s “Final Reading,” about Vermont politicians taking a stand against a U.S. House-passed voter ID bill that would make it harder, especially for women, to register to vote. Great, fine, a nice little space-filler on Friday afternoon.

The photo features Democratic Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and Republican Gov. Phil Scott. (The photo also sits just below the headline of “Final Reading” itself.) Here’s the problem: Copeland Hanzas is quoted in the article, but Scott does not appear. At all. No quote, not even a passing mention. In fact, not a single Republican is quoted or mentioned, while Democratic U.S. Rep. Becca Balint is quoted and Democratic Attorney General Charity Clark is mentioned.

But you combine the photo with the headline’s reference to “Vermont Leaders” panning the bill, and you come away with the distinct impression that Phil Scott is on board with this effort.

He is not. At least not publicly. But you wouldn’t realize that unless you read the article carefully and kept track of who is actually quoted.

Most people don’t even click the link, they only see the social media post. Of those who do click the link, relatively few pay close enough attention to notice the presence or absence of one “Vermont Leader.”

By using this photo, VTDigger did Phil Scott a big fat favor in terms of bolstering his “moderate” bona fides, a favor he did nothing to earn.

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Hey, Governor, Can We Start to Worry Now?

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Gov. Phil Scott’s message that we should all take a chill pill regarding Donald Trump’s continuing rampage through the china shop of democracy and good government is starting to look remarkably poorly timed. This week’s Vermont news is loaded with headlines about Trump, and none of them are good. So I have to ask. Is it time to worry at least a little bit? Could our chief executive muster a discreet furrowing of brow on behalf of all the Vermonters having their lives tossed around by Trump?

The worst of all the stories is about the arrival of the feds’ jackbooted immigration regime, which threatens to imminently deport two Nicaraguan high schoolers who are here legally and have done nothing wrong. Adam Bunting, interim superintendent of the Champlain Valley School District, announced the federal action in a letter to the CVSD community. “These students, who have done nothing wrong, are suddenly being told they don’t belong,” Bunting wrote. “To deport these students is not only heartbreaking for those of us who know them personally — it also contradicts the very values Vermonters work to instill in our young people,”

A story by Seven Days’ Alison Novak notes that “Elected officials, including state representatives, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) office and state Treasurer Mike Pieciak, have also reached out offering support” to CVSD.

Hmm. Notice any absences there?

Governor Scott, where the hell are you? Do you agree with Bunting that the federal action “contradicts the very values Vermonters work to instill in our young people”? If not, please explain. If so, then SAY SOMETHING.

These deportation orders, as inhumane as they are and as shocking to our consciences, are only the beginning of this week’s parade of bad news.

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Phil Pontificates From His Perch of Privilege

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Our Beloved GovernorTM seems intent on torpedoing his own reputation as a “Nice Guy,” or maybe he’s giving it a thorough stress test to prove that it’s completely unsinkable. He has issued a statement in response to Education Secretary Zoie Saunders’ latest misadventure that simply oozes smugness and the kind of bland reassurance that could only come from a man in an unassailable position of privilege.

In a few short paragraphs, Scott casts himself as The Wisest Man in Vermont, remaining calm when all about him are unreasonably aflutter over Donald Trump’s assault on democracy and the federal government. And he paints Saunders as the victim of “some activists” who fomented “fear and anxiety throughout our education system.”

Yeah, that’s right, it’s not Saunders, who caused this whole ruckus by ordering all superintendents to attest that their policies and curricula were compliant with Trump administration orders — on Friday night, the worst possible time to distribute guidance on a touchy issue — and then barfed all over her shoes trying to walk it back. No, it wasn’t her fault, it was those damn activists. Whose number includes, among others, the associations representing Vermont school boards, principals, and superintendents, plus the teacher’s union.

Well, either the entire professional educational community is included in Scott’s shitlist of “activists,” or they are all easily duped flibbertigibbets who can be whipped into a lather for no reason by unnamed “activists.”

That’s bad enough, but I’m just getting started.

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“A Disturbing Trend of Actions,” You Say

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Fortunately for the delicate balance of democratic government in Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott’s idea of executive overreach isn’t nearly as bad as Donald Trump’s. But that’s kind of like saying the flu is preferable to cancer. You’d rather not get either one, really.

But the governor’s unilateral imposition of new rules for the General Assistance Emergency Housing program prompted a sharp rebuke from the Legislature’s top lawyer. As reported by VTDigger/Vermont Public reporter Carly Berlin, Legislative Counsel director Brynn Hare has deemed Scott’s action “an unconstitutional encroachment on a core function of the Legislature.” Further, she said, his action is “the latest in a disturbing trend of actions by the Administration that flagrantly and unconstitutionally intrude on the authority of the General Assembly.” That trend also includes his appointment of Zoie Saunders as interim Education Secretary after the Senate had rejected her nomination, and his unilateral action authorizing the sale of “Vermont Strong” license plates after the flood of July 2023.

Which is ironic, don’t you think, considering that Scott has been obsessively jealous of the separation of powers when it’s in his interest. He has vetoed a whole bunch of bills on the sole basis that they allegedly intruded on the power of the executive. Well, shoe’s on the other foot now, governor.

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Big Boy, Big Little Toys (UPDATED With Astonishingly Well-Timed April Fools Day Prank)

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The Monday VTDigger feed brings us some not terribly surprising news: That Gov. Phil Scott is apparently enamored of an emerging technology as a way to produce more renewable energy in-state.

Well, some would put quotes around “renewable,” because his gizmo of choice is a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors. See, large-scale wind and solar are just too much for our poor Vermont environment to take, but hey, let’s spread a bunch of mini-nukes around the landscape. What could go wrong?

It was a fine piece of reporting by Digger, written by intern Olivia Gieger*, inspired by a March 21 social media post by the governor (that otherwise seems to have gone unnoticed) touting small reactors as a possible solution to our green-energy problems.

*Insert obligatory “counter” joke here. I’m sure she’s never heard it before.

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Congratulations to Senate Republicans for Making Phil Scott’s Fondest Wish Come True

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Hooray, Phil Scott is going to get what he wants. Again.

Every time there’s an inflection point in the General Assistance Emergency Housing program (d/b/a the motel voucher program), it’s always the same thing. Scott takes a hard line against spending a dime more on vouchers… we get close to a mass unsheltering… and then he does a last-minute walk-back, offering a compromise to keep at least some people in the program.

But he simply cannot include everyone. Some folks just HAVE to be unsheltered. It’s like his one and only bedrock principle when it comes to vouchers. Some folks have gotta lose.

And here we are again. Scott rejected the Legislature’s move to extend winter eligibility rules through June, and later — as he always does — he offered a partial extension, which belies his supposedly principled argument against spending any more money on vouchers.

This is nothing new. So for the rest of this post, my attention turns to the Republican Senate caucus’ role in backstopping the governor, and the deeply misleading press release put out after the vote by caucus leader Sen. Scott Beck.

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Let’s Take a Moment to Marvel at the Dispassionate Reasoning of Vermont Conservatives

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Thankfully, the tide appears to be ebbing on the Great Statehouse Trans PANIC! of 2025. It’s been days since the Vermont Daily Chronicle could gin up any fresh angles on the ridiculous story. Which, as a reminder, featured a group of Christian conservatives whining — inaccurately — that their free speech rights had been trampled by a handful of trans folk dancing around a Statehouse meeting room. As we previously noted, there is no First Amendment right to deliver speech in a given location or on a given medium.

But before we consign this fiasco to the dustbin of history, we should take note of two particularly ridiculous attempts to exploit this mildest of contretemps. First, a tiny extremist “parental rights” group unwittingly exposing the absurdity of its own claims. And second, the head of the Vermont Republican Party claiming that state lawmakers have a solemn duty to maintain a perfect attendance record.

This will involve a bit of exposure to the rantings of SPEAKVT, a group of far-right rabble-rousers in the Essex-Westford school district. The group’s president Marie Tiemann put out a statement about the March 12 “detransitioning” event sponsored by SPEAKVT and the Vermont Family Alliance. Funny thing, her statement is kind of a self-own.

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The Scott Administration Hits a New Low

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Gov. Phil Scott has dug in his heels on the General Assistance emergency housing program, and it’s not a pretty sight. He used his Wednesday news conference to decry the Legislature’s failure to “come to the table,” but the real meaning of that phrase, in his mind, is that they failed to do precisely what he wanted them to do.

I’m sorry, but that’s not coming to the table. That’s jumping up and down on the table and holding your breath until you turn blue.

Look. First, the Legislature adopted a Budget Adjustment Act that included at least 90% of the governor’s proposal plus a few additional items that were almost entirely offset by savings in the Treasurer’s budget. Scott vetoed the bill. The Legislature then passed a new BAA that stripped away almost all their adds on one condition, and only one: That Scott agree to extend winter eligibility rules for the voucher program from April 1 to June 30. By the Legislature’s revised reckoning, the Department of Children and Families already has enough money to make that happen.

And now Scott is stamping his feet and bellowing “No, no, no!”

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Phil Scott’s Continuing Search for an Acceptable Level of Cruelty

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“Governor Nice Guy” is having a bit of a tantrum. The cause: legislative Democrats are making him look bad, and he doesn’t like it.

At issue, naturally, is the General Assistance Emergency Housing program, familiarly known as the motel voucher program. The Legislature passed a Budget Adjustment Act that would have extended winter eligibility rules through the end of June, thus preventing a mass unsheltering when the winter rules expire on April 1. Scott vetoed it, largely because he cannot stand the voucher program and would do absolutely anything to kill it once and for all. Except, you know, proposing an alternative.

Or, as House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Robin Scheu put it, “We have been asking the Governor for four years to develop a plan to transition away from the hotel/motel program and create a long-term solution to homelessness. For four years we have received nothing from the governor or his administration.”

Anyway. Legislative leadership then made a counter-offer: They’re willing to drop virtually all of their (relatively minimal) spending adds from the BAA if the winter eligibility rules are extended. They say the Department of Children and Families already has enough funds to make that happen.

And ‘Governor Nice Guy” has shown them the back of his hand. Nope, not gonna do it.

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