Once again, Republican Gov. Phil Scott rang the alarm on the Democratic-controlled Legislature’s spending and taxing proposals at his weekly press conference in his Statehouse ceremonial office Wednesday.
He was addressing, of course, the House’s new taxing proposals to raise corporate income taxes and personal income taxes on Vermonters earning more than $500,000 annually. If passed, the large majority of the new taxes would take effect in Fiscal Year 2026.
But it’s more than those bills, the governor said.
He pointed to last session’s payroll tax increase, set to take effect in July, which helped to fund Vermont’s child care overhaul. He raised this year’s statewide property tax balloon — an issue he said the Legislature should be “laser-focused” on solving, but “I’m not seeing us doing anything about it this year.” He mentioned laws like the Clean Heat Standard and Raise the Age, the consequences of which were not thought through, he said.
“We hear from Vermonters every single day who are more than just concerned,” Scott said from his podium. “Some are angry and some are just plain scared. They simply cannot take any more.”
And this week, to drive his message home, he brought backup.
The governor passed the microphone to local small business owner Amanda Shangraw, who owns and operates Williamstown-based leather goods manufacturer Bergamot + Amor alongside her husband, Peter Shangraw.
From payroll taxes, to income taxes, to property taxes, to permitting fees, Amanda Shangraw told reporters that those costs of doing business in Vermont are “bankrupting our small business.”
“I’m here today because I voted for a large majority of those of you in office,” Shangraw said, directing her comments to legislators. “I’m feeling really let down, and I’m hurting, and I’m feeling really defeated just like thousands of other Vermonters and small business owners.”
Not long before the governor’s press conference, more than two dozen House Republicans held their own, also decrying their Democratic colleagues’ revenue proposals.
Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, called out the numbers: “In the last 10 years, personal income tax receipts in the state of Vermont have grown 54%, sales tax receipts have grown 65% and property taxes have increased by 53%. Corporate income tax has nearly tripled in the last 10 years.”
“And yet, we’re being told that we still don’t have enough money,” Beck said. “Clearly, we do not have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.”
It’s been a dynamic evident under the Golden Dome for as long as Scott has governed as a member of Montpelier’s minority party, but is on steroids this year: The Legislature advances its priorities despite the governor’s express discontent, with the hope that they have the votes to override his veto. All the while, the governor takes jabs at the Legislature’s majority from his podium every week, accusing lawmakers of not listening to him or their constituents.
“Bipartisanship isn’t a one-way street,” Scott said on Wednesday. “But it has been in this building, it seems like, ever since I got here.”
I asked the governor: Are you still holding meetings with legislative leadership on a weekly basis to hash out your differences?
Scott: “We have them on the calendar every week, yes.”
Me: “Do you go?”
Scott: “I do.”
Me: “Are they?”
Scott: “Not always, but there’s a lot of floor time at this point. I mean, I get it. I mean, they’re busy. It’s hard to carve out time to meet with me.”
I asked the governor if he thinks he is talking with House and Senate leadership often enough.
“Well, until there’s something to talk about, until there’s some reasonableness, I don’t know what we’ll talk about,” he replied.
— Sarah Mearhoff
On the move
The House voted Tuesday to give preliminary approval to a bill that would expand access to federal health insurance programs for Vermonters up to age 21, pregnant residents and older Vermonters.
The bill, H.721, also directs state officials to examine the possibility of a more ambitious expansion of its Medicaid program, one that would make thousands more Vermont residents eligible for publicly funded insurance programs.
“The cost of health care impacts all Vermonters, leading to delayed care, stressing people’s livelihoods and increasing personal debt,” Rep. Lori Houghton, D-Essex Junction, the bill’s primary sponsor, said on the House floor Tuesday night. “H.721 builds on a successful insurance program — Vermont Medicaid — so our most vulnerable young adults, pregnant individuals and older Vermonters can receive the care they need.”
— Peter D’Auria
Also on Tuesday, the House advanced H.612, a bill that would make a slate of changes to Vermont’s laws on cannabis. The bill would change how highly potent, hemp-derived products are regulated by the Cannabis Control Board, would allow adult-use retailers to apply for a special license to sell medical-grade products, and would give the board and towns greater authority to regulate the siting of outdoor cannabis cultivation, among other measures.
— Shaun Robinson
The House also granted preliminary approval Tuesday to H.585, a bill that would adjust the types of state pension plans for which certain sheriffs and deputy sheriffs are eligible. It also would reduce the salary that the state pays a county sheriff if that sheriff’s police officer certification is permanently revoked. As it stands, that measure would apply only to John Grismore, the embattled sheriff of Franklin County.
— Shaun Robinson
The Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would take the first steps to giving the Green Mountain Care Board authority over prescription drug prices.
The bill, S.98, would direct the Care Board, which oversees various aspects of Vermont health care, to create a plan “to regulate the cost of prescription drugs in Vermont.” The bill would create two permanent positions at the board to draft and implement that plan.
If the legislation passes, the Care Board would finalize a plan by January 2026.
— Peter D’Auria
The Senate also approved S.114, which establishes the Psychedelic Therapy Advisory Working Group to examine the use of psychedelics such as psilocybin in health treatments and to consider whether the state should establish a program allowing for their therapeutic use. A previous version of the bill contemplated decriminalization.
— VTD Editors
Visit our 2024 Bill tracker for the latest updates on major legislation we are following.
Bragging rights
We won! Final Reading took first place in the “Outstanding Newsletter” category in the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s annual awards competition held last weekend. It was one of 12 awards for excellence in journalism that VTDigger.org took overall.
NENPA represents more than 450 news organizations throughout New England, big and small, and the newsletter category was open to all of them. This year’s competition covered our work during the 2023 legislation session, when Statehouse bureau chief Sarah Mearhoff was lead writer.
Other frequent contributors to the newsletter were also honored for their individual work last year including this year’s Final Reading co-writer, Shaun Robinson, as well as reporters Emma Cotton, Peter D’Auria, Auditi Guha, Erin Petenko and Ethan Weinstein and photographer Glenn Russell.
— VTD Editors
What we’re reading
Vermont seeks to implement new federal health care reform program, VTDigger
Lawmakers weigh a program that would invest money for low-income youths, Seven Days
The challenges of living on a fixed income in a state where the taxes keep going up, Vermont Public
