We can’t wait for Congress

Posted by Jack Hoffman on December 2, 2011 at 3:17 pm

Except as further evidence of Congress’s dysfunction, we shouldn’t mourn last week’s failure of the so-called Super Committee. Newt Gingrich’s critique was right on the money: Such a committee never should have been created in the first place. Addressing the country’s fiscal problems is the responsibility of the existing committees of Congress, and the job needs to be done openly, not in secret meetings that only lobbyists can attend.

That…

As General Fund support drops, school taxes rise

Posted by Jack Hoffman on November 30, 2011 at 4:54 pm

Unlike his predecessor, who used to rail at local school officials, Gov. Peter Shumlin sent out a letter to all school board members last week thanking them for their service and for working to hold down education costs. “The fact that overall school spending increases have been basically zero over the past two years proves that school boards, administrators, and voters have been diligent in keeping costs in line,” the…

Reforming how we pay for health care

Posted by Paul Cillo on November 23, 2011 at 4:00 pm

The Shumlin Administration announced this week that they will hold a series of “listening sessions” on how the state should finance Green Mountain Care, Vermont’s soon-be-be reformed health care system.  Since individuals, employers, and the state and federal government are already paying the $5 billion annual cost of Vermont’s health care system, this financing exercise is really about re-arranging how we pay for health care, not trying to find new…