Based on the statute they enacted in 2012, the Vermont Legislature is now supposed to weigh budget decisions by how they affect Vermonters and how well they meet people’s basic needs for things like food, shelter, health, education, and a job that pays a meaningful wage. Read more

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed budget for fiscal 2015 calls for spending $5.6 billion next year, an increase of $288 million over the budget passed for fiscal 2014. The lion’s share of the new spending—62 percent—will be for human services, which is the largest component of Vermont’s budget. Read more

Gov. Peter Shumlin struck a better chord with his Budget Address than he did last year, when it seemed like he wanted to balance the budget on the backs of poor Vermonters. This year the governor talked about protecting vulnerable Vermonters and making “investments that will enhance Vermonters’ quality of life.” Read more

The Census released new information Thursday—pooled from surveys taken during 2010, 2011, and 2012—that paints a discouraging picture about Vermonters’ economic well-being five years after the Great Recession hit. Key Census indicators related to employment, income, and poverty are all worse than they were before the recession. Read more

Human Services Secretary Doug Racine has offered a discouraging assessment of what Vermont can do to address poverty, especially among young children. In an interview published last weekend, Racine described what he called “an evolution in my thinking.” He seems to have given up on reducing childhood poverty, and now says the best the state can do is to try to mitigate the effects. Read more

By Jack Hoffman. This piece first appeared October 29, 2013 in Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. 

In two short sentences earlier this year, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin turned high hopes into bitter disappointment. During the governor’s second inaugural address, optimism rose with his bold announcement that he would “make the largest single investment in early childhood education in Vermont’s history.” Read more

This piece originally appeared in the Vermont School Boards Association’s October 2013 newsletter.

Last year brought good news for Vermont’s 15-year-old school funding system. An extensive study for the Legislature by Lawrence O. Picus and Associates concluded that Vermont provides “equal access to all towns for raising revenues for pre-K-12 education.” Read more

The second annual public budget forums are scheduled to begin this week at various interactive television sites around the state. Forums will be held on October 23 and November 5. Check here for times, locations, and on-line streaming.

The forums mark an important change from the budget process Vermont followed for decades. Read more

Underlying the political fight last session over the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was the fact that thousands of Vermonters work at jobs that don’t pay enough for them to meet their families’ basic needs. Gov. Peter Shumlin tried last winter to cut Vermont’s EITC, complaining that it cost too much money. Read more

The Shumlin Administration will hold two Public Budget Forums—Wednesday, October 23 and Tuesday, November 5—to receive public comments on development of the fiscal 2015 state budget. The forums will be held via interactive television like two giant town meetings from locations around the state. Read more