Vermont, along with many other states, still hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession, but it’s not too soon to start preparing for the next slump. The problem in the last recession—as in the recessions of 1981, 1990, and 2001—was that the economy slowed and tax revenues fell at the same time Vermonters were turning to state government for help. Read more

Gov. Peter Shumlin drew cheers and then sighs in Montpelier last week when he called for a major expansion of child care subsidies for Vermont families but proposed paying for the expansion by cutting earned income tax credits for working families. Read more

For the second time in recent weeks, Gov. Peter Shumlin has proposed balancing the state budget on the backs of some of Vermont’s poorest citizens. With the latest move, the governor who says he’s adamantly opposed to raising broad-based taxes would effectively raise income taxes on those in the lowest income brackets. Read more

Vermont political leaders have a challenge this session: How to move to Obamacare without hurting low- and moderate-income Vermonters who are currently covered through the Vermont Health Access Plan (VHAP) and Catamount Health, two state-supported health care programs.

The state plans will be discontinued in 2014, when Obamacare kicks in and requires everyone to have health insurance. Read more

On January 24, Gov. Peter Shumlin will make public his proposed fiscal 2014 budget in an address to the Legislature.

Many things are sure to be familiar: the ceremony of the joint session of the House and Senate, the governor explaining his plan to address the projected $50 million to $75 million deficit without raising new revenue, comments in the press from legislative leaders and others. Read more

The Vermont business community missed an opportunity this week to make a positive difference, serving not just the public good but their own good as well. Instead, the business representatives on the Sales and Use Tax Study Committee did the predictable thing: they voted to oppose a tax. Read more

Vermont’s transportation infrastructure is falling into disrepair, and the state needs to spend a quarter of a billion dollars this year alone to keep it from getting worse. So says vtdigger.com in a story about a draft report accepted last Friday by the Transportation Finance Committee. Read more

It’s been barely a week since the administration held its public budget hearings, and there has been no analysis yet of what is needed to “address the needs of the people of Vermont” for the coming year. Nevertheless, Gov. Peter Shumlin said in a Vermont Public Radio interview this week that new taxes were off the table and that cuts alone should be used to close the $50 -$70 million budget gap currently projected for fiscal 2014.  Read more

The Shumlin administration’s scheduled Public Budget Forums—today and Monday—provide an important new opportunity for citizen participation in the state budget process. Until today, there has been no way for Vermonters to weigh in on the development of the governor’s budget proposal. Read more

Vermont’s fiscal 2014 budget development process is officially under way. And in what has become the new normal, the Shumlin administration is asking its agency managers to cut their budgets.

Fiscal 2014 begins on July 1, 2013; this budget will occupy the Legislature’s attention beginning in January. Read more