Recently released Census data are both a wake-up call and a gift for the Shumlin administration and the Legislature.

A wake-up call because the statistics show that middle-income Vermonters are earning less and more of them are slipping into poverty—evidence that things are moving in the wrong direction for Vermonters. Read more

One of the good things to come out of Tropical Storm Irene was seeing the state respond to human needs. Individuals, businesses, government, and other institutions all had a similar reaction to the crisis: they jumped in with both feet and did what they could to help their fellow Vermonters. Read more

Providing a good education for each of its citizens is one of the most important jobs of state government. So it should come as no surprise that we spend a significant amount of money, about 5 to 6 percent of the state’s gross state product, on public education. Read more

“[B]usiness is run for the benefit of its owners, its shareholders, its customers and its employees. It’s not run for the benefit of the country.”  That’s according to venture capitalist and Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Bill Frezza in an NPR interview on Tuesday. Read more

The damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene is clearly evident to anyone driving even a few miles in south-central Vermont. The damage from economic policies of the last 30 years has been harder to spot, but it’s becoming visible in statistics like those released on Thursday by the U.S. Read more

“(Governor) Shumlin says he plans to present a level-funded budget to the Legislature in January,” Bob Kinzel reported on Vermont Public Radio last week.

Level funding: The words suggest two things: no cuts, no increases.  For that reason, politicians love to use them. Read more

Despite the national publicity Vermont received when Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the new Green Mountain Care bill into law, there is still a lot to be done if universal health care is to become a reality here. Funding is one of the biggest unknowns, and that won’t start to take shape for another 18 months or so. Read more

It appears there will be two new studies of Vermont’s education funding system. The Legislature has commissioned one—and a California-based consultant recently won the contract. In addition, two communities in southern Vermont—Dover and Wilmington—have decided to pay for their own study of how their local economies might have been affected by Acts 60 and 68. Read more

One of the justifications for lowering taxes on the rich for the last 30 years has been that their increased wealth would trickle down to the rest of us. We needn’t complain that some are getting bigger slices of pie than others, we’ve been told, because the pie is getting bigger, and we’re all getting a little more. Read more

A new Medicaid study out last week is drawing lots of attention. The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and others are all writing about it. The authors say it is the first randomized study of its kind in 40 years, and it shows significant and positive benefits from providing public health care services for people who can’t afford them. Read more