A harder road for school construction

Posted by Julie Lowell on March 11, 2020 at 12:29 pm | * Comments (5)

Last Tuesday, communities across Vermont voted on school budgets (among other things). Historically, Vermonters have provided the financial resources that school boards have indicated our kids need to thrive in school—and preliminary results this year suggest voters passed over 90 percent of the school budgets up for approval on Town Meeting Day.

In addition to voting yea or nay on the annual school budget, five school districts—Barre Unified Union, Canaan Schools, Champlain Valley, Slate Valley Unified, and South Burlington—faced a second separate school budget decision: whether to fund school construction needs.

Legislature overruled the governor, raised the minimum wage

Posted by Stephanie Yu on February 27, 2020 at 3:32 pm | Comments Off on Legislature overruled the governor, raised the minimum wage

There was a celebratory feeling in the air in Montpelier on Tuesday after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto of S.23, the bill to increase Vermont’s minimum wage. The governor rejected the bill despite the support of nearly three-quarters of Vermonters for the increase.

In the end, the Legislature decided that 40,000 of the lowest-paid Vermonters needed the raise.

While many policies that get discussed in the State House are complicated and can be controversial, this isn’t one of them—at least outside the building. This policy is popular and straightforward because Vermonters know it puts money in the pockets of those who need it most: working parents, older adults, and the disproportionate share of women in low-wage jobs.

Build on Vermont’s strengths

Posted by Jack Hoffman on February 24, 2020 at 1:46 pm | * Comments (1)

U.S. News & World Report is out with its latest “Best States” rankings. Vermont was number five last year, behind Washington, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Utah. The report adds a new perspective to some of the debates we hear in Montpelier—about Vermont’s strengths, its weaknesses, and what matters.

U.S. News looks at a lot of factors to make its comparisons. They include equality indicators, like the distribution of income and the employment gap for people with disabilities. They look at the unemployment rate and the growth of the gross state product, but also the gap between men and women in workforce participation.

Overall, Vermont’s fifth-place showing was pretty good. And while we don’t want to ignore the areas where we’re falling short, the state is best served if we focus on, build on, and promote our strengths.

40,000 Vermonters need a raise now

Posted by Stephanie Yu on February 11, 2020 at 2:11 pm | Comments Off on 40,000 Vermonters need a raise now

Yesterday, the governor vetoed the Legislature’s proposed minimum wage increase. The bill would raise the wage to $11.75 an hour in 2021 and again in 2022 to $12.55, from the current wage of $10.96. While the bill falls short of the most ambitious plans passed by the Legislature in recent years, it’s a big step forward for working Vermonters, and it should be enacted. Read more

Yes, all kids deserve a decent start

Posted by Jack Hoffman on February 5, 2020 at 2:38 pm | * Comments (1)

There’s a lot in the budget the governor presented last month to the Legislature—and to the public. It’s a proposal to spend more than $6.3 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The detailed budget book is over 1,350 pages, and that doesn’t count the supporting documents.

Buried in all of that information is one number that is hard to understand: a saving of $449,704 in the Reach Up program, which helps to pay for food, clothing, and housing for children in low-income families that can’t afford these basic necessities.

The saving comes from a projected drop in the Reach Up caseload. More than 6,000 families turned to the program for help during and immediately after the recession. But now participation is down to about 3,500, and the forecast is that the number of families needing help will “decrease modestly through 2020 and stagnate in 2021.”

That all seems to make sense—fewer people, less cost—until you dig into another document the governor included in his budget package.

The governor’s U-turn

Posted by Jack Hoffman on January 23, 2020 at 4:07 pm | Comments Off on The governor’s U-turn

Give Gov. Phil Scott credit for having the humility to reverse course and abandon a bad idea. A few days after announcing a plan to exempt young adults from the Vermont income tax, he scrapped the proposal. He changed his mind when he found out it would cost $14 million in lost revenue. Read more

Statement on Gov. Phil Scott’s Jan. 21, 2020 Budget Address

Posted by Jack Hoffman on January 21, 2020 at 4:41 pm | * Comments (1)

Gov. Phil Scott used his Budget Address today to lay out a clear vision of the role state government can play to improve the lives of Vermonters. Child care, transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, climate change, job creation, mental health care and suicide prevention, small town revitalization, and refugee resettlement were just some of the items on his long list of worthy targets for public investment.

He rightly identified the challenges Vermont faces and even seemed eager to the take on the task, as the head of state government, to solve these problems.

But the speech also contained a major contradiction. In the governor’s view, taxes—the means for making these critical investments in the state’s future—make the state unaffordable. So while much of his address outlined modest additional funding for programs and services that governor said had shown proven results, he said it all could be done without raising taxes. In fact, he make several proposals to cut taxes.

Vermont does face many new challenges, and it’s going to take additional effort if we’re going to address them in time to make a difference—especially for the youngest Vermonters. State and local taxes in Vermont, as a share of the economy, haven’t changed in 25 years. Today’s problems won’t be solved without major new public investments. Major investments were nowhere to be found in the governor’s address.

Play State of the State Bingo; Win free stuff!

Posted by Sarah Lyons on January 8, 2020 at 6:17 pm | Comments Off on Play State of the State Bingo; Win free stuff!

2:00pm Thursday, January 9, 2020

Vermont faces challenges of all sorts. The State of the State address is an opportunity for the governor to share with Vermonters his assessment of the state’s successes and challenges over the past year and to outline his proposals to the Legislature. We’ll be listening closely to what the governor says—and to what he doesn’t say. We hope all Vermonters will be listening as well to this important speech.

Listen along with us and play State-of-the-State Bingo! The first three winners get a Public Assets t-shirt or hat.

Public investments move the state forward

Posted by Jack Hoffman on January 6, 2020 at 3:22 pm | * Comments (1)

As legislative leaders prepare to tackle pressing issues confronting Vermont, the Scott administration has signaled that they shouldn’t be looking to state government for any more help. If the Legislature wants to combat climate change, expand the availability of high-quality child care, or extend paid family and medical leave benefits, any new investments will have to come from existing programs because state government is doing all it can do.

At least that seems to be the clear implication of the letter sent early last month to House Speaker Mitzi
Johnson and Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe.

Equitable education for all Vermont children

Posted by Stephanie Yu on November 4, 2019 at 1:56 pm | Comments Off on Equitable education for all Vermont children

Voices for Vermont’s Children’s annual conference Just Systems and Thriving Communities, for Every Child and Youth is this Wednesday, November 6, at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier. The conference will focus on economic security, child protection, and health and education. Voices is a longtime partner of Public Assets Institute, particularly in the area of ensuring equitable educational outcomes for all Vermont’s kids. Read more