By Emerson Lynn Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, has introduced a bill to create a Community College Scholarship Program that would provide tuition-free scholarships for Vermont residents attending CCV. It would, from the outset, require a $6 million appropriation. That’s a […]
Category: Op – Ed
Time to invest in state tourism
By Amy Spear Tourism is a significant economic driver for many of Vermont’s rural communities. Visitors spend more than $2.5 billion in Vermont each year, and the tourism industry employs more than 32,000 Vermonters. The tax revenue generated by the […]
How will Vermonters afford this agenda?
By Rob Roper The Vermont Legislature returns in January with a long list of daunting challenges, all with potentially astronomical price tags for Vermonters, who are already some of the most highly taxed people in the United States. Among […]
No, Mr. Trump, all is not well
By Angelo Lynn Contrary to Trump’s juvenile tweet in the wake of Iran’s missile attack on two U.S. military bases in Iraq that “all is well… so far,” any realistic assessment of America’s position in the Middle East over the […]
How presidents get their facts
By Lee H. Hamilton Here’s a basic truth about people who make decisions on public policy: they rarely have all the facts they want. Over the years, I’ve sat in countless meetings in which, after we’d reached a sticking point, […]
The president is on trial; so is the Republican Senate
By Sen. Jeff Flake Editor’s note: As this country enters a new decade and tries to put the first two tumultuous decades of this new century behind us, Americans face a peril unknown in the country’s 220 year history: a […]
We need a progressively funded, union-based Green New Deal
By David Van Deusen As president of the 10,000 member Vermont AFL-CIO (and as a former organizer with the Sierra Club), it was with keen interest that I read the recommendations of the Transportation and Climate Initiative. This group, representing […]
The case for impeachment is a case for our democracy
By Angelo Lynn In recent impeachment hearings, during which House Democrats called on three judicial scholars for their constitutional interpretation of what acts would be grounds for impeachment, the evidence was overwhelming that President Trump’s attempted bribery of Ukraine’s president […]
Is Vermont’s DPS waging war on the state’s solar industry?
By Angelo Lynn In a little noticed Department of Public Service review of the state’s current net-metering structure, the DPS recommends to the Public Utility Commission that the net-metering rate be reduced from the current 17 cents per kWh to […]
We need to focus on our business environment
By Rob Roper Gov. Phil Scott recently took some heat from the media over a statement he made following the announcement by Energizer that they would be closing their Bennington plant and moving its operations to Wisconsin. The governor said: […]