By Lt. Governor Phil Scott At the start of every legislative session since being elected Lt. Governor, I’ve urged legislators to evaluate every proposal based on whether it helps our economy, improves efficiencies or reduces costs. If the answer to any of those questions was “yes,” then I suggested they put it on the front…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin For most of the last two decades, Vermont’s prison inmate population has been rising. Between 1997 and 2008, it grew by 86 percent. Projections made in 2007 said that Vermont’s inmate population would grow to 2,619 by November 2015. After years of work to reform Vermont’s criminal justice system that trend…

By Lee H. Hamilton You can understand why President Obama and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle sought to cast their end-of-October budget deal in the best possible light. They avoided a potentially catastrophic national default. They reduced the possibility of a government shutdown. And they raised the debt ceiling until March, 2017,…

By Rebecca Holcombe and Scott Giles Fifty years ago, on Nov. 8, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Higher Education Act of 1965 into law. This historic act marked our first commitment to universal access to higher education, and represented one of the great achievements of the Civil Rights movement. Reflecting on the momentous occasion, President…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin When we talk about renewable energy, the focus is often on the project–the solar panel or the wind turbine that allow us to harness local, Vermont-grown energy to power homes and business around the state. But if we dig deeper we find that renewable energy projects are about more than the…

New report outlines the impacts By Julia Purdy At its Town Meeting in Killington recently, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns came out in opposition to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Vermont. Apparently they have read the latest report, “The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: the Impact  Vol. 3,” issued in August by…

By Steve Costello As many of your readers may recall, I enjoy perusing “Aesop’s Fables” from time to time, and look for lessons that apply to life, work and community. Three recent events, a speech by incoming Rutland Police Chief Brian Kilcullen, a conversation with filmmaker Art Jones, and an Associated Press article about Rutland’s…

By Rob Roper A recent article about the new school district consolidation law, Act 46, quoted a state legislator whose reaction seems to be representative of many parents, local school board members, students, and law makers who value and hope to preserve Vermont’s 150-year-old school choice tuitioning system: “I don’t think we can still have…

By Wendy Reese As an appointed Pittsfield Select Board member, one of my greatest concerns in our town is dissemination of information, particularly when it comes to town business. While we post about meetings in three public locations and we have the minutes and agenda on the town website, you have to be proactive to…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin When I came to office in 2011, I made expanding broadband Internet access to every last mile a priority. No one thought achieving that goal would be easy, especially since previous governors had set similar goals, only to fall short in the end. The same features that make Vermont an ideal…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin Last week, the Vermont Highway Safety Alliance held a rally for safe roads on the state house lawn. In attendance were bicyclists, motorists, equestrians, motorcyclists and pedestrians and more than a few who could claim to be all of the above. The rally was a reminder of the recent tragedies we’ve…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin A year and a half ago, I stood up before Vermonters and devoted my State of the State address to speaking about the opiate and heroin crisis affecting our state. Despite our best efforts since, this is not a battle we are winning. Now the Food and Drug Administration is recklessly…

By Gov. Peter Shumlin It is all too easy for those of us who care about protecting our environment, combating climate change, and preserving a sustainable planet for our kids and grandkids to lose hope that we can win the fight. At the national level, powerful fossil fuel interests and their climate-denier allies in Congress…

In 2014 Vermont launched an effort to bring health care providers together to better coordinate care for patients, reduce unnecessary tests, improve health outcomes, and save money in a health care system that is spending it faster than Vermonters can afford. And guess what? It’s working. Earlier this week we received the year-one results showing…

By Steve Costello A scream piercing the darkness on an undeveloped section of my childhood street was my introduction to the topic of rape and domestic violence. I was eight or nine years old, and my initial reaction was to recoil in fear as a second and third shriek cut through the night. My father’s…