Dear Editor, After reading the article in the Jan 1 edition about the State/U.S. forest service “considering a back country plan” I felt compelled to remind hunters, skiers, snowboarders, hikers, snowshoe folks, etc, that the National Forest has been, and is open for your exploring enjoyment. As a native Vermonter I’ve spent my entire youth…

By H. Brooke Paige There has been much speculation in the media and on the internet regarding the subject of Vermont’s constitutional requirement that a “joint session” of the Vermont House and Senate elect our next governor. That the newly seated Legislature will be responsible for electing our next governor is a fact of law,…

By the Vermont coalition, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Out of all the states in the U.S., tiny Vermont has one of the highest rates of teen marijuana use. Proponents of legalization say that shows how poorly prohibition of marijuana has worked. As in so many other areas, that view looks at a single moment’s…

By James Haslam This week we witnessed Governor Shumlin giving up his role in Vermont’s move to universal healthcare, as he caved to pressure from big businesses. His misguided decision marks the end of a politician’s ambitious career, but not that of universal, publicly financed healthcare. The governor’s failure to deliver a common sense plan…

By Lee H. Hamilton Recent economic news has been broadly reassuring. Retail sales are strong, November saw the best job gains in three years, the federal deficit is shrinking, the stock market is robust, and the Fed is expressing enough faith in the economy that an interest rate bump next year is considered a certainty.…

Dear Editor, Shumlin has consistently dragged his feet on healthcare. The media called his near defeat in November a referendum on his policies, particularly his signature policy universal healthcare. But the referendum was over his foot dragging. He has consistently failed to present financing or other details for the universal healthcare system not because he…

Dear Editor, Another winter has come, and another disappointment by our town’s entrepreneurs. Have you looked at Killington Road in the evening? The town wanted to create a “sense of arrival,” but the effort from the business community is dismal! Let’s start at the bottom of Killington Road. The two ski shops have nary a…

Dear Editor, My name is Jessica Moore. I live in Burlington and have lived in Vermont all my life. I became a nurse because I wanted to help people, but the real world of health care is far from what I thought it was. I see patients every day who are diagnosed with debilitating and…

Dear Editor, The next session of the legislature starts in a few weeks. There was a very clear message that education and property taxes had reached the limit of Vermonters’ ability to pay. They want action to solve this problem. Governor Shumlin and legislators have heard the message. The cost of health care, clean-up of…

By Thomas P. Salmon In 1958, when I moved from Boston to Bellows Falls, Vermont was something of an economic and political backwater. The economy was stagnant and political loyalties were virtually unchanged since the Civil War. More people moved out than moved in. Not until 1963 did the human population exceed the bovine. Construction…

By Governor Peter Shumlin Earlier this week, I made one of the most difficult decisions of my public life when I announced that I cannot support a move to a publicly-financed health care system in Vermont at this time. I have advocated for such a system for much of my public life, but over the…

By Mike Solimano, president and GM of Killington Resort/Pico Mountain Since I first proposed repealing the sales portion of the 1 percent option tax last fall, I have had countless positive, encouraging conversations with local officials, residents and business owners about how this measure is important for us all. There has also been much debate…

Editor’s note: The following is an open letter addressed to Vermont cities and towns. Killington is the only town in both Rutland or Windsor County to pass such a resolution. Dear Editor, I am writing today to let you know that the city councils or selectboards of 26 Vermont municipalities have passed a resolution calling…

By Lee Hamilton We are one glum country. Trust in the federal government is at historic lows, according to Gallup. More than half of the respondents to an October Rasmussen poll think our best days are behind us. And just a few weeks ago, an NBC/Wall St. Journal poll found that the one thing Americans…

By Rob Roper Here’s the puzzle the legislature must solve regarding education finance reform: How do you lower the cost of educating our kids so we can cut taxes, while maintaining or improving high student outcomes? How do you stay within the lines of the Brigham Supreme Court decision that guarantees all students equal access…