By Curt Peterson When Select Board candidate Andrew Gieda confronted current board members about Killington’s personal property tax at a recent public meeting, it garnered attention. Gieda claimed a large percentage of eligible Killington businesses were not filing their “personal […]
Category: State News
Difficult choices
It was widely known that putting together the next state budget was going to be tight. All the extra federal money that came to Vermont during the pandemic, has previously been appropriated and state revenue growth has slowed. The […]
Governor Scott signs education financing bill H.850
Warns Legislature: more work is needed to control costs Governor Phil Scott signed H.850, an act relating to transitioning education financing to the new system for pupil weighting, on Thursday, Feb. 22. The new law seeks to reduce property tax increases this year, […]
A reality check
During House discussion of H.850 last week, which removes the controversial 5% cap on the equalized homestead rates for education, the chair of the House Ways & Means Committee repeated the obvious: Spending increases generally cause tax increases. And that […]
Legislative update: bills proposed to increase residential housingLegislative update: bills proposed to increase residential housing
Valentine’s Day at the State House this year was surprisingly eventful and romantic. In addition to the usual round of cheer and chocolate in each committee, we celebrated the first wedding of a legislative colleague in many years. State Representative […]
New fish record set in 2023
Vermont Fish & Wildlife announced Monday, Feb. 5, that a Longnose Gar taken by a bowfishing angler in 2023 has been certified as a new state record. In May of 2023, Pennsylvania angler Jeremy Bicking was out bowfishing in the […]
Stop the presses!
It’s no secret that school property taxes are heading higher. In the Dec. 1 letter from the Tax Commissioner, they were estimated to go up by 18.5%, based on a 12% increase in school district spending. That number is now […]
Legislative Update: First flood recover bill
As we say goodbye to our first month of our Legislative Session 2024, bills are beginning to pass and Vermont’s current challenges are being further articulated. Many are flood related. Our first Flood 2023 Recovery bill to pass both chambers […]
Vt gets $1 million in settlement with Publicis over role in opioid epidemic
Submitted Attorney General Charity Clark today announced Feb. 1 that Vermont will receive $1,079,000 as its share of a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in the prescription […]
Scott administration proposes PCB testing slowdown as schools struggle to keep up
By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger More than two years since the Legislature created the PCB testing program, the state has sampled almost a third of Vermont schools built before 1980, when building materials were most likely to contain the toxins. In 35 of those 96 […]