PUTNEY — Vermont Democrats are working hard to keep the chaos in Washington, D.C. from seeping into the state's political landscape.
The unbalanced budget that Governor Phil Scott has tried to foist on Vermonters, which would also raise property taxes by 7 cents per $100 in valuation, is making it harder to discern differences among the various Trump proposals raining chaos on our nation and our state.
In the campaign, candidate Scott offered a moderate theme and spoke of being able to work with the Democratic majorities. He also did an effective job of keeping hidden the details on his policy preferences.
Now that he has ascended to the governor's office, voters who trusted his words of moderation are seeing something different in his political bent. The details of his budget look as if they were written by Paul Ryan.
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Scott's budget proposal in January started with the premise that all school boards that had been working on school budgets for months should tear them up and start over - a move that was disrespectful, to say the least.
School board volunteers work hard and long to balance the realities of protecting the interests of taxpayers and ensuring that we value our students enough to give them the best education possible. In each town, board members give their time to scratch out budgets that will pass the scrutiny of their neighbors.
On this Town Meeting day, 90 percent of school budgets were passed, meaning that voters rejected the governor's call. That proves that Vermonters value and respect their children's education and the local school boards that constructed the budgets they approved.
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Vermonters want leadership that is better connected to the grassroots than the radical, rarified air of policy emanating from the Trump Congress.
Trying to move ahead to present a fiscally responsible and compassionate budget, Vermont Democrats reached out recently and invited the governor to work together, offer some new ideas, and find common ground.
That invitation was not only rejected, with no new ideas ideas offered. A gag order then came from the governor for his staff not to speak with legislators about the budget.
The kind of chaos that results from not working together hurts our our state economy and helps no one.
Vermonters expect the legislative and executive branches to work together for our better interests. We hope that this roadblock from the administration is temporary and that the governor's campaign rhetoric of moderation and working together becomes reality.
We Democrats in the Statehouse are working to move us forward on solutions to Vermont's challenges. We reject the chaos coming from Washington and feel Vermont can be an island of sensibility amid the waves of chaos rolling out of D.C.
We invite all Vermonters to join us in setting that tone of moderation and stability and in moving us toward a better future as a strong, healthy Vermont.