After almost a decade at the helm of our state government, Governor Phil Scott’s budget address laid bare the fact that Vermont is, in many ways, worse off than it was ten years ago when he came into office. Instead of offering a proactive vision, innovation, or creativity, he delivered another budget address of finger-pointing and stop-gap solutions that do not come close to solving Vermont’s most urgent challenges.
In this time of federal attacks and never-ending crises caused by President Trump, we need Governor Scott to protect Vermonters and work with the legislature on systemic policies and investments that ensure we have resilient communities. This week during his budget address, the Governor wouldn’t even name President Trump, let alone provide a budget that protects Vermont from Trump’s agenda of supporting the ultra rich, corporations, and fossil fuel companies.
While Governor Scott may believe that standing up to Trump is “political posturing” that won’t change anything, we expect our state’s Chief Executive to be a stronger leader and for his budget to reflect a willingness to put Vermont’s values over the federal Republican agenda.
Below we will highlight some of the areas of the budget that are falling short by doubling down on short-term fixes in housing, transportation, and energy.
Transportation
The Governor’s transportation funding idea is a non-starter. His proposal to divert money from the Education Fund to prop up the Transportation Fund is not a solution; it’s a problematic stopgap measure. The T-Fund’s $33 million shortfall is the direct result of years of his administration’s failure to put forward a long-term, sustainable funding solution. It represents years of under-prioritizing the Transportation Fund, which is already causing real harm to Vermonters as transit services, road and bridge repairs, and safe street projects are being cut.
At the same time, because Vermont is failing to meet its required 20 percent federal match, we are leaving millions of dollars in federal transportation funding on the table — money that could be used to fix roads, expand transit, and improve safety across the state.
Shifting funds from one overstressed system to another does nothing to address these structural failures. It merely pits essential public priorities against each other while delaying the hard work of building a durable, long-term revenue solution for transportation. Vermonters deserve a sustainable transportation funding solution that aligns funding with our modern infrastructure needs.
Housing
On housing, the Governor did acknowledge the extensive work done in recent years to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in housing, including allocating funding for critical partners like the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Downtown and Village program, as well as enactment of the HOME Act and creation of programs like VHIP.
However, on housing policy, it was disappointing that the Governor continues to focus on trying to undermine the important balance struck in Act 181, the Act 250 modernization bill. In particular, the Governor presented the deeply misguided idea to repeal the Road Rule. The Road Rule exists to prevent the proliferation of long, private roads that fragment forests, and drive expensive sprawl into some of Vermont’s most sensitive and undeveloped landscapes.
The Road Rule exists to prevent the proliferation of long, private roads that fragment forests, and drive expensive sprawl into some of Vermont’s most sensitive and undeveloped landscapes. Blaming the Road Rule for impeding housing development is just plain wrong. In reality, the Road Rule is likely to have little impact on building the new homes Vermont needs. The Road Rule represents Vermont values: ensuring that Vermont’s critical natural resources are at least considered when building long roads deep into our cherished forests.
By contrast, effectively implementing Act 181 represents a truly transformative opportunity for housing. By modernizing Act 250, encouraging smart growth, and aligning land-use policy with where infrastructure already exists, Act 181 can help spur housing in and near our downtowns, village centers, and designated growth areas.
Climate Action and Energy Affordability
The Governor’s climate and energy proposals fell far short of what we need to be doing. In his first budget address following the release of a broadly supported Climate Action Plan, the Governor ignored both the state’s obligation and opportunity to help Vermonters move away from price-volatile and polluting fossil fuels.
We all agree Vermonters are paying too much in energy costs – but most of those costs are from heating and transportation. Rather than addressing these drivers, the Governor’s climate budget proposal centers on bringing back nuclear energy. After the decades it took to close Vermont Yankee, and with no plan of what to do with nuclear waste, we were alarmed by his proposal to make it easier to site new nuclear facilities and to import nuclear waste from out-of-state. Further, failing to focus on heating and transportation means we are not doing enough to help more Vermonters access clean technologies like electric vehicles and heat pumps — which will save them money over the long term. Instead, his proposal would keep more people tethered to expensive and harmful 20th-century fossil fuel technology.
The Governor also failed to fund a modest but important $800,000 investment to establish a greenhouse gas reporting program, one of the top ten priorities identified in the Climate Action Plan. This data will be pivotal to allowing the state to understand what fuels are being used now, and identify how we can best help Vermonters transition to better alternatives. In December, the Vermont Climate Council overwhelmingly supported this program – including every Scott appointee and every other member of the Council, except the fossil fuel representative. Failing to fund this program will leave Vermonters without fundamental information to build a more cost-effective and resilient energy future.
At a time when Vermonters are grappling with an acute housing shortage, rising energy costs, and worsening climate impacts, this budget acknowledges many of the challenges we all see before us – but unfortunately, Governor Scott does not have the vision our state urgently needs.
Vermonters can’t afford the Governor’s short-sighted approach–we need legislators to come together to create the more affordable, healthier and more resilient Vermont we deserve.