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Town Meeting 2025
How It All Works
Quick civics refresher. The Legislature takes an (unpaid) break for Town Meeting week. We're eight weeks into a scheduled 18-week session.
By the end of the week after break, bills must be passed out of all committees except Appropriations to be ready for a vote on the floor and to "cross over" from House to Senate and vice versa.
Then bills must pass committees and floor votes in the other body. Differences between the two versions, if any, must be worked out after that.
So as of Town Meeting break, nothing is final. But much is in process—a long process! This report will focus on House initiatives.
Leading Issues
Priorities of the majority Democratic caucus:
Education system structure and funding
Affordable and accessible health care
Housing permitting and financing
Climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation
Accountable, effective, efficient government
Of course we also must balance the budget— $9 billion for fiscal 2026. One-third of that is federal, the dependability of which is highly uncertain.
Let's take that priority list in reverse order, starting with my committee… See my Town Meeting Report.
Caledonian-Record issue ad, Oct. 30 & Nov. 2, 2024, and still relevant
O Democracy!
Comedian Lily Tomlin famously remarked that "reality is a collective hunch."
Whether or not that is very profound philosophically, it does shine a light on our current struggle with political polarization. The hunch is collective when it is based on a set of facts we all can see, regardless of the conclusions we draw from them. That shared set of facts seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Worse, some political leaders have decided to intentionally undermine facts. The former President's spokesperson Kellyanne Conway referred to "alternative facts."
What's dangerous about this is that the strategy of subverting observable facts tears at the fabric of self-government.
Any form of government relies on public acceptance for its legitimacy. Monarchs rely on rigid social order; dictators rely on force; tyrants rely on fear.
Democracy relies on an idea: that however much we disagree, we have in common ideals of fairness and the rule of law. These ideals in turn rest on trust that facts are not just a matter of opinion, but actually matter.
Whoever wins the election on Nov. 5, half the voting public will feel the government does not represent them. The assault on facts has weakened the legitimacy of our democratic republic.
Vermont's small size insulates us somewhat. But the assault on facts infects even Vermont's political discourse. Negative ads and personal attacks ratchet up each election cycle.
This year the relationship between the Governor and the Legislature has grown far more partisan. The Governor has been campaigning vigorously to defeat Democratic Senate and House candidates, raising money and giving personal endorsements.
Beyond healthy vigor, we have seen relentless finger-pointing about the "super-majority," as though voters didn't intend to elect these legislators; unfounded claims about the Affordable Heat Act; and most jarring, exploiting—actually stoking—anger about education property taxes.
National politics come to Vermont.
I dearly hope we can pull back from the abyss of negativity, and debate issues on their merits and the actual—not "alternative"— facts. Our democracy depends on it.
See Archive for more articles.