Women in Vermont are being told Proposal 5, the so-called Reproductive Liberty Amendment, will preserve a woman’s right to choose along the lines of Roe v. Wade. This is a highly misleading claim. What the vague language Proposal 5 actually does is give the father of an unborn child an “right to personal autonomy” equal to that of the woman.

Read Proposal 5 and you will see clearly that it mentions neither women, nor abortion. It says,

Six months ago, the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission recommended expanding Vermont’s “sales tax base to all consumer-level purchases of goods and services except healthcare and casual consumer-to-consumer transactions” while reduce the sales tax rate to 3.6%.* Given the chance to consider the proposal, one senator appeared especially eager to consider the proposal.

            Some years ago, faced with the many competing spending demands before the Senate, I would say “all this state needs is a diamond mine”.  That is, with an inexhaustible supply of dollars in the till, all worthwhile projects and programs could be funded - and a quite a few that weren’t worthwhile – without laying higher taxes on our voters.

You may be interested in a new national organization called Country First. It was launched last year by a man I admire, Rep. Adam Kinzinger. He is an eight term central Illinois Republican and was an Air Force pilot in the Iraqi war. He voted to impeach President Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot, and thus earned Trump’s undying enmity. The Democrats in charge of Illinois have just gerrymandered his district, so he will step down from Congress next January to lead Country First.

When we talk about Vermont’s nearly $6 billion unfunded liability, most of us think about the teachers’ and state employees’ pensions. But these two giant liabilities only account for half of the state’s total unfunded liabilities. Where’s the other half?

Thirty five years ago the scientist who set the alarm bells ringing about global warming was Dr. James Hansen, then director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. His testimony in 1988 launched Al Gore on his climate crusade, and Hansen, now retired, has continued as the preeminent guru of the threat of catastrophic climate change. He got himself arrested a few years back in the UK for picketing a coal burning power plant.

As the legislature takes up the Climate Action Plan’s recommendation to electrify pretty much everything in Vermont by the year 2050, including home/business heating and transportation, a big question is how are we supposed to create and deliver enough electricity to actually do that. And, of course, how much might it cost.

Last week, Jared Duval a member of the Climate Council and the Energy Action Network, testified virtually to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Like many business owners I have increasingly relied upon social media to communicate with my customers. I provide my customers and contacts with an informative newsletter and was able to use Facebook to communicate important, timely messages that supplemented the newsletter.

           On January 5 Gov. Phil Scott delivered an upbeat State of the State message. He declared that though Vermont has many unmet needs  -  his leading example was a “desperate need for more people and workers.” - “anything is possible”.