This commentary is by Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP.

March is a month of warm sunny afternoons, followed by bitter cold nights. Those kind of extremes that are wonderful for sugaring — but terrible for the roads. Many of us who live on, or travel through dirt roads know that they are beginning to show their wear and tear and are already in urgent need of grading. Our weather is tough on our infrastructure. But the condition of even some of our paved highways and critical bridges are also in need of repair.

That is why Gov. Phil Scott has made one of his top priorities of the budget to use the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity given to our state to pull down a 3-to-1 match in federal funds to do some much-needed infrastructure repair. The Governor’s budget outlined nearly $79 Million of State funds that we can leverage to bring in at least $341 Million in federal aid. This would allow us to secure transportation projects into FY26 using one-time money for one-time upgrade costs.

Paul Dame, chairman of the Vermont GOP

There are few things that provide such an equally-distributed improvement in the lives of Vermonters like maintaining our transportation infrastructure. And getting $341M in value for a cost of only $79M to Vermont taxpayers ought to get concessions from even the thriftiest of yankees among us. It just makes good sense. It’s something we all use, we all badly need, and it’s never been more affordable than it is now. Waiting might make it harder to finish the projects if we don’t start now.

But the Democrat Super-majority has their heads filled with a lot of other fancies that are putting these funds at risk of reallocation to other pet projects. Last week was the cross over deadline which meant that bills had to get approved by their committee or wait until next year. All of those bills that spend state money still need to go to the appropriations committee, so this week becomes the financial pressure cooker where the money committees have to figure out which programs will get the funding they desire, and which will get left behind.

Despite Gov. Scott advancing a paid leave program that would cost taxpayers nothing, Montpelier Democrats are still trying to propose a new mandatory paid leave program. Despite not having enough electricians or other trades workers to complete the upgrades, Montpelier Democrats still want to advance the Unaffordable Heat Act which could raise unpopular taxes on fuel consumers to spend on certain renovation projects. Despite drastically cutting the supply of Pre-k programs through additional regulations a few years ago, Montpelier Democrats are also trying to create a band-new Pre-K program that would increase the pay of current workers, without expanding the access to more rural parts of the state. And the list goes on and on. There are a number of big ticket brand-new programs Democrats are pushing forward, and those will either have to take money away from less sexy, but more pragmatic efforts, like roads and bridges, or they will require new taxes at a time when Vermonters are already struggling to get by.

It’s time for our government to get back to basics. Democrats have been on a push for over 20 years to constantly expand the scope of work that our state government does, and in so doing we are at the point of diverting our focus into many newer, smaller, less predictable projects, and we have neglected the central purposes for too long. This has become a symptom of nearly every field Democrats have expanded in to.

Parents are concerned by the explosion of sexually-charged content in school libraries, and various forms of social conformity in school — but at the same time our students are falling behind in basic math & reading skills. FTX was pushing for all kind of progressive ideals and candidates — but failed at basic accounting to protect their customer assets. It seems the same may have been true with the recent bank failures caring more about DEI policies and less about basic risk management. Burlington’s city council has experimented with de-funding their police department, and discourage officer with a new oversight board – but downtown businesses feel like they’re lacking basic safety measures, and it has caused some retailers to leave town. As Democrats push for our government and other institutions to be a jack of all trades, we have lost our mastery and focus on the essentials that government has to provide because no one else can.

We’ve got to put the horse before the cart. What good will new subsidies for electric cars do if our bridges are near collapsing and our roads are crumbling?

This coming week Vermont Republicans will be working in the legislature to keep the focus where it belongs, on the government’s core competencies, and Gov. Phill Scott has made a reasonable case that our number one priority ought to be taking advantage of the incredible opportunity afforded to us to make the kind of predictable, measurable long-term improvements that have the best and most reliable benefit for the most number of Vermonters. Republicans are ready to get to work this week to put the important things first.