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

It has often been repeated that no man, woman or child is safe while the legislature is in session. Well, for better or worse the Vermont legislature ended their formal session over the weekend. This session was marked by one of the most belligerent displays of power many Vermonters have ever seen in their life. Despite Governor Scott winning a staggering 70% of the vote in his reelection, and once again taking the top spot among America’s most popular governors, the Democrats in the supermajority patently ignored the concerns that came from Gov. Scott, people who work in his administration, Republican legislators, and — most importantly — hundreds, perhaps thousands of Vermonters who reached out to their so-called representatives.

Paul Dame, chairman of the Vermont GOP

The way that this year’s cast of Progressive Democrats have squandered public funds and public trust has been a gross disappointment. Governor Scott’s administration was able to deliver all of our state’s services under budget, leaving over $100 Million in projected surplus. But the Democrats spent all that. They are also spending another $22 Million in DMV fees that the DMV never asked for. In addition to that, they will be adding a new $130 Million child care program that will add a first-ever payroll tax to the paycheck of every worker in Vermont. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they also set in motion a plan to add another 70 cents to $4 per gallon to the fuel bill of tens of thousands of Vermonters through a new tax on home heating fuel.

After the 2022 elections Democrats purged many of their more sensible and centrist candidates either through retirements, or in their statewide primaries, and replaced them with activists who care more about messaging through legislation than actually exercising prudent governance. They have become so entrenched in the politics of it that they are beginning to lose sight of the fact that much of what they are doing is harming every day Vermonters who aren’t politically involved, but are just trying to get by working to provide for their family.

Despite the largest broad-based tax increase we’ve seen since the turn of the century (Governor’s Dean, Douglas & Shumlin all boasted they did not raise taxes) many Vermonters are looking at all of the things they are NOT going to get for their money. On the left there is a huge outcry about the lack of funding for those facing homelessness who are currently taking advantage of Vermonter’s hotel voucher program. Despite these massive tax increases, nothing is being done to help those people. On the right, the Governor and our Republicans are looking at all the transportation money that we are paying the price for through Bidenflation, but are not able to drawn down because we haven’t allocated the matching funds that Gov. Scott has requested in order to get projects started before prices climb further. Every county in the state has at least half a dozen municipal or storm water projects that are going undone because Democrats have prioritized spending elsewhere. Furthermore there are stacks of traditional transportation projects to upgrade our deteriorating bridges and repair our cracked and crumbling roads. In these cases, a dollar of VT taxpayer money would have been able to draw three, four, or in some cases 6 or 12 times as much in federal funds. But Democrats denied the pragmatic needs of the governed in order to chase after the campaign slogans endorse by their lobbyists. Roads are not a priority for the far left ideologues.

We will be spending more money on child care and housing — but nothing the state is doing will increase the number of available openings in childcare programs, nor help to build a single house, apartment or condo that can’t be built today. In both of those cases the fundamental problem is supply, not funding, and the legislature gave the root causes of those issues a good leaving alone. Both housing and childcare deserve another article each to themselves, but suffice it to say the problems go much much deeper than just throwing money at the problem. And yet, that is the primarily solution Democrats have for both problems. And the lobbyists who help those Democrats get re-elected every year think this is a fine solution as well. The longer the problem goes unfixed the more money they stand to gain, as long as no one actually starts asking about results. In addition to getting more money funneled to lobbying groups, the Democrat’s super majority also voted themselves a pay raise and new health benefits that are unavailable to the average Vermonter.

While Governor Scott is likely to veto the budget, Democrats have already planned to continue their M.O. for the year by ignoring his concerns, refusing to work with him to find common ground and will neglect compromise on policy that is good for all Vermonters in so that they can send out another fundraising email about how they owned Gov. Scott. In fact when the veto session starts in June, it’s possible that things could get even worse. Democrats in leadership will either be working hard over the next month to whip their members into supporting their budget and overriding the veto, or if unsuccessful, they will move farther to the extremist left of their party to add even more taxes and spending to an already bad budget in order to bring on board enough Progressives.

There is no longer any room in the Democrat Party for Centrist Democrats, and even if there were, they appear completely impotent at leveraging their votes the way the far-left progressives do. This means the rest of the Democrats will eventually fall in line with their party leaders, as they always do when it matters most.