VTGOP Chair: What’s at stake this November

By Deborah Billado

Vermonters have a choice to make about the direction of our state this November. Will we allow ourselves to be taxed to death, or not? Here, very bluntly, is what’s at stake.

Since the last election in 2016, Vermont Democrats/Progressives (they are now, for all intents and purposes, the same thing) put forward bills that would raise tens of millions of dollars in new taxes, tax increases, and fees. They proposed five – count them, five — new carbon taxes alone on gasoline, home heating fuel, etc. They proposed a new payroll tax, a new “fee” for every parcel of property in the state. They proposed an increase in the rooms and meals tax. They wanted to put a “surcharge” on income taxes. They even brought the state government to the brink of shutdown because Democrats/Progressives in the House and Senate insisted – yes, insisted — on raising property taxes.

Deborah Billado

Deborah Billado is chairwoman of the Vermont Republican Party.

Gov. Phil Scott’s veto (he vetoed 12 bills that would have raised taxes and/or fees on Vermonters, including three budgets), or threat of a veto, backed up by at least 51 Republicans in the House of Representatives, stopped almost all of these tax and fee increases from happening. Unfortunately, Republicans simply did not have the numbers to completely stop the Democrat/Progressives’ from pushing through their property tax increase as part of the overall budget bill. As a result, we’re living with the impact of that property tax increase today. It isn’t pleasant.

The Democrats/Progressives know they have little to no chance of beating Gov. Scott, so, their strategy is to defeat enough Republican House and Senate candidates through a “Blue Wave” to achieve a “supermajority” capable of overriding every veto of every tax and fee increase. The Democrats/Progressives are well funded with out-of-state money from Bernie, well organized, and energized to do this. Only you, the voters, can stop them by re-electing Gov. Scott and – and this is every bit as important if not more so — electing Republicans to the Statehouse and Senate.

So, voters, here is your choice: Will you give Vermont Republicans the numbers we need in the State House of Representatives and Senate to stop this freight train of devastating taxes and fees from becoming law after November? Or will you give the Democrat/Progressives the “supermajority” they crave so that can force through all these and more unaffordable policies, even over a gubernatorial veto?

Currently, there are just 53 Republican members of the House out of 150. It takes 51 to sustain a veto. That’s almost no margin for error. Adding to our challenge, 12 incumbent Republicans are not running for re-election this year. New candidates have stepped up to run in their place. It is a steep hill to climb, but if we want to stop a tax avalanche in January, Vermont Republicans can’t afford to lose any races anywhere up or down the ticket. And, if your household budget looks like mine, you can’t afford to let them lose.

So, please, get out to vote this November, and when you do, please vote Republican. It is the only way to make a difference.

Deborah Billado, of Essex Junction, is chairwoman of the Vermont Republican Party.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Tom Arthur and Deborah Billado

3 thoughts on “VTGOP Chair: What’s at stake this November

  1. And do we think there are only 51 candidates this election under the GOP?
    Deb, you & your fellow establishment types couldn’t inspire enough people to fill uncontested races both in Senate & Legislature let alone statewide seats?
    Maybe if the party put pressure on flip-flop Phill, rather than just grabbing its ankles, there might be different results.
    And the GOP does itself no favors by running defense most of the time, especially when they have history of eating their own at first chance rather than sticking together. Maybe it’s more fashionable to pander to the RINO’s and liberal filling the ranks while conservatives quietly stay in the background maybe not feeling part of the new GOP.

  2. Deborah, you are correct everyone needs to get out and vote. Too bad the governor annihilated most of his base with the foolish gun legislation he signed (Shameful). Nothing has changed for the good since his signing. But not to worry, I assume his newly found Liberal Democrat Friends will support him as he supported them when he signed there Ant-Gun BS into law. Just More Liberal feelgood foolishness that their money man in NY wanted. Rectify your mistakes before November.

  3. Deborah, you missed the 2018 Vermont income tax increase that is still in the bill that Scott let by without signature. Virtually, no one knows about it other than the Prems in the Ways & Means committee or Senate Finance. Could be as much as 11% according to JFO.

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