To the editor: Support Charlton to help break supermajority

I write in support of Tom Charlton for state representative for Athens, Chester, Grafton, and Windham. Why? Well, in part because the supermajority Democrat members of the Vermont legislature rammed through seven new laws despite the vetoes of Gov. Phil Scott.

We have learned from a brave Democrat representative that fewer than 10 Democrat legislators run the show under the Golden Dome. The rest, including incumbent Rep. Heather Chase, follow. An environment with little discussion among Democrats and even less with Republicans or the governor is destructive. The result has been more taxation that undermines the state’s economic health and chokes Vermonters’ ability to flourish.

How so? When Gov.  Scott issues a veto he formally explains his reasons. Take, for example, the governor’s veto of H.217, a child care act that Heather Chase claims as an accomplishment. The act imposes a new payroll tax that the governor rightly called regressive because “if you are a lower income Vermonter already receiving free childcare, you will have to pay a tax, with no added benefit to you, so that families with higher incomes get support.”

Gov. Scott shared the goal to enlarge childcare support in the state but by using existing revenues. The legislature’s override of the governor’s veto has resulted in increasing what is already one of the highest tax burdens in the country, no accomplishment.

Anna Vesely Pilette
Grafton