To the editor: S. 5 will raise cost of heating fuel
The Chester Telegraph | May 16, 2023 | Comments 2
The Vermont legislative session for 2023 has come to an end. There is no good news for those few Vermonters who might expect their elected representatives to respect our hard earned tax dollars.
The Democratic supermajority has passed an $8.5 billion budget, the largest in the history of the state.
Windsor County state Sens. Alison Clarkson (D), Becca White (D) and Dick McCormack (D) have sponsored and helped pass Senate Bill 5, which will raise your price of propane and oil an additional minimum of 70 cents per gallon up to $4 per gallon.
The stated intention of this bill is to curb global climate change. The results of the implementation of this law will do no such thing. It will increase the size of our state government, potentially crash the electrical grid, freeze Vermonters out of their homes and fatten the wallets of the so-called “green” corporate lobbyists who now run things in Montpelier.
In this same session, these three Windsor County state senators, along with the majority of members in their party, have voted to give themselves generous pay and benefit increases. The benefit compensation is far beyond what most Vermonters can ever hope to afford. They voted themselves an estimated $50,000 each increase in benefits alone. *
If the 2023 session is any indication the supermajority will do even more damage to those of us struggling to stay in our homes and take care of our families. Elections have consequences.
Stu Lindberg
Cavendish
* Editor’s note: According to Seven Days from May 10, “The bill, S. 39, would more than double the salary lawmakers receive over three years. Rank-and-file lawmakers receive $14,616 plus allowances for food and lodging. By 2027, the salary for rank-and-file members would rise to $29,766 annually. …
“Lawmakers would also become eligible for state health insurance, a benefit that would cost the state between $9,946 for a single person and $27,300 for a family of four. Like other state workers, lawmakers would have to pay 20 percent of the cost of the insurance.”
Filed Under: Commentary • Letters to the Editor
Stuart Lindberg has correctly and politely stated the curious position of our career legislature giving themselves an enormous pay raise. Keep in mind that legislative sessions in VT total 5 months, and the current pay (plus lodging and meals) reflects that. That amount of money is sufficient for a citizen legislature.
Perhaps the VT legislature should decrease the amount of time they meet. The legislature in other states with our small population meet far less than 5 months of the year. Another potential saving of Vermonter’s resources is addressing the size our legislative government has grown to. For our tiny state to have 150 representatives and 30 senators seems entirely ludicrous.
Lastly, if the government in Montpelier worked to address and uphold the laws we already have rather than dreaming up new ways to saddle constituents with unfair monetary burdens, I’d be happy they voted to give themselves a pay raise; one in line with what taxpayers can afford, and in keeping with equality for all, ie. term limits and a balanced budget.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/outnumbered-but-unrestrained-gop-lawmakers-object-to-raising-their-own-pay-and-benefits/ This article offers some specifics about the increase in compensation and the arguments against the increases.