At the bottom: how to find out whether your child’s school plans to turn on Google Search next year, and what to ask about the AI that comes with it.

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Starting early next year, Google Search will be off on Vermont students’ school accounts unless their district turns it on. Google says a district that turns it on will have two versions to choose from, and both come with artificial intelligence built in.

Vermont’s Agency of Education already advises schools to keep chatbots away from young students. It says it is waiting to see how Google responds to pushback before giving districts formal guidance on the change. “Given the pace of developments, we are waiting to see how Google responds and to better understand the practical implications for schools before providing formal guidance to districts,” Lindsey Hedges, a policy communications specialist for the agency, said in an email to Compass.

What Google changed

Google Search already includes AI features. What changes is that Search itself becomes something a district has to switch on. Google announced the change Nov. 3. For K-12 student accounts that schools manage:

• Four Google services will be off by default starting in early 2027:

  • Google Search

  • the Gemini chatbot

  • Gemini Notebook, an AI study tool

  • Gemini in Classroom, the AI tools inside Google’s assignment app

  Each stays off until a district turns it on.

• A district can turn on Search without turning on the Gemini chatbot.

• A district can’t turn on Search without its AI features. Those include AI Overviews, the AI-written summaries at the top of search results, and AI Mode, a chatbot-style feature that answers questions and follow-ups.

• A district that leaves Search off loses it. Students will see a message that it isn’t available, Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president for education, told the New York Times.

“Search and AI are deeply integrated,” Phillips told the Times.

The two versions, according to the Times:

• The standard version works like the one adults use, with AI summaries and AI chat.

• The Guided Learning version runs through a student version of Gemini. Google says it walks students through a problem step by step instead of handing them the answer.

Why it matters in Vermont

In its January guidance, the agency said all Vermont schools were using Google for Education, Google’s software for schools. So the change could reach every public school system in the state.

That guidance is advice, not a rule, and it draws a line by grade:

• Pre-K through grade 2: no AI chatbots.

• Grades 3 to 5: no open-ended chatbots. AI is OK only when it’s built into a program for a specific subject and its answers stick to the lesson.

• Grades 6 to 8: chatbots designed for schools, under a teacher’s direction, but not general-purpose ones.

A Vermont district that keeps Google Search for elementary students will have two choices under Google’s plan. One gives students AI summaries and lets them ask follow-up questions. The other uses Guided Learning, which Google says will coach students through problems. Compass asked the Agency of Education whether either option fits its recommendations for elementary grades. The agency has yet to say.

The state also doesn’t know where districts stand now. Asked last month which school systems let students use Gemini, the agency told Compass it doesn’t collect that information.

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Google’s case and its critics

Google says the change answers schools that asked for more control. Its statement said the announcements “give schools more choice, not less,” CNN reported. Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews in the school version of Search will guide students through problems step by step, so they don’t get quick answers to schoolwork. A Google product lead told the Times that teachers using the school version of Guided Learning will be able to read students’ chatbot conversations.

Critics say the guided version doesn’t settle the question. When a Times reporter tested the version of Guided Learning available to the public, it wrote a detailed essay for an Advanced Placement history assignment. In July, Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that reviews technology for families, rated AI Overviews and AI Mode an “unacceptable risk” for young users.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called the change extortion in a post the day Google announced it. On Nov. 9, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote to Google’s CEO asking the company to reverse the change. He asked Google to answer by Nov. 30, including whether it is technically possible to give schools Search without generative AI, the kind that writes text and answers questions.

Hedges said Google is facing “considerable pressure from educators and school systems to provide districts with more granular control over which AI features are enabled for students.” The agency will keep watching and share recommendations as more information comes out, she said.

Google hasn’t given an exact date for the change. It says schools will get details in the coming months.

What you can check

Google’s change puts the decision with your school district. Here’s how to find out what your district is planning, so you can make up your own mind.

Ask your school or district:

1. Will the district turn on Google Search for students when the change takes effect, and for which grades?

2. If so, which version: the one with AI summaries and AI chat, or the Guided Learning version?

3. If the district leaves Google Search off, what will students use for research instead?

4. Will the Gemini chatbot be on for students, and starting in what grade?

5. Has the district tested whether its web filter, the software that blocks websites on school devices, can show plain search results under Google’s new setup? At least one company that sells web filters to schools says its product can skip the AI summaries. It announced that the day before Google’s change.

Find out who decides. Ask your superintendent or district technology director who will make the call, and how parents can weigh in.

Find your district’s AI policy. Look on your district’s website or in the school board’s policy manual for “artificial intelligence” or “AI.” If you can’t find one, there may not be one yet.

Read the state’s recommendations. The Vermont AI Guidance for Education sets out the grade-by-grade line on pages 8 and 9. The state’s education technology contact is Josh Blumberg, josh.blumberg@vermont.gov.

Compass Vermont is built on giving you the information and the next step so you can decide for yourself. If you find that useful, a paid subscription is the best way to support it, and it’s greatly appreciated.

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How to check your receipt for the fee, and the steps to switch your autopay to a bank account, are in the box at the bottom of this story.

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Casella Waste Systems customers who pay their trash bill with a credit or debit card now pay a fee on each payment: 3%, with a minimum of $1.50, according to Casella’s FAQ on the fee. KUBRA, the company that runs Casella’s online payment portal, charges the fee.

Casella rolled the fee out between July and September. On a call with investors Tuesday, CEO Ned Coletta said the fee began producing savings for the Rutland company in October. He said Casella expects the fee to save more than $5 million a year in its first phase. Casella tells customers the fee covers part of what it pays to process card payments.

The $1.50 minimum means smaller payments are hit hardest. The minimum applies to any payment of $50 or less:

• On a $25 payment, the $1.50 fee is 6%.

• On a $40 monthly payment, it is nearly 4%, or $18 a year.

• On a $100 payment, the fee is $3.

Customers checking Casella’s website could get two different answers. Casella’s bill-pay page says there is no fee for paying online or by phone. Lower on the same page, it links to the FAQ that describes the card fee.

What Casella says about the fee

• It applies to debit cards as well as credit cards.

• It applies to one-time payments and to autopay.

• It does not appear on your Casella bill or in your account history. It appears only on the payment receipt KUBRA gives you after the payment goes through.

• It is generally not refundable, except where the law requires a refund or there was a billing error.

• Casella says its rates for trash service are not changing because of the fee.

On debit cards, the FAQ adds that those payments may be subject to different rules depending on the card network and the law. It doesn’t say which rules or where.

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Who pays it

Whether the fee reaches you depends on whom you pay. Vermonters who pay Casella directly are sent to the KUBRA portal. Casella says the fee won’t be charged where the law prohibits it or where a contract excludes it. It names Connecticut and Maine as exempt and does not list Vermont.

If you pay your town for trash pickup instead of paying Casella, you won’t get a KUBRA receipt. Your town’s own payment rules apply.

The other fees on a Casella bill

The card fee is separate from the fees Casella lists on its fee information page. Casella says customers may be charged those fees depending on their service or contract. Two are tied to Vermont:

• Energy & Environmental Fee. The energy part changes every month with diesel prices. Casella uses the federal government’s New England average for Vermont customers. The environmental part is fixed; Casella raised it in August 2025.

• Sustainability/Commodity Adjustment. This fee applies only to residential customers served by Casella’s Vermont hauling operations. It also changes monthly. Casella says the amount depends on public policy, commodity markets, and transportation and processing costs.

How to Check Your Own Casella Payments

Compass gives you the information. Whether paying by card is worth the fee is your call.

If you pay Casella through its online portal: Check the payment receipt from KUBRA after you pay. That is the only place the fee appears. You can sign in to see your payments at mycasella.idoxs.net.

To switch to paying from your bank account, which carries no fee, Casella’s FAQ gives these steps:

1. Sign in at mycasella.idoxs.net.

2. Select Wallet in the upper right corner, then Add, then Bank Account.

3. Enter your bank information and select Save.

4. If you use autopay, select AutoPay, then Edit.

5. Choose your bank account from the Pay drop-down menu and select Save.

Adding the bank account alone doesn’t change your autopay. You have to do step 5, or your card will keep being charged.

If you pay your town for trash pickup: Check the town’s payment terms or call the town office.

Questions about your account: Casella customer service, 800-227-3552.

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Veterans: The box at the bottom shows how to claim the military pension exemption and the $250 veteran tax credit, and how to apply for the disabled veterans’ property tax exemption.

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Ceremonies and celebrations honoring our Vermont veterans are taking place all over the Green Mountain State on Wednesday, November 11, with one caveat.

Consider two military retirees on opposite sides of the Connecticut River. If their household income tops $125,000, the one in Brattleboro owes Vermont income tax on some or all of a military pension. The one in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, collects the same pension free of state income tax at any income.

Adjutant General Hank Harder, who leads the Vermont National Guard, put the stakes plainly in August. “Vermont is competing with other states for this talent,” he said. He noted that Vermont is the only New England state that still taxes military retirement pay.

For a disabled veteran who owns a home, the dividing line can be the next town over. Vermont lets each town decide how much to exempt from the property tax bill, so two veterans with the same disability can get different breaks.

Last Veterans Day, Compass identified two priorities:

• exempting military retirement pay at every income, and

• fully exempting the home of a veteran with a permanent and total service-connected disability.

Vermont enacted neither in 2026.

In May, WalletHub ranked Vermont 50th of 51 as a place for military retirees, counting the states and Washington, D.C. Only Oregon ranked lower, and New Hampshire ranked fourth. That index also weighs jobs, health care and quality of life. The first year of Vermont tax returns gives a more direct measure of what lawmakers changed.

What the Pension Break Delivered

Before Act 71 of 2025, a military retiree could exempt no more than $10,000 of a pension, and only with income of $50,000 or less for a single filer or $65,000 for a married couple.

The new law, which Compass covered when it was signed, works this way. Income here means adjusted gross income, the total income figure on the federal tax return:

• $125,000 or less: the entire pension or survivor benefit is exempt from Vermont income tax.

• $150,000: half is exempt.

• $175,000 or more: none is exempt.

The same limits apply whether a retiree files single or joint. On a joint return, a spouse’s paycheck counts toward the total.

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By August, the expanded exemption had returned an additional $1.9 million to more than 2,400 military retirees and survivors. That’s about three-quarters of the $2.5 million a year the Joint Fiscal Office had projected, with late returns still coming in.

A new $250 credit for low-income veterans had paid about $439,000 to 1,888 veterans. The Joint Fiscal Office had estimated that about 5,200 veterans would qualify and the credit would cost $1.4 million a year. So by August, it had reached about a third of the eligible veterans and paid out 31 percent of the projected cost.

Correction to our 2025 coverage: Compass’s Nov. 11, 2025 story said military retirees had to choose between the military and Social Security exemptions. Act 71 had already removed that requirement for tax year 2025, and eligible filers may claim both.

Why Lawmakers Drew the Line

Nationally, 37 states don’t tax military retirement pay at all. Nine have no income tax, and 28 exempt the pay fully.

This year, eight senators from both parties sponsored S.308 to remove Vermont’s income limit for retirees and survivors. They included Republican Randy Brock and Democrat Kesha Ram Hinsdale. Senate Finance heard Brock present the bill on Jan. 30. It never got a vote, and no fiscal note was published.

Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, the Brattleboro Democrat who chaired House Ways and Means, defended the cap in 2025. She told Vermont Public that extending the break above $175,000 would erode the progressivity of the state’s tax code, meaning the principle that people who earn more pay a larger share.

Sen. Ann Cummings, who chaired Senate Finance, had long opposed singling out military pensions as the only tax-exempt occupation.

The question came back in January, when Rep. Conor Casey of Montpelier proposed the same break for retired police, firefighters and EMTs. Kornheiser said lawmakers had worried about prioritizing “one group’s value and valor over others,” naming teachers and firefighters. She added that every revenue cut leaves less money for public safety salaries.

Supporters frame the break as a way to recruit workers. Gov. Phil Scott called it “an important recruitment tool” when he signed Act 71. He pointed out that many service members retire young, with whole civilian careers ahead of them.

The Joint Fiscal Office put a price on both approaches. In January 2025, it estimated a full exemption at $3.9 million a year under the law then in effect. The capped version lawmakers passed was estimated at $2.5 million.

What a Disabled Homeowner Saves

Vermont’s property tax exemption covers veterans the VA rates at least 50 percent disabled. It takes $10,000 off the home’s appraised value. That’s a reduction in the value being taxed, not $10,000 off the tax bill.

Here’s what that means in dollars. Take a $300,000 home in a town that uses the $10,000 minimum, at an illustrative combined tax rate of 2 percent. The bill is $6,000. The exemption saves $200 of it, so the veteran still owes $5,800 before any other credits. A veteran rated 100 percent and permanently disabled gets the same $200 as one rated 50 percent.

Town voters can raise the exemption to as much as $40,000 of appraised value. When they do, the town, not the state, absorbs the cost of the increase.

Compass’s 2025 report found Florida, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina and Maryland among the states that fully exempt the primary home of a veteran with a permanent and total service-connected disability.

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What Passed, and What Stalled

Two changes took effect July 1 under Act 88:

• Military spouses: spouses of people currently serving in the armed forces get five extra points on state civil-service exams, the same boost veterans get.

• Parking: vehicles with disabled-veteran plates from any state now park free at municipal meters in Vermont.

H.103 would have stopped unaccredited consultants from charging veterans for help filing VA benefit claims. A House committee took it up in February, and it never got a vote. Federal law generally bars charging for help with a first claim. But the Congressional Research Service reported in July that the VA has little power to act against people outside its accreditation system.

Vermont already offers that help free. The state’s six Veterans Service Officers recovered $10.1 million in federal benefits for veterans in state fiscal 2025, up from $7.9 million the year before. The positions cost about $687,000 in state money, so they bring in nearly $15 in federal benefits for every state dollar.

In April, Essex High School senior Jacob Law asked senators to close every Vermont school on Veterans Day starting in 2027–28. His mother served more than two decades in the Air National Guard. He noted that Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York already give students the day off. The bill he testified on became Act 160 without that change.

What Comes Next

In August, Scott said he would put forward several major proposals to ease Vermonters’ tax burden in the next session. He didn’t mention either veterans’ exemption. When the new Legislature convenes in January, the first thing to watch is whether anyone introduces a bill to lift either limit.

For Veterans and Their Families

Here’s what’s on the books, so you can decide what applies to you.

• Military retirement and survivor benefits.

  • Fully exempt from Vermont income tax at $125,000 of adjusted gross income or less, and partly exempt up to $175,000.

  • Claim it on Schedule IN-112 with your Vermont return.

  • You can take the Social Security exemption too if you qualify.

  • Details are on the Tax Department’s military page.

• $250 Vermont Veteran Tax Credit.

  • Open to Vermont residents with a discharge record from the uniformed services.

  • Full credit at $25,000 of adjusted gross income or less; partial up to $30,000.

  • It’s refundable, so you get it even if you owe no tax.

  • Married couples where both spouses are veterans may each qualify.

  • If you missed it, call Taxpayer Services at 802-828-2865 about filing or amending a return.

• Disabled veterans’ property tax exemption.

  • Homeowners only, on the home you live in.

  • You qualify if the VA rates you 50 percent disabled or more, you receive a VA disability pension, or you have a permanent medical military retirement. Surviving spouses who haven’t remarried also qualify.

  • File with the Office of Veterans Affairs before May 1, with a statement from the VA or the Military Department showing your benefits.

  • With a permanent disability, you file once, and the exemption stays until the home changes hands.

  • Ask your town listers whether your town has raised the exemption above $10,000.

• Free help with VA claims. The state’s Veterans Service Officers help at no cost; reach them through the Office of Veterans Affairs.

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Vermont Keeps Electing Scott and a Democratic Legislature. Who Decides What?

Okemo State Forest Plan Would Cut Dying Ash and Beech to Grow a Younger, More Varied Forest

Vermont Neighborhoods, Schools and Businesses Face a Stormwater Deadline. The State Proposes Cutting Their Help by Nearly a Third.

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Ben Traverse Is Running for Mayor of Burlington. What Would His Public Safety Plan Change?

We put the facts in context so you can put the news in perspective. If you value that work, please consider a paid subscription to Compass Vermont.

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“We are tired of being told to hate each other.”

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That was part of James Talarico’s message after winning a U.S. Senate seat in Texas this week, The Wall Street Journal reported. In Kansas, fellow Democrat Adam Hamilton pledged to work closely with Republican Sen. Jerry Moran. Moran responded that the two shared a responsibility to deliver results for Kansans, KWCH reported.

Vermont governors have repeatedly put that willingness into practice. Democrat Howard Dean retained Republican Gov. Richard Snelling’s human services secretary. Democrat Peter Shumlin invited Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott to his cabinet meetings. Scott subsequently retained officials appointed by Shumlin.

The coming legislative session raises a question about how far that approach can extend: Will the governor and lawmakers turn their stated willingness to cooperate into agreements they can carry out together?

One Vermont example began with a governor waiting outside the speaker’s office.

What Cooperation Took in 1991

On the opening day of the 1991 legislative session, Democratic House Speaker Ralph Wright looked out his office door and found Republican Gov. Richard Snelling waiting in a small alcove.

Vermont faced a growing deficit, and Snelling had come to ask the Democrat for help. Snelling gave ground on his own plan, taking on more taxes than he wanted and putting more of the burden on the wealthy. The two men built a package of cuts and $90 million in new revenue, the largest tax increase in state history at the time, Chris Graff wrote. When the House split 72–72 on the bill, Wright cast the deciding vote for the agreement they had negotiated.

Seven Days later wrote that Snelling, Wright and Democratic Senate leader Doug Racine each spent political capital inside their own parties on a deal none of them fully liked.

A Long Record, With Exceptions

• 1966. Democratic Gov. Phil Hoff appointed Republican Franklin Billings Jr. to the Superior Court, and Democratic Gov. Tom Salmon later named him to the Vermont Supreme Court.

• 1992. Dean and Con Hogan, the human services secretary he kept from Snelling’s cabinet, expanded Dr. Dynasaur to cover eligible children through age 17.

• 2002 and 2016. Dean and Shumlin each filled the same open Senate seat with a Republican.

• 2017. Scott also kept Shumlin’s education secretary, Rebecca Holcombe, who later ran for governor as a Democrat.

There are exceptions. Under Dean, a Democrat filled a vacant Republican House seat in 2002, according to the House clerk’s records. This April, Burlington Democrats objected when Scott passed over their three nominees to fill a House vacancy.

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The Legislature Has Done It Recently, Too

Nationally, the parties have drifted apart. A study of state legislators’ voting records from 1996 to 2020 found the two parties moving further apart in 88 of the country’s 99 legislative chambers.

That measures how far apart the parties sit, not whether they can still make deals. Act 73, the 2025 law meant to overhaul how Vermont governs and pays for its schools, passed because members broke from their caucuses. In the House, Rep. Tom Burditt, R-West Rutland, said he was “reaching across the aisle and voting yes to form an alliance to help keep this bill alive,” according to the House Journal. In the Senate’s final vote, 10 of the 17 yes votes came from Republicans because Democrats split over the bill, according to the Senate Journal.

Starting in January, Democrats will hold enough seats to override Scott’s vetoes without any Republican votes, as Compass reported Wednesday.

What They Said This Week

Scott framed his sixth term around the same idea Talarico and Hamilton did. “We don’t have to abandon our principles to work together,” he said Tuesday night.

Legislative leaders also described how they wanted to work together. House Majority Leader Lori Houghton, who is running for speaker, told Vermont Public she would rather pass proposals backed by all three parties. But she said Scott needs to change how he talks about lawmakers, and that his claim they aren’t working with him is not accurate. Sen. Andrew Perchlik, running for president pro tem, said he also wants buy-in from both branches. But he said the supermajority opens the door to ideas Scott opposes, such as a surcharge on income over $500,000.

Others warned their own side against overreaching:

• Rep. Kate McCann, D-Montpelier, also running for speaker, said supermajorities tend to spend and lawmakers have to answer for every dollar.

• Natalie Silver, a Democratic strategist, said Democrats don’t need to defer to Scott but shouldn’t read the election as a mandate to tax and spend.

• Rep. Brian Cina, P-Burlington, warned that using the numbers to force bills through would bring another Republican wave, and soon.

Rep. Gina Galfetti, R-Barre Town, the Republican candidate for speaker, said she is already working with a Progressive on a down payment assistance bill. She said lawmakers should pick issues where they can show progress quickly, so Vermonters can see the Legislature still works for them.

Municipal leaders have put their expectations in writing. In October, members of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns unanimously adopted a policy for the next two years calling for “a robust and transparent partnership between state and local government.” Their requests include support for towns sharing services, preservation of local control and municipal funding options beyond the property tax.

Scott gives his inaugural address and budget in January. In 1991, the first move came from a governor waiting outside the speaker’s door.

Help Compass Vermont give Vermonters the full picture—including facts and perspectives that don’t fit either side’s argument—so you can reach your own conclusions. Become a paid subscriber. Support Vermont reporting that holds every side to the same standard.

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At the bottom: where to read Traverse’s plan and every change made to it, the mayor’s own plan, Monday’s council agenda, and how to reach your city councilor before Dec. 7.

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Burlington City Council President Ben Traverse announced Friday at Battery Park that he is running for mayor on Town Meeting Day in March. He said he wants Burlington’s children to inherit “a city that is safer, more affordable, more compassionate, more joyful.”

Traverse, a Democrat who represents Ward 5, led the drafting of Burlington Forward, the public safety plan council Democrats unveiled in July with his declaration that “enough is enough.” Burlington Forward is a council resolution, not a campaign platform. But it is the most detailed public record of what Traverse wants the city to do downtown, and it is still unresolved.

Compass first covered Burlington Forward in July, when a national magazine article featured Burlington as a city that wouldn’t change course on drug policy.

The mayor and the council’s Progressives have fought Burlington Forward from the start. They nicknamed it “Burlington Backwards” and called it an attempt to further criminalize homelessness, Seven Days reported, and the mayor has promised to oppose any version that keeps new needle exchanges or the planned overdose prevention center from opening downtown.

What the Plan Would Change Downtown

The revised draft of Burlington Forward, dated Oct. 26, asks the city to:

• Put more public safety staff where people can see them in downtown trouble spots — police officers, plus civilian staff such as community service officers and park rangers — while the police department rebuilds.

• Act faster on encampments where camping is banned, generally giving notice within 24 hours of finding one, with reasonable efforts to offer accessible alternatives and to store people’s belongings.

• Make drug dealing and violent crime enforcement priorities, and press the Legislature to look at how state law handles repeat low-level drug sales.

• Keep an overdose prevention center out of the Downtown Improvement District, a downtown area whose boundaries are set in the city charter. An overdose prevention center is a supervised site where people use drugs with staff on hand to reverse overdoses. State law passed in 2024 allows Burlington to open one, and the city is still working toward it.

• Stop the city from buying or using license plate reader cameras, which photograph and log the plates of passing cars, including Flock Safety systems and access through a third party.

• Study a stabilization and diversion center, a supervised place where police and medics could bring someone who is intoxicated or in crisis instead of jail or the emergency room.

Most of these are requests. A resolution states what the council wants. Carrying it out depends on the mayor’s administration, the city budget and state law.

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What Changed During Review

In August the council voted 7-5 to send Burlington Forward to four committees rather than adopt it. The revised draft that came back differs from the original in ways that matter. Councilor Mark Barlow, a supporter, posts a line-by-line comparison on a site he created and maintains. It is not an official city website.

What was taken out or softened:

• A request that the mayor set a maximum number of people Burlington can serve at one time through shelters, city-approved camping sites, outreach and treatment.

• Language opposing needle exchanges operating or opening downtown. The draft still takes the position that these programs are not a permitted use under city zoning without the council’s express approval, and asks the Vermont Department of Health to consult the city before opening or moving one.

• The overdose prevention center section. The original declared that any proposal should go forward only by amending the zoning ordinance. The revision recommends aligning with the zoning ordinance after public notice, a hearing and council action, and says the council stands by its earlier acknowledgment that an overdose prevention center may serve people facing serious health disparities and may reduce public drug use.

What was added:

• Enforcement must focus on unlawful conduct and actual harm, not on a person’s housing status, disability or health condition.

• Training for public safety staff in de-escalation, racial equity and civil rights.

• The license plate reader ban and the diversion center study.

Where the Two Sides Agree, and Where They Don’t

They overlap more than the nicknames suggest:

• Both want a rebuilt police department and visible patrols. The mayor’s community safety plan says downtown foot patrols are at their highest level since 2020, and the city is offering sign-on bonuses to recruit experienced officers.

• Both want more from the state. In August the council unanimously asked the governor for help with shelter, treatment and law enforcement, a request the mayor’s office says it worked on with the council. The revised Burlington Forward reaffirms it.

They split on:

• Where an overdose prevention center can go. The plan says not downtown. The mayor has promised to oppose that.

• Whether the city’s current approach is working. The plan says neither the current nor earlier approaches have achieved what they were meant to. The mayor says the plan calls her framework ineffective without offering data.

• Whether the plan can be done. At the Oct. 26 meeting, the mayor told the council that “the proposed strategies don’t reflect evidence and best practices,” that they are naive about operational and legal realities, and that they don’t reflect what is possible with finite city staff, money and resources. Traverse answered that the original draft drew on public safety experts and social service leaders, that he hears week after week from businesses leaving downtown and families staying away, and that dropping the plan without offering a path other than the status quo would mean abandoning the council’s responsibility to the community.

The mayor also holds the veto. Under the city charter, overriding a mayoral veto takes eight of the 12 councilors, and Democrats hold seven seats. That is one reason a negotiated version matters. Traverse made both formal motions to slow the plan down, the August committee referral and the October postponement, and in October he said forcing a final vote would only draw a veto.

What Comes Next

Monday, Nov. 9: a vote on a new police chief. Mulvaney-Stanak has nominated Anthony Geraci, a former police chief in Newburgh and Watervliet, N.Y., and the council votes on the appointment Monday evening. If confirmed, he starts Tuesday.

Monday, Dec. 7: Burlington Forward comes back. On Oct. 26 the council voted 10-2 to postpone the revised plan to its Dec. 7 meeting, according to the meeting minutes. In a separate 9-3 vote, it asked the mayor to form a committee of the mayor, Traverse and the leaders of the council’s Democratic and Progressive members, with a progress report due Dec. 7. Progressive Councilor Gene Bergman made that motion, and Traverse voted for it. A progress report is a checkpoint, not a finished agreement, and the council is not required to vote on Burlington Forward that night.

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Decide for Yourself

The plan is long and the arguments about it are loud. Here is where to find the documents so you can judge them on your own.

• Read Traverse’s plan: Burlington Forward, Oct. 26 draft (PDF), posted on Councilor Mark Barlow’s site. It is not an official city website.

• See exactly what changed: the line-by-line comparison shows every addition and deletion since August.

• Read the mayor’s approach: the city’s Community Safety page lays out her plan.

• Find Monday’s agenda and meeting documents: the city posts them on its CivicClerk portal.

• Watch the recording: council meetings air on Town Meeting TV the Wednesday after each meeting.

• Reach your councilor: contact information is on the City Council page. Council meetings also include a public forum where residents can speak.

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Compass Vermont is built on giving you the information and the next step so you can decide for yourself. If you find that useful, a paid subscription is the best way to support it, and it’s greatly appreciated.

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At the bottom: how to find your legislators, leave them a message at the State House, and reach the governor’s office if you want to weigh in on the fix.

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Most manufactured homes in Vermont never move after they’re set on a foundation. But every one of them still sits on the steel frame that carried it down the highway from the factory. Vermont law says it has to. A manufactured home is defined as a house “built on a permanent chassis.”

These aren’t the trailers many Vermonters picture when they hear “mobile home.” Homes built since 1976 have to meet a national construction and safety code set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Today’s homes are good quality, often energy efficient, and can look no different from a house built on site, The Pew Charitable Trusts reported.

Congress dropped the frame requirement in July in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Builders can now ship a house on a frame, set it on a foundation, and take the frame back to use again. One of the country’s largest manufacturers, Cavco, has already shown its first home built that way.

Vermont buyers can’t get one yet. Unless the Legislature changes state law by July 11, 2027, those homes can’t be sold or installed in Vermont.

What it could mean for the price of a home

Dropping the frame could take $5,000 to $10,000 off the price of a new manufactured home, the Niskanen Center estimates. That’s roughly 7% to 9% of the price of an average single-wide, Pew calculated.

For a Vermont buyer, that’s about the size of a down payment. The median manufactured home with land sold for $166,000 in Vermont last year, according to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. A 5% down payment on that home is about $8,300.

Builders say the savings won’t all reach the buyer. A home without a frame takes more wood, and more of them will need a crane to set instead of being rolled into place, Cavco’s chief executive told investors. He sees the bigger change in what the homes can look like.

Without the frame, a manufactured home can:

• sit lower to the ground and look like the houses next door

• go up two stories on the same lot

• be built as a duplex or a building with up to four homes

That means more homes on the same land, Pew reported.

Why it matters in Vermont

Manufactured homes are already the most affordable way to buy a house here. That $166,000 median compares with $379,000 for a typical Vermont home. Factory-built homes cost about half as much per square foot to build, Pew found, and they go up faster.

Vermont needs 24,000 to 36,000 more homes over five years, or roughly 5,000 to 7,000 a year. Towns issued permits for about 2,300 buildings last year.

More than 16,000 Vermonters already live in manufactured homes. Nothing changes for them. The change is about what the next buyer can choose.

Why Vermont didn’t do this already

It couldn’t. Until July 11, federal law required every manufactured home to be built on a frame and keep it.

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Lawmakers rewrote Vermont’s manufactured home law this spring. Act 155, signed June 17, opened more neighborhoods to manufactured homes and retired the term “mobile home.” When the House housing committee took testimony on it in January, Pew’s Rachel Siegel told members that every manufactured home still had to sit on a frame. She flagged two-story designs as one thing that would open up if that requirement ever went away. The federal change came 24 days after Act 155 was signed.

Compass found no group on record opposing the change, in Vermont or nationally.

What the Legislature has to do

The frame requirement shows up in several places: the law that defines manufactured homes, the law covering their sale, the rules lenders follow when a home secures a loan, and the state’s mobile home park regulations. All of them have to change.

Then Vermont has to tell federal housing officials that its laws treat homes with and without a frame the same way. That includes how buyers finance, insure, title and pay taxes on them. The deadline is July 11, 2027. The Legislature usually adjourns in May, so the change has to pass in the session that starts in January.

Vermont isn’t behind yet. As of Oct. 1, only six states had acted, Pew found.

Compass Vermont previously reported on modular housing in Vermont and the Treasurer’s inquiry into the delivered price of a Vermont home.

If you want to weigh in

Here’s how to reach the people who will decide this, so you can make up your own mind and make your views known.

• Find your legislators: Look them up by town at the Legislature’s website. Lawmakers elected this week take office in January.

• Leave a message at the State House: Call (802) 828-2228 during the session, which starts in January.

• Committees that handled this year’s law: House General and Housing, and Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs. Membership for 2027 is set in January.

• Governor’s office: (802) 828-3333, or write the governor online.

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GlobalFoundries is speeding up investment in silicon germanium chips because customers want more than it can make,

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CEO Tim Breen told investors Nov. 4. Customers are paying some of the money up front, he said, and an agreement with Marvell will help the company expand production at its Essex Junction plant.

Breen had flagged the shortage in May, when he said customers were already seeking more of the Vermont plant’s silicon germanium capacity than it could supply well into 2027. In September, Marvell signed an expanded multiyear agreement for more of that capacity. As Compass reported at the time, the Vermont chips go into devices that turn electrical signals into pulses of light and back again. That lets processors in an AI data center exchange information over fiber.

The quarterly filing shows how quickly that business is growing. GlobalFoundries’ company-wide sales to communications networks and data centers rose 81% in a year, from $175 million to $316 million. That market now brings in about one of every six dollars the company takes in, up from one in ten. GlobalFoundries credited demand for two technologies used in data center networks, silicon photonics and silicon germanium. The filing gives no separate sales figure for Essex Junction.

Overall, GlobalFoundries reported $1.9 billion in quarterly revenue and a $270 million net loss, compared with a $249 million profit a year earlier. The company attributed the loss mainly to a $441 million accounting charge, with no cash changing hands, for shares it issued to the federal government in September. Operating profit, which doesn’t count that charge, rose from $195 million to $230 million.

What happens next in Vermont.

In October, the U.S. Commerce Department agreed to redirect up to $955 million from an existing federal chipmaking award toward Essex Junction and Malta, New York. GlobalFoundries agreed to raise its own investment at the two plants to a combined $5 billion. Commerce gave no breakdown by state.

GlobalFoundries lists 1,800 employees and contractors at its Vermont site. Chief Financial Officer Sam Franklin said on the earnings call that the company can add much of its new production capacity inside factories it already operates, without building new ones. For Vermonters, the open question is whether that expansion will mean more jobs in Essex Junction. The company gave no local hiring projection. Readers can check current openings through GlobalFoundries and Vermont JobLink.

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BETA Technologies brought in $17.7 million in revenue, the money it takes in from customers, from July through September. That was nearly double the same months of 2025 and the most in the South Burlington electric-aircraft maker’s history, the company reported Nov. 3.

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It was also well above the $8 million to $12 million BETA had forecast. The company raised its revenue forecast for the full year to $52 million to $57 million, up from the $42 million to $50 million it projected in August.

Three weeks after the quarter ended, BETA flew its vertical-takeoff plane, the ALIA A250, across Lake Champlain. On Oct. 16, the FAA gave the A250 a market-survey certificate. That’s a special permit that lets BETA take prospective customers and other business partners along on demonstration flights before the aircraft is fully approved. It is the first such certificate for an electric aircraft that takes off and lands straight up, like a helicopter. On Oct. 20, the A250 flew from Plattsburgh to Burlington in about 20 minutes, BETA told investors.

For Vermont, the bigger news is in the company’s quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission: BETA is spending heavily to get its factory ready to build planes.

The factory is getting ready first

• BETA has spent $94 million on buildings, machinery and its charging network so far this year, more than three and a half times the $25.7 million it spent in the first nine months of 2025.

• Construction BETA has started but not finished more than tripled in value since the start of the year, to $70.2 million from $20.6 million.

• BETA says it began scaling up manufacturing in the third quarter. It now has $26.3 million worth of materials and parts set aside for building aircraft.

On the earnings call, BETA said it is working toward showing its factory can build the equivalent of 4.5 aircraft a month, about 54 a year. It expects the equipment and systems for that pace to be in place by the end of this year, with more production tests continuing into early 2027.

BETA said it is not yet staffing to build at that pace every month, and it will add production workers “at the right time.” For now, the factory’s top job is building the aircraft the FAA will use in its certification testing.

The plant has room to grow. BETA’s 2025 stock-offering filing said its roughly 188,000-square-foot South Burlington factory is designed to build more than 300 aircraft a year at full maturity. Beyond that, BETA’s master plan now before South Burlington’s Development Review Board proposes almost 1.5 million square feet of buildings with room for 5,600 people, counting employees and visitors, VTDigger reported in October.

Hiring is still growing. BETA’s administrative salaries and benefits rose $8.6 million over the same quarter last year “due to increased headcount,” the quarterly report says. Labor costs on the research side, including stock given to employees as pay, rose $17.2 million.

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On the Nov. 3 earnings call, BETA founder and CEO Kyle Clark put the company’s workforce at about 1,500. In June, BETA had nearly 1,400 workers and said 85% of the 420 people it hired in the first half of the year were from Vermont, VTDigger reported. Last December, Clark said he expected to add close to 1,000 workers over 18 months, predominantly in Vermont.

BETA has a loan from the Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that lends to companies that sell American-made goods overseas. A proposed $830 million expansion of that financing, which Compass reported in August, is meant to pay for manufacturing growth. BETA said on the call that the financing is still advancing. It is not final yet. The quarterly report lists only BETA’s existing loan from the bank.

What BETA earns money from now

BETA doesn’t sell finished, fully approved airplanes yet. Most of its revenue comes from engineering work for other companies.

• Engineering and consulting work (what BETA calls service revenue): $12.5 million, about 7 of every 10 revenue dollars in the quarter, mostly work supporting other companies’ own research. Of that, BETA earned $4.1 million doing engineering work for GE Aerospace, which invested $300 million in BETA last year. So far this year, GE work accounts for about two of every five revenue dollars.

• Equipment: $5.2 million in product sales, including $4.3 million in chargers and other ground equipment.

• Government work: $355,000, down from $2.7 million a year earlier. BETA completed a set of federal government contracts last year.

BETA’s pitch to future buyers is cost. The company puts the operating cost of its runway plane, the ALIA CX300, at about $450 an hour, compared with $800 to $850 for a Cessna Caravan, a common single-engine cargo plane, AIN reported from the call.

BETA says its order book now totals just over $4 billion for 1,040 aircraft, an average of about $3.85 million a plane. That total includes both firm orders and options, which give customers the right to buy more planes later if they choose.

Before BETA can deliver those planes for regular commercial use, the FAA has to grant type certification, its approval of an aircraft’s design. The market-survey certificate is a step before that. Clark predicted the A250 will be the first electric vertical-takeoff aircraft to win type certification, but he did not give a date, AIN reported.

What it costs to get there

BETA lost $119.1 million in the quarter, about $1.3 million a day. For every dollar it spent running the company, it brought in about 12 cents in revenue, up from about 10 cents a year earlier.

Last year’s third-quarter loss was larger, $437.2 million, but $355.6 million of that was a one-time accounting charge tied to issuing stock to investors. On its day-to-day business alone, BETA’s quarterly loss grew to $127.8 million from $80.6 million as it spent more on development and hiring.

BETA ended September with $1.34 billion in cash, down about $136 million from the end of June and $367 million since the start of the year.

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Lake Champlain medical flights

The Oct. 20 flight was a demonstration. It was not the Lake Champlain medical program.

That program is part of a federal test program called the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, which lets aircraft that haven’t finished FAA approval fly real missions. (eVTOL is short for electric vertical takeoff and landing.) In the Vermont piece, Metro Aviation, which flies UVM Health’s medical helicopter, would use BETA’s planes to carry medical equipment and blood products between Burlington and hospitals in northern New York.

On Sept. 30, BETA told Compass the project had not launched and that it was working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which leads the project, to set a start date, as Compass reported Oct. 1.

BETA now says six of its seven test programs have launched. The launches BETA and its partners have announced:

• Maryland and Virginia, transplant organ deliveries, in July (Compass, Oct. 1)

• Louisiana, flights supporting oil and gas work along the Gulf Coast, in late August

• North Carolina and Texas, medical and emergency-response supplies, in September (Compass, Oct. 1)

• Utah, time-sensitive cancer medicines, in October

• Florida, cargo and medical flights, on Oct. 30

The one not on that list is the Port Authority project that includes the Vermont flights. No launch has been announced for it, and BETA’s Nov. 3 earnings release did not mention a start date.

BETA said it will give its 2027 forecast when it reports fourth-quarter results early next year.

At the bottom of this story: how to find who represents your town in Montpelier, and how to see how they voted on any bill named here.

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Vermonters on Tuesday reelected Republican Gov. Phil Scott to a sixth consecutive two-year term, something no Vermont governor had done before. Scott beat Democrat/Progressive Amanda Janoo.

On the same ballot, voters gave Democrats and Progressives back enough seats to override his vetoes in both the House and the Senate, by the reported count.

Scott acknowledged in his victory speech that Democrats had regained their supermajority.

That split is not new. Scott took office in January 2017, and in every year since, Democrats have controlled both chambers of the Legislature. Republicans have not held a majority in either chamber at any point in his tenure. Democrats have run the House since the 2004 election and the Senate since the 1996 election.

So when Vermonters ask why property taxes keep climbing or housing stays scarce, the answer depends on which decision they mean. Some were made by lawmakers over Scott’s objection. Some were stopped by his veto, which enough lawmakers voted to uphold. Others were passed by lawmakers and signed by Scott.

The Split, Term by Term

A governor’s veto can be overridden only if two-thirds of the members present in each chamber vote to do it. With everyone in their seats, that’s 100 of the 150 House members and 20 of the 30 senators. A party, or two allied parties, holding that many seats in both chambers is what people mean by a supermajority.

Seat counts are as of the start of each term. House figures are from the House clerk’s party records. Senate figures are from 2017–18, 2019–20, 2021–24 and 2025–26 election records.

Counting through the end of his new term, Scott will have faced override-sized majorities in both chambers for six of 12 years, if the reported results hold. In the other three terms, Democrats and Progressives started without enough seats to override him on their own if every member showed up.

Six Decisions, and Who Made Them

The record on each of these bills shows who approved it or blocked it. It doesn’t, by itself, show how much any one of them changed what a household pays.

Enacted over Scott’s veto

Property taxes, 2024. Each year the Legislature passes a “yield bill” that sets the statewide education property tax rates needed to pay for the school budgets local voters approved. The 2024 version was projected to raise the average education property tax bill 13.8%. Scott vetoed it, writing that Vermonters couldn’t afford a double-digit increase. House Speaker Jill Krowinski called the bill a critical step toward tax relief and a stable school system, and lawmakers overrode the veto in June 2024. The rate on that year’s tax bills was set over the governor’s objection; the school budgets behind it were set by local voters.

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Act 250 overhaul, 2024. Act 250 is Vermont’s 1970 law requiring state review of larger development projects. The 2024 rewrite, H.687, sets up a tier system that decides how much review a project gets based on where it is, temporarily exempts some housing while the tiers are drawn, and adds new review for forest blocks and road building. Scott vetoed it, arguing it leaned toward conservation and would slow housing. Backers, including then-Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, noted it was largely based on recommendations from a study led by Scott’s own administration. Lawmakers overrode the veto on June 17, 2024.

Blocked by Scott’s veto, with lawmakers sustaining it

Paid family leave, 2020. H.107 would have created a paid family and medical leave program funded by a payroll tax. Scott vetoed it over the tax. The House fell one vote short of overriding him, even though Democrats and Progressives held 102 House seats, two more than an override needed. Some of them voted with the governor.

Heating fuels: a veto held, then an override. The Clean Heat Standard would have required companies that sell heating fuel to cut the carbon pollution from what they sell, by paying for things like heat pumps and weatherization. Scott vetoed it in 2022, and the House fell one vote short of overriding him. The next year, with larger majorities, lawmakers passed a revised version, the Affordable Heat Act, and overrode his veto; in the Senate, the override got exactly the two-thirds it needed. That override did not start the program. The law requires lawmakers to vote again before it can take effect, and in January 2026 the Public Utility Commission closed its case because that vote never came.

Passed by lawmakers and signed by Scott

Housing, 2023. The HOME Act, S.100, required towns to allow duplexes wherever single-family homes are allowed and up to four units in areas with town water and sewer. It capped parking requirements and temporarily exempted more housing in downtowns and village centers from Act 250. Scott signed it June 5, 2023, during a term when Democrats and Progressives could have overridden him.

Education, 2025. H.454, now Act 73, set Vermont on a path to fund schools through a statewide per-student formula and to redraw school districts into fewer, larger ones, with the details left to later laws. That year Democrats and Progressives lacked the seats to override a veto without help from Republicans or independents. Scott’s policy director testified before the House-Senate committee that wrote the final version, and Scott signed the bill July 1, 2025.

What Changes in January

The split itself has held through six elections. What shifts is whether Democrats and Progressives have the seats to override Scott, and if the reported results hold, they will in January, for the third time in his tenure.

Those numbers would let Democrats and Progressives enact laws over Scott’s veto when enough of their members agree. The last time they had them, the Legislature overrode six of his vetoes in a single day in June 2024. In the two years since, without those numbers, Democrats sought more compromises with the governor, WCAX reported.

Having the seats is not the same as having the votes. The 2020 paid leave override failed with 102 Democrats and Progressives in the House. In 2024, with a supermajority in both chambers, the Senate still sustained Scott’s veto of a data privacy bill. His veto stands whenever an override falls short of two-thirds of those present in either chamber.

Both sides have signaled what comes next. Ideas such as higher taxes on the wealthy have stalled under the threat of Scott’s veto and opposition from fiscally moderate Democrats, WCAX reported. With override numbers, those bills no longer need his signature if enough Democrats and Progressives back them. Scott made his case against them in the campaign’s final debate, saying that when you’re governor, “the math has to add up.”

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Check It Yourself

Who gets credit or blame for any of this is for you to decide. Here’s where to see the record for yourself.

• Find your legislators. Enter your town at the Legislature’s legislator search. It lists the current members; the newly elected take their seats in January.

• See how they voted. Open any bill’s page through the Legislature’s bill search and click the “Roll Call Votes” tab. Each roll call lists how every member voted. Pick the right two-year session first, since bill numbers repeat every session.

• Read the bills in this story: property taxes, H.887 · Act 250, H.687 · paid leave, H.107 · Clean Heat, H.715 · Affordable Heat, S.5 · HOME Act, S.100 · education, H.454

• Read the governor’s side. The Legislature keeps a list of bills Scott vetoed for each session; each bill’s page links to his veto letter explaining why.

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At the bottom: how to sign up for VT-Alert, how to keep it from ringing at 3 a.m., and where to find the alert switches on your phone.

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Between 2 and 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, highway message boards, lottery terminals, TV and radio stations, and the phones of people signed up for the state’s VT-Alert service will all carry the same test message.

It’s the annual exercise of Vermont’s Blue Alert system, run by the Department of Public Safety. Test messages open with “This is a TEST of the Vermont BLUE Alert Notification system. Only a Test,” according to the Vermont Association of Broadcasters.

If you’ve never heard of a Blue Alert, that’s because it’s built for rare emergencies. Vermont joined the system in 2019, and its best-known use came in St. Johnsbury in December 2024.

What a Blue Alert is

A Blue Alert works like an AMBER Alert, except the person in danger is a police officer. The Vermont State Police say an alert can go out when:

• an officer has been killed or seriously injured in the line of duty, the suspect hasn’t been caught, and the suspect is a threat to the public or other officers; or

• an officer is missing on duty under circumstances that raise concern for the officer’s safety; or

• a threat to kill or seriously injure an officer is judged imminent and credible.

In every case, police also need enough description of the suspect or vehicle that putting it out to the public could actually help, and the agency asking for the alert has to commit people to the investigation.

Vermont’s definition of “officer” is wider than most people would guess. The broadcasters’ guidelines say it covers judges, prosecutors, corrections officers, and probation and parole officers, along with police, at the federal, state and local level.

The alert doesn’t go out if the suspect is caught at the scene, and it isn’t used when a civilian is the victim. Police have other ways to warn the public in those cases.

Where it came from

Congress created the national Blue Alert network in 2015 and named the law for Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, two New York City police officers killed in an ambush in December 2014. States set up their own systems under it. Vermont joined in August 2019, when more than 30 other states already had one.

When Vermont used it

On Dec. 13, 2024, St. Johnsbury Police Capt. Jason Gray was shot and seriously wounded while answering a domestic violence call. The suspect fled on foot, and the state issued a Blue Alert. The search reached into New York, two $25,000 rewards were posted, and the suspect was arrested around 2 a.m. that Sunday in the house next door to where the shooting happened.

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How an alert reaches you

Most Vermonters wouldn’t have to do anything to hear about a Blue Alert. It goes out several ways at once:

• TV and radio, through the Emergency Alert System, the same system that breaks into a broadcast for tornado warnings.

• Highway message boards run by the Agency of Transportation.

• Lottery signs, kiosks and printed tickets at stores that sell Vermont Lottery games.

A Blue Alert can reach your phone two different ways:

• VT-Alert is a subscription. You give the state’s vendor your phone number, email and the places you care about, and it texts, emails or calls you.

• Wireless Emergency Alerts are the loud, full-screen warnings that come through your cell carrier. There’s nothing to sign up for; any compatible phone in the alert area gets them. The National Weather Service lists Blue Alerts among the warnings these can carry, and Vermont’s Blue Alert system is set up to send them.

Thursday’s test uses VT-Alert but not Wireless Emergency Alerts. So if your phone stays quiet Thursday, that doesn’t mean it would stay quiet for a real one.

Should you sign up for VT-Alert?

VT-Alert is free, and it’s the one channel you choose. Here’s how it cuts each way.

Reasons to sign up:

• The state says VT-Alert carries the latest information at the time of an alert, so updates come to you rather than you having to chase them.

• You can add up to five extra Vermont locations, such as a parent’s town or a child’s school.

• VT-Alert isn’t just for Blue Alerts. The same account delivers evacuation orders, chemical spills, boil-water notices, severe weather and road closures, which in Vermont come far more often than a shot officer.

Reasons you might not:

• Real Blue Alerts are rare, and TV, radio, highway signs and your phone’s emergency alerts would likely carry one to you anyway.

• VT-Alert can wake you up. Vermont Emergency Management warns on its own sign-up page that subscribers who don’t set quiet hours will likely get phone calls in the middle of the night for non-urgent alerts.

• You hand over your phone number, email and addresses. VT-Alert is run for the state by Everbridge, a private company.

The bigger question is your phone’s settings

Middle-of-the-night alerts are where other states have run into trouble. In October 2024, Texas sent a Blue Alert to phones statewide around 4 a.m., and the FCC said it received about 4,500 complaints. One Texan’s post summed up the mood: “I will not find the bad guy at 4am. I am not Batman.”

The FCC’s worry is that people respond by turning phone alerts off entirely. Phones don’t have a separate switch for Blue Alerts, so the setting that silences a Blue Alert can also silence a flash-flood warning. In February 2025, the FCC let agencies send silent phone alerts. It named statewide and overnight AMBER and Blue Alerts as a main use, to keep people from opting out.

For most readers, then, the real choice isn’t whether to sign up for VT-Alert. It’s whether to leave the emergency alerts on your phone turned on.

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Check It Yourself

Compass gives you the information. Whether to sign up, and what to leave on, is your call.

To sign up for VT-Alert: Go to vem.vermont.gov/vtalert or sign up directly here. You’ll need a phone number or email, plus the Vermont address or addresses you want alerts for.

If you signed up before Dec. 1, 2025: You’re still getting alerts, but the state moved to a new system, so you need to create a new account to change your settings. The state says it takes about two minutes, and you can use the same email and phone.

To keep VT-Alert from ringing at night: When you choose your alert types, set “Quiet Hours” on non-urgent ones such as weather watches and advisories. Life-safety alerts, such as a dam breach or gas leak, still come through.

To find the alert switches on your phone:

• iPhone: Settings → Notifications → scroll to Government Alerts. You’ll see switches for AMBER Alerts, Emergency Alerts and Public Safety Alerts.

• Android: Settings → Safety & emergency (or Notifications) → Wireless emergency alerts. Menu names vary by phone maker.

Turning off emergency or public safety alerts can also turn off warnings for floods, tornadoes and other threats in your area. National alerts can’t be turned off.

If a real Blue Alert comes in: Watch for the person or vehicle described. If you see them, call 911 or the number in the alert, and don’t approach. The State Police ask that you not call 911 just for information about an alert.

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At the bottom of this story: how to check whether a property is on the state’s three-acre list, where to find permit funding information, and how to comment on the budget by Nov. 12.

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When rain or snowmelt hits a roof, a parking lot or a road, it doesn’t soak into the ground. It runs off, picking up soil and phosphorus and carrying them into the nearest stream. Phosphorus feeds the toxic algae blooms that close beaches on Lake Champlain.

Newer developments have to catch and clean that runoff before it leaves the property. Many older ones don’t, either because they never had a stormwater permit or because theirs dates to rules older than 2002.

In 2015, Vermont passed its own Clean Water Act, in part to show the federal government it could meet the cleanup targets set for Lake Champlain. One piece of that law: older properties with 3 or more acres of hard surface have to be brought up to modern standards. Those are the “three-acre sites.”

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In Richmond’s Southview neighborhood, 48 homes sit inside a site on the state’s three-acre stormwater list. The town will hold the permit. Under a plan the selectboard approved in January, homeowners would pay their share through a special fee charged only to their properties. At January’s cost estimate, that came to about $7,900 per home, or roughly $400 a year over 20 years. Engineers have since raised the construction estimate to about $358,000, from $310,000.

Help with costs like those comes from one line in Vermont’s clean water budget. Next year’s draft sets aside $2.3 million for it, about $1.1 million less than this year, a drop of nearly a third. For many owners, the application deadline arrives three months into the budget year.

Who has to comply, and when

A site can be a shopping plaza, a school, a ski area or a whole neighborhood. In Southview, the roofs, driveways and streets add up to more than 10 acres. The state counted roughly 680 three-acre sites in early 2025, and a single site can include anywhere from one to more than 100 owners.

In the Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog watersheds, and in watersheds already polluted by stormwater, owners who haven’t finished permitting must apply by Oct. 1, 2027. They must have a permit by Oct. 1, 2028, and build the required drainage improvements by Oct. 1, 2033.

In the Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog watersheds, and in watersheds already polluted by stormwater, owners who haven’t finished permitting must apply by Oct. 1, 2027. They must have a permit by Oct. 1, 2028, and build the required drainage improvements by Oct. 1, 2033. Elsewhere in Vermont, the state hasn’t identified sites yet, and the deadline to apply is 2037.

Owners who have received state three-acre help include:

• Public schools

• Manufactured-home communities

• Agricultural fairgrounds

• Towns

• Private property owners

The cut, by the numbers

The money is one line in the annual Clean Water Budget.

• This year: $3,382,457 for three-acre permit help, in the budget the Legislature passed.

• Next year’s draft: $2,309,080, in the board’s plain-language draft.

That’s the largest dollar reduction of any line in the draft.

For scale, the state’s January clean water report said about 260 sites statewide had received help with design and permitting, totaling a little more than $12.8 million. About 85 sites were planned to receive more than $47 million in help for construction. The same report said “additional resources are likely needed” to give some communities and landowners the help they need to comply.

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Why the budget is smaller

The whole draft budget totals about $43.2 million, down about $2 million, or 4.4%, from this year’s $45.2 million.

The regular funding isn’t the cause. Both years have about $40 million in base money: dedicated Clean Water Fund revenue plus $10 million from the state’s construction budget. What’s shrinking is the one-time money, which is leftover revenue from earlier years and interest the fund earns.

• This year: $5.3 million in one-time money.

• Next year’s draft: $3.1 million.

All of this year’s three-acre money came from one-time funds. Much of the earlier three-acre help came from federal pandemic relief money, which the state can no longer budget and must spend by December 2026.

What else changes in the draft

• Grants to farms for water quality projects: $12.04 million to $11.30 million

• Erosion fixes on state forest and park roads: $1.2 million to $600,000

• Help for loggers to buy portable bridges that keep equipment out of streams: $150,000 to $650,000

• Startup payments for towns forming stormwater utilities: $125,000 to zero

• Grants for town sewer and stormwater projects: $3.92 million to $4 million

• Grants for town road drainage: unchanged at $4 million

• Grants to regional groups that cut phosphorus in the Lake Champlain and Memphremagog basins: unchanged at $7.21 million

What it means for owners

The permit deadlines don’t move with the budget. Whether a smaller new appropriation means less help for any one owner depends on three things the budget documents don’t answer:

• how much earlier funding is still available after existing commitments,

• what other assistance programs offer, and

• whether a project qualifies.

DEC’s funding page for three-acre sites lays out where help stands now:

• The state’s main permitting-help program, paid for with federal relief money, closed to new applicants in September 2024.

• Upcoming programs will put manufactured-home communities and public schools first.

• Most public schools with three-acre sites have already enrolled in the state’s Green Schools program.

• Other owners can turn to low-interest state loans or, in some cases, Lake Champlain Basin Program grants.

The same page asks owners to tell the Clean Water Board their funding needs during this comment period.

The state’s January report says the cost of meeting Vermont’s clean water goals was always expected to be split among the state, towns, farms, homeowners and businesses.

What happens next

The board takes public comment through Nov. 12 and makes its final recommendation in December. The governor considers that recommendation in preparing the state budget proposal, and the Legislature has the final say. The budget year, fiscal 2028, runs July 1, 2027, to June 30, 2028.

Check It Yourself

The board is asking the public whether the funding is enough and what should come first. Here’s what you need to decide for yourself and weigh in.

• Is a property on the list? DEC’s list of three-acre sites was last updated June 16, 2026. It covers the Lake Champlain, Lake Memphremagog and stormwater-polluted watersheds.

• Funding information for three-acre sites: DEC’s funding assistance page.

• What’s been funded in your area: the state’s Clean Water Interactive Dashboard.

• Comment on the budget by Nov. 12:

  • Attend the public hearing Thursday, Nov. 5, at 11 a.m.

    • In person: Catamount Room, Davis Building, second floor (Room D215), One National Life Drive, Montpelier.

    • Online: Microsoft Teams.

    • By phone: 802-828-7667, conference ID 291 044 456 498 555.

    • DEC asks for an RSVP by noon Wednesday, Nov. 4, especially if you’ll attend in person. The RSVP form and Teams link are on the board’s meetings page.

  • Email ANR.CleanWaterVT@vermont.gov with the subject line “Clean Water Budget Public Comment.”

  • Fill out the budget questionnaire. It’s best for readers who already know the budget’s line items.

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“Democratic newcomer Amanda Janoo holds a small lead over Republican incumbent Phil Scott in the race for Governor of Vermont. However, most likely voters in Vermont expect Scott to win.”

That’s how the University of New Hampshire opened its final poll of the governor’s race, released Sunday. The poll has Janoo, a Democrat/Progressive, leading Scott 51% to 43% among likely voters.

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Janoo’s campaign emphasized that lead in a Monday release headlined “Janoo is Up Eight Points in Final Poll as Lead Over Five-Term Governor Grows.” But the same survey produced another striking finding. Sixty-two percent of likely voters expect Scott to win, while only 25% expect Janoo to. Even among Janoo’s supporters, 40% expect Scott to prevail. The poll tells two different stories: whom voters prefer, and whom they expect to win Tuesday.

What Voters Expect

Pollsters usually lead by asking people whom they’ll vote for. The UNH poll also asked: “Regardless of your vote, which candidate do you think is most likely to win the 2026 election for governor?”

A voter can support Janoo and still expect Scott to win. The first answer measures that voter’s own choice; the second measures that voter’s read of everyone else. And 62% expecting Scott to win is not a 62% chance that he will.

The expectation question has a strong record. Economists David Rothschild and Justin Wolfers found that asking voters who will win forecast presidential elections more accurately than asking how they’ll vote. In an analysis of the 2014 elections, expectation questions missed half as many governor’s races as vote questions did. The researchers’ explanation is that people answering about expectations draw on what they know of their friends’ and family’s plans.

That record gives voters’ expectations weight, but it doesn’t establish which question will prove more accurate in Vermont this year. In the UNH poll, the two questions point in opposite directions.

Did the Lead Grow?

In September, UNH had Janoo at 49% and Scott at 43%, with 6% undecided. This time, UNH added a follow-up question for undecided voters asking which way they lean. Those voters are called leaners. The 51%-to-43% figure includes them.

UNH also reports the result without leaners, which is the version that matches September: Janoo 50%, Scott 42%. Janoo’s reported lead widened from six points to eight. In those directly comparable results, her support rose one point and Scott’s fell one point. Changes that small don’t, by themselves, establish that the electorate shifted.

The undecided share fell from 6% to 2%. Over the same period, independent Brian Judd rose from 2% to 4%, and Freedom and Unity candidate Dean Roy picked up 1%.

UNH’s bar chart is titled “With Leaners” over both its September and October panels. The September numbers didn’t include leaners. A footnote under the chart says so.

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How Certain Is an Eight-Point Lead?

UNH lists a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 points for likely voters. That figure applies to each candidate’s share, not to the gap between them.

Pollsters adjust their raw results so the people who answered look like the state as a whole. That’s called weighting. A rough calculation that leaves out weighting puts the margin of error on the gap at about 5.5 points, and Janoo’s eight-point lead exceeds that estimate. But UNH says its published margins have not been adjusted for the uncertainty weighting adds. So the 5.5-point calculation doesn’t settle how precise the weighted result is.

The Headline

UNH’s headline on the Vermont poll reads “Blue Wave Lifts Janoo Over Scott in Vermont?” That suggests party is the reason for Janoo’s lead. The survey doesn’t establish that. Most of her supporters, 72%, say their vote is more for Janoo than against Scott, and 82% of those say it’s about her specifically. That doesn’t rule out a broader partisan pull, but it isn’t evidence of one either.

UNH released its New Hampshire poll the same day under a plain headline: “Dems Lead in Federal Races, Governors Race Deadlocked.”

The Other Polls and the Record

Of the three pollsters in this story, UNH is the only one whose fall surveys have put Janoo ahead.

• State Navigate, Oct. 23–25, 1,752 likely voters: Scott 49%, Janoo 46%.

• Vermont Public, September: Scott ahead by 10 points.

UNH’s final poll in 2024 had Scott 39 points ahead of Esther Charlestin. He won by nearly 52, about 13 points more than the poll showed.

As Compass reported in September, polls and prediction markets have each missed in Vermont before, and neither decides the race.

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UNH’s Case

UNH’s poll draws from a panel of about 2,700 Vermont adults recruited at random by phone, text and mail. In September, Survey Center director Andrew Smith said that kind of panel is the same method used by Gallup, CNN and Pew.

UNH weighted the sample by age, sex, education and region, and to Vermont’s 2024 election results. The sample’s recalled 2024 presidential vote, Harris 62% and Trump 31%, closely matches the actual result of 64% to 32%.

The poll also finds conditions that favor a challenger this year:

• Only 20% of Vermonters approve of President Trump, the lowest in New England.

• Democrats are more engaged: 69% say they’re extremely interested in the election, compared with 59% of Republicans.

• Janoo is better liked than Scott, with 54% favorable to his 42%.

• 38% of Janoo’s supporters say they voted for Scott in 2024. That’s reported crossover, the kind of shift a challenger needs.

What the Poll Shows

Read in full, the UNH poll measures a close race two ways, and the two point in different directions: whom voters support, and whom they expect to win. The release’s presentation leans further than its numbers do, with a “blue wave” headline the survey doesn’t establish and a September chart labeled with leaners it didn’t have.

The Campaigns

“A poll in the homestretch isn’t what tells us we’re succeeding,” Janoo said in Monday’s release. She pointed instead to turnout at her campaign’s canvasses and its endorsements, and said the campaign would spend every second until the polls close getting out the vote.

Scott’s campaign has argued that polls understate his support. After the September polls, spokesperson Emma Shouldice said that “public polling has always undervalued the Governor’s support.”

As of Friday, nearly 140,000 Vermonters had already voted, according to the Secretary of State’s office. That’s nearly half the 292,000 ballots cast in Vermont’s 2022 general election. Polls are open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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How to read the plan, send a comment and get to the Nov. 9 meeting, which has a new location, is in the box at the bottom of this story.

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To replace dying ash and beech and grow young forest for wildlife, the state expects to cut timber on about a third of Okemo State Forest over the next 20 years, roughly 2,600 acres. The work would include thinning and other partial cuts, which take some trees and leave the rest, along with small patch clearcuts. That is more of the forest than the state has logged since 1962.

The draft long-range management plan covers the 7,983-acre forest in Ludlow, Mount Holly, Andover and Weston. It is the forest’s first full plan since 1990. The Agency of Natural Resources is taking public comments through Dec. 10.

The plan maps larger areas than it expects to cut, and it gives different numbers for them. The areas it lists for management add up to about 3,750 acres, nearly half the forest. Another section puts the figure at about 3,580 acres, or 45%. The plan expects the actual harvest to come out closer to a third of the forest once wetlands, steep ground and other areas are left out.

There is no exact count. Brackin said harvest areas get “further refined through on-the-ground, site-specific analysis that often results in smaller harvest areas than what is reflected in the [long-range management plan].”

Why the State Wants to Cut More

The plan says sugar maple, the forest’s most common tree, is in generally good health. The problems are with other trees and with a shortage of young forest:

• Most ash is expected to die. Emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that kills ash trees, is already killing ash near the forest. The plan expects most of Okemo’s ash to be infested and dead within about 10 years. It puts stands with ash near the front of the schedule, to harvest the trees before they die and before dead trees threaten people on trails.

• Most beech is dead or declining. Beech bark disease has killed most of the older beech, including stands bears relied on for beechnuts. In one area the plan says “food sources have not naturally replaced.” Healthy beech will be kept. Foresters want to grow black cherry, blackberry, pin cherry and red oak where the beech has died.

• Young forest is scarce. Most stands grew back together after clearcuts 80 to 100 years ago. A 2014 Audubon Vermont assessment found young forest on about 1% of the property. Grouse, snowshoe hare and many songbirds need young forest.

To create young forest, the plan sets a target of 400 acres of patch clearcuts over 20 years. These openings would range from half an acre to 10 acres depending on the type of forest, with some trees left standing for seed and wildlife. The state has made about 30 patch clearcuts since 1992.

Money from timber sales goes to conservation projects on state land across Vermont.

What Stays Off Limits

The plan bars timber harvesting on 1,838 acres, nearly a quarter of the forest, and lets those areas grow old. That includes the 798-acre Terrible Mountain Natural Area, the high ridges and upper slopes, and Buttermilk Falls. The plan calls for no timber harvest along the Okemo Mountain Road. On the west slopes of Okemo and Terrible mountains, which the plan rates as high scenic value, it calls for cutting methods that keep visible changes to the treetops to a minimum.

The Ski Area

Vail Resorts, which bought Okemo Mountain Resort in 2018, leases 1,223 acres of the state forest for the ski area. The current lease term runs through December 2033, according to Vail’s latest annual report. Two 10-year renewal options would carry it to 2053. The draft does not expand the ski area. Okemo paid the state about $1 million in lease fees in 2024 and $955,000 in 2025, money that goes to the State Parks system.

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What Changes for People Who Use the Forest

The plan says its target dates are preliminary and depend on funding and staff.

• Buttermilk Falls: The falls averaged 144 vehicles a day in July and August 2021, parked along the town road. The plan calls for an off-street lot big enough for 90% of peak traffic, with roadside parking ended except for accessibility and emergency needs. It also calls for a single rebuilt trail to all three falls, to replace the eroding side paths. The work is targeted for 2027 to 2032.

• Okemo Mountain Road: The 3.2-mile road is free to drive and carried 27,237 vehicles from August through October 2023, close to 300 a day. Repaving is estimated at $3.5 million to $6 million, with a target of 2027 to 2032. Brackin said funding for road improvements is “typically sourced through State Capital appropriations,” meaning the capital budget the Legislature approves.

• The summit: A new parking area and connecting trail would give hikers a route to the fire tower that avoids the resort work road.

• Trailheads: The plan would develop or improve up to four access points with small parking lots, off Route 100, Route 155, Felton Road and Dorman Road.

• Hunters: The state is considering a gate on Government Road in Mount Holly that would open more of the road to hunters in the fall.

• Snowmobilers: Homeowners now legally plow part of Government Road, which is also Corridor Trail 7 of the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers. The plan includes looking for a reroute, as the snowmobile association has asked.

• Hikers on the Healdville Trail: The state will assess the risk from dying ash along the trail and plan for removing trees that become hazards.

Brackin said the agency encourages Vermonters “to submit comments and attend the upcoming public meeting.” The agency will publish a summary of the comment themes, with its responses, after the comment period closes.

Decide for Yourself: Read the Plan and Weigh In

• Read the draft plan: The full plan, maps and an online comment form are at fpr.vermont.gov/okemo-state-forest.

• Comment by email: Send comments to anr.statelandsplanning@vermont.gov by Dec. 10.

• Attend the meeting: Monday, Nov. 9, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Ludlow Community Center, 37 Main St. The meeting has moved from the Town Hall listed in the state’s first announcement. Written comments are accepted there too, and the agency will post a recording on the same page.

• Check your area: Find the proposed management units on the Implementation Map (Figure 15) in the plan. Table 36 lists where they are and the years work is targeted to happen.

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Beyond the Vermont Way: What the New Education Chair Knows About Doing Schools Differently

Janoo Says Private Equity Is Driving Up Vermont Home Prices. The Numbers Don’t Back It Up

Hackers Are Targeting Vermont Towns. Fewer Than a Third Have Registered a .Gov Address.

Stowe Businesses Can Now Bet Against Snow to Protect Winter Bookings. Here’s What It Costs.

What Scott and Janoo Got Right — and Wrong — in Their Final Debate

Gov. Phil Scott and Amanda Janoo, the Democratic and Progressive nominee, met Wednesday night on WCAX for their last debate before Tuesday’s election. Both made specific claims about schools, taxes and the economy that can be checked against public records. Here is what holds up, what doesn’t, and why it matters to you.

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Has Mississippi Passed Vermont? In Fourth Grade, Yes. In Eighth Grade, No.

What Scott said: “Mississippi is eating our lunch.” A moderator went further, saying Mississippi had “turned theirs around” and “passed us.”

What the record shows: Mississippi’s turnaround is real. Its fourth graders ranked 49th in reading and 50th in math in 2013. By 2024 they led the nation in gains since then on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the national test given the same way in every state.

But making big gains isn’t the same as passing Vermont. Here’s the share of students scoring proficient or better in 2024:

In fourth grade, Mississippi’s scores are one to two points higher than Vermont’s. In eighth grade, Vermont is six to seven points ahead.

Vermont Spends More Than Twice What Mississippi Does Per Student — for Similar Fourth-Grade Scores

What Scott said: Vermont is “the top spender in the country per pupil.”

What the record shows: Close, but not quite. Census Bureau figures for the 2024 school year rank Vermont third, behind New York and the District of Columbia. That’s second among the 50 states.

• Vermont: $28,818 per student

• National average: $17,619

• Mississippi: $12,324

Why it matters: Vermont spends more than twice as much per student as Mississippi and gets roughly the same fourth-grade results. Vermont’s education property tax pays for much of that spending, which is why school costs sat at the center of both candidates’ pitches.

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Janoo Is Right That Vermont Keeps Changing Its Tests, But The Mississippi Comparison Doesn’t Use Them.

What Janoo said: Schools told her “the testing methodology has changed four times over the last 10 years,” so it’s hard to know where Vermont stands. Asked to back that up, her campaign said “the State of Vermont has used at least four different testing methodologies in the last 10 years.”

What the record shows: Her count holds up. Counting the main test, the science test and the separate test for students with significant cognitive disabilities, Vermont has changed its state tests at least four times since 2015:

• 2015: Smarter Balanced replaced NECAP for English and math.

• 2019: The Vermont Science Assessment replaced NECAP science.

• 2023: VTCAP replaced both.

• 2023: Vermont moved its alternate test, taken by about 1 percent of students, to a multistate exam after several earlier changes.

But: None of those changes touch the comparison with Mississippi. That comparison uses NAEP, which is designed to stay comparable from year to year. NAEP shows Vermont eighth graders’ reading proficiency falling from 40 percent in 2019 to 29 percent in 2024, the steepest drop of any state, according to the education think tank FutureEd.

Why it matters: The changes to Vermont’s own tests make it harder to track a school from year to year. They don’t explain away Vermont’s slide on the national test.

Scott Misspoke on Millionaires, but His Count of High Earners Mostly Holds

What Scott said: Vermont has too few high earners to pay for Janoo’s plans. He said 13 filers make more than $1 million and 16,000 make more than $250,000, counting a married couple as one return. His campaign said the figures came from the Tax Department’s 2024 income tax statistics.

What the record shows:

• Millionaires: The table shows 1,325 resident returns over $1 million, about 1 in every 250 returns. Scott’s other figures are consistent with the same table, so “13” was almost certainly a slip for “thirteen hundred,” not a misreading of the data.

• Over $250,000: The table doesn’t break at $250,000, but its count of returns above that line falls between about 12,000 and 26,700. Scott’s 16,000 fits within that range.

• One-time income: Scott said half of the millionaire returns, and a third of those over $250,000, came from one-time events such as selling a business or a farm, leaving about 11,000 households to carry a new tax. The table doesn’t track one-time income, and the campaign gave no source for those shares.

• One billionaire: The table’s top category is “$1 million and up,” so it can’t confirm Scott’s statement that Vermont has one filer making $1 billion.

Why it matters: The number of high earners decides how much a tax on them could raise, and that’s the question behind whether Janoo’s plans can be paid for. The same table shows that returns over $200,000, about 8 percent of the total, already paid 60 percent of Vermont’s income tax from residents in 2024. Supporters of the Fair Share proposal Janoo backs argue that once sales and property taxes are counted, the highest earners pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than other Vermonters.

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Essex Said No to Amazon First. Act 250 Came Second.

What Scott said: Amazon “couldn’t get that done with our Act 250 and the PUC” when it tried to build a distribution center in a Chittenden County industrial park.

What the record shows: The first no came from the town. The Essex Development Review Board rejected the Saxon Hill warehouse in July 2025, and Amazon appealed to the environmental division of Vermont Superior Court. In April 2026, an Act 250 commission denied a road and subdivision that would have led to the site, finding they didn’t conform to Essex’s own town plan.

Why it matters: Scott used Amazon as an example of state permitting driving business away. Act 250 did play a part, but the first decision was made locally, and the Act 250 denial rested on the town’s own plan.

Janoo Can’t Yet Say What Her Second-Home Tax Would Raise — and the State’s Own Version Won’t Start Until 2029

What Janoo said: Asked how much her second-home tax would bring in, she said she couldn’t yet say because “right now we only have two property tax classifications.” The state would first have to create new ones, she said.

What the record shows: She’s right about today. Every property is taxed as either a homestead or a nonhomestead. But the Legislature has already written a second-home class into law. The 2026 education law, Act 170, created a “nonhomestead residential” class: houses that aren’t anyone’s primary home or a long-term rental. It takes effect July 1, 2029, if conditions in the law are met. It doesn’t draw the distinctions Janoo described, such as luxury homes versus family camps or corporate owners versus families.

What Scott said: He opposes raising taxes on anyone, including second-home owners, until the education system is fixed.

Why it matters: Janoo has pitched the second-home tax as a way to lower property taxes for people who live here year-round. Without a revenue estimate, voters can’t tell how much relief it would deliver. The second-home class already in law doesn’t start until July 2029, after the two-year term Tuesday’s winner will serve. If you own a second home or a camp, that’s the timeline to watch.

Can F-35 Pilots Learn in a Simulator? Yes — but They Still Have to Fly

What Janoo said: A governor might help reduce jet noise by influencing the 158th Fighter Wing’s training, for example by shifting more of it to simulators. She also said the governor “isn’t able to determine” national military operations.

What Scott said: “You can’t learn from a simulator. You need real life experience in the cockpit.”

What the record shows: The truth sits between them. Lockheed Martin, which builds the jet, said in 2020 that simulators handle about half of initial training flights. When the 158th’s own pilots learned the jet, Lt. Col. Nathan Graber said in 2019 that they “relied very heavily on these simulators,” while adding that “you don’t get the same sensations as the actual aircraft.”

Why it matters: For people living under the flight path, every training hour moved into a simulator is an hour without jet noise overhead. Pilots do learn a lot in simulators, so Scott’s “can’t learn” goes too far. But they still have to fly the real jet, and Janoo herself said a governor “isn’t able to determine” military operations.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

At the bottom of this story: how to get the driving reports insurers may have seen, how to dispute errors in them, how to ask GM to delete the driving records it kept, and what to do if GM emails you about your old driving records.

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If you drove a Chevrolet, GMC, Buick or Cadillac with OnStar any time from the mid-2010s to 2024, your car may have been keeping score on you. It may have logged hard stops, fast starts, driving above a set speed and late-night trips.

According to 36 attorneys general, including Vermont’s, General Motors sold those driving records to data brokers, companies that buy and resell information about people. The brokers turned the records into reports and sold them to car insurers, which could use them to set your rate. Many drivers never knew they had been signed up, the states say. GM’s own app told more than 370,000 of them they weren’t.

GM agreed Thursday to pay $220 million to settle the claims, without admitting any of them. In a statement to Reuters, the company said the settlement reinforces steps it has already taken to strengthen privacy. Tens of thousands of Vermonters were enrolled, according to the Vermont attorney general’s office.

Vermont gets $4.54 million. The settlement provides no payments to drivers, and it doesn’t identify which Vermont drivers paid higher premiums or calculate their losses.

Could This Have Happened to Me?

OnStar is GM’s built-in service for crash response, roadside help and remote unlocking. Smart Driver was an OnStar feature that GM launched in 2015 to give drivers feedback and tips on their driving, according to the state’s complaint. GM shut it down in April 2024, a month after The New York Times reported that carmakers were sharing driving records with insurers.

The states describe three ways drivers ended up enrolled without understanding what they had agreed to:

• At the dealership. Most enrollments happened before buyers left the lot. GM paid dealership employees bonuses tied to sign-ups, and in many cases those employees allegedly clicked “accept” for customers.

• Through the fine print. GM’s sign-up screens pitched Smart Driver as a way to become a better driver. The privacy statement said drivers would be asked again before their information went to a usage-based insurance program, meaning insurance priced on how you actually drive. But GM sold the identifiable driving records of every Smart Driver customer, whether or not they signed up for GM’s separate insurance discount program, the states allege.

• Through a glitch. GM later unenrolled the drivers its app had wrongly told weren’t enrolled, without telling them their driving records had already been sold.

Separately, starting in 2018, GM recorded the precise location of millions of vehicles every three seconds, from the moment the car started until it was shut off. GM licensed that location data to two other companies, which could pass it on to others with GM’s approval, the complaint says.

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Did It Affect My Insurance?

According to the complaint, the driving records traveled like this:

1. Your car recorded hard braking, fast starts, hard turns, times you went over a set speed, late-night driving, and the start and end time of each trip.

2. GM sold those driving records, tied to your car’s vehicle identification number, to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk Analytics.

3. LexisNexis and Verisk turned the driving records into driver scores and reports and sold them to insurers.

4. Some insurers used those reports, in part, to set rates.

GM made more than $20 million nationwide from the sales, the complaint says.

The court filings don’t show which insurers used the reports, which Vermonters’ rates changed, or by how much. The Times documented drivers whose premiums went up after their insurers got the reports. To find out whether your own driving records were in the file, you can ask LexisNexis and Verisk. The box below explains how.

Verisk says it stopped receiving GM driving records on March 18, 2024, and no longer sells driving reports to insurers. A separate Federal Trade Commission order bars GM for five years from sharing driving or location data with consumer reporting agencies. Those are companies like LexisNexis and Verisk that compile reports on people and sell them, the way credit bureaus do.

Why the State Gets the Money and Drivers Don’t

Vermont’s consumer protection law lets the attorney general ask a court to order a company to pay consumers back. Vermont’s complaint, which the attorney general’s office released with the settlement, asked for exactly that. The settlement instead directs $4.54 million to the state and sets up no compensation program for drivers. The agreement doesn’t explain why individual payments were left out, and it sets up no claims process for reimbursing what drivers may have paid.

So the settlement both protects Vermonters and doesn’t:

• What drivers get: new rules GM has to follow, listed below. The rules cover personal vehicles, not business, fleet, rental or government vehicles. They don’t depend on proving you were overcharged. Most take effect Nov. 30, 2026.

• What drivers don’t get: any payment from the settlement for what a GM report may have cost them.

• What drivers keep: the right to sue GM on their own. The settlement doesn’t take that away.

Where the $4.54 million goes. The agreement lets the state spend it on the cost of the investigation and lawsuit, future consumer protection and privacy enforcement, consumer education, or any other use state law allows. It doesn’t say how the money will be divided among those uses.

How big the payment is. The states say GM made more than $20 million nationwide selling the driving records. The settlement totals $220 million. Vermont’s share comes to about $7 for every Vermonter. It’s about 2% of the total, even though Vermonters are about 0.2% of the U.S. population.

The attorney general’s office credits Vermont’s role as one of the first states to investigate. Washington and Oregon led the case, and Vermont sat on the executive committee that assisted them. Colorado, also on that committee and with about nine times as many people, gets about $7.2 million.

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What Changes for GM Drivers

Most of these rules take effect Nov. 30, 2026. Some come later: the new-car sign-up and dealer-training rules within 60 days, and the deletion of older driving records within 180 days. GM must:

• Get your clear, separate OK before collecting your driving or location data or sharing it with anyone else. Accepting a general terms-of-service agreement, a pre-checked box or saying nothing doesn’t count. Exceptions include emergency responders, crash and safety alerts, recalls, warranty work and court orders.

• Tell you before you agree if your driving data could be used to set insurance rates.

• Let you turn off location collection on the vehicle, if your car is equipped to do that.

• Let you shut off all remote data collection if you decline or cancel OnStar. GM can still collect what it needs for safety issues and software updates.

• Have new-car buyers sign up for OnStar themselves. If a buyer doesn’t respond within 10 days, GM must treat it as a no.

• Train dealers that the customer, not the salesperson, has to accept the privacy terms.

• Send you a copy of your driving data, and a list of the kinds of companies it went to, within 45 days of your request. GM must also let you request deletion.

• Delete driving data it kept from before Jan. 16, 2025, by about the end of May 2027. There are exceptions for lawsuits, recalls and safety research.

• Ask the companies it sold driving data to before 2025 to delete it.

Most of these rules stay in force until 2046.

Only GM Is Covered, for Now

The settlement binds GM only. Verisk says it also received driving records from Honda and Hyundai until April 2024.

Vermont passed its own privacy law this year. Gov. Phil Scott signed the Vermont Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act in June, and it treats precise location as sensitive data. It takes effect Jan. 1, 2028. Until then, the main Vermont law covering other carmakers is its general consumer protection law, which bars unfair or deceptive business practices.

Check Your Own Driving Records

Here’s what you can find out and what you can change. What you do with your own data is your call.

• See what LexisNexis has. Request your free consumer disclosure report at consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer. If LexisNexis still holds driving records on you, they’ll be in it.

• See what Verisk has. At fcra.verisk.com, choose the Driving Behavior Data form. You can email it to FCRA-NPC@verisk.com, fax it to 800-955-2422 or mail it. Verisk gives one free report every 12 months. It has driving records only from GM, Honda and Hyundai vehicles.

• Dispute errors. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can dispute anything inaccurate in either report, and the company has to reinvestigate.

• Ask your insurer. If an insurer raised your rate or turned you down because of a report like these, federal law requires it to tell you and to name the company that supplied the report.

• Ask GM for a copy of your data, or to delete it. Call 1-866-MYPRIVACY (1-866-697-7482) or use GM’s U.S. Consumer Privacy Request Form.

• Watch for a GM email by about Feb. 28, 2027. GM may email you asking permission to keep driving records it collected before 2025. If you say no, or don’t answer within 30 days, GM must delete them. Make sure any such email really comes from GM before you click anything.

• Stop the collection. GM must offer a way to turn off location collection on vehicles that can do it. If you decline or cancel OnStar, GM must let you shut off remote data collection. Check your vehicle’s settings or ask GM.

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This story came with a to-do list: reports to request, errors to dispute, a GM email to watch for. That’s the kind of journalism Compass Vermont is built on, giving you the information and the next step so you can decide for yourself. If you find that useful, a paid subscription is the best way to support it, and it’s greatly appreciated.

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At the bottom: how to check whether your town has registered a .gov address, how your town can get free threat monitoring and attack response, and how it can ask about a free state cybersecurity assessment before the Nov. 30 deadline for grant-funded work.

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Vermont’s cities and towns can’t defend themselves against cyberattacks on their own, according to the state’s former top technology official.

“They’re not in the position to independently handle the risks and the magnitude of cybersecurity exposure at their capacity,” Denise Reilly-Hughes told Compass Vermont. She spoke in an interview on her last day as secretary of the Agency of Digital Services and state chief information officer. She left Oct. 16 for the private sector. Compass’s first story from that interview covered how state government uses artificial intelligence. This one covers what she said about the towns.

Towns still carry some responsibility for their own protection, she said. But they should be able to work with the state to protect themselves.

Why It Matters to You

Your town office holds your property records, your tax bills and your contact information. It sends you email and posts notices you’re expected to trust.

If criminals break into those systems, they can lock up the records or steal them. If they can imitate the town’s email, they can send residents bills or messages that look official.

The Free First Step

The simplest protection Reilly-Hughes pointed to is moving a town’s website and email to a .gov address.

Anyone can buy a .com, .org or .net address. Only verified U.S. government organizations can get a .gov address. The federal program that issues them checks that the requester is a real government, and it charges nothing.

“Just getting their domain registered as a .gov give[s] them layers of protection,” Reilly-Hughes said. The change carries over to a town’s email as well as its website, she said.

Registering the address is free. Moving the town’s website and email to it is a separate job. The new address doesn’t replace other cybersecurity protections.

She didn’t know how many towns have made the switch. Compass checked the federal government’s public registry of .gov addresses. As of this week, 78 Vermont cities and towns had registered one. That’s fewer than a third of Vermont’s 247 cities and organized towns.

Only four of Vermont’s 10 cities are on the list: Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and Essex Junction. Montpelier, the state capital, is not. Neither are Rutland, Barre, Newport, St. Albans City or Vergennes, or the towns of Bennington and St. Johnsbury.

What the State Is Offering

The state runs a federally funded program, the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, to help towns clean up what Reilly-Hughes called “legacy risk.” That means weak spots left over from the technology towns already have, including older computer systems.

Every town that signs up starts with an assessment by a state team, which then recommends a project. The first projects on offer are:

• Security training for town employees, not just IT staff

• Multi-factor authentication, a second check beyond a password, such as a code sent to your phone

• Help moving a town’s website and email to a .gov address

As of the Oct. 16 interview, the state had completed assessments for 25 towns, about one in 10, Reilly-Hughes said. Two state employees are doing the work. She said about 60 towns are on track to get help.

“The fact that we have sixty on track is really good progress,” she said.

That help has a deadline. Under the state’s published rules for the projects it is offering now, all grant-funded work must be finished by Nov. 30, 2026. Towns are taken first come, first served for the multi-factor authentication and .gov projects for as long as the money lasts. Once the work is done, towns cover some ongoing costs themselves, such as staff time to keep the new systems running.

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The federal grant also requires Vermont to put up its own matching money in later years. She said the state has been “really conservative” about how much it asks for each year.

The second offering is a membership in the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, known as MS-ISAC. It’s a national center that warns governments about active threats and helps them respond to attacks. It also offers a service that blocks town computers from reaching known malicious websites.

MS-ISAC used to be fully funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Reilly-Hughes said. Federal funding ran out in 2025, and the center moved to paid memberships.

Vermont was one of the first states to buy a statewide membership that covers its towns, Reilly-Hughes said. The state announced the coverage in April. The membership is currently free to municipalities, schools, public water and wastewater utilities, and other public organizations.

“If you are a municipality and you’re not on there, folks may want to get registered quick,” she said.

When the Legislature created the state’s Cybersecurity Advisory Council through Act 71 of 2023, municipalities and school districts were among its main targets, Reilly-Hughes said.

“Cybersecurity is a team sport and nobody goes it alone,” she said.

AI Makes Attacks Faster

Reilly-Hughes said cyberattacks now often go hand in hand with artificial intelligence, because criminals use it too.

“They use technology like AI because they can do bad things faster,” she said. “And municipalities are absolutely a target for that.”

Insurance is not a substitute for protection, she said.

“Cyber insurance alone will not protect our municipalities from attacks,” Reilly-Hughes said.

Her Advice to a Select Board

Compass asked what she would tell the select board of a town of about 5,000 people that wanted to know what to do about AI and cybersecurity right now.

“I would tell them don’t ignore it,” she said. “It is happening, whether you’re looking or not, and you need to protect yourself.”

Her other advice was to ask the state for help and join the network of towns already working with it.

“There’s always going to be at least one person in the town who wants to be involved,” she said.

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What You Can Check

Compass gives you the information so you can decide for yourself whether to ask your town about it.

Has your town registered a .gov address?

• Your town’s website address won’t always tell you. Some towns have registered a .gov address but haven’t moved their website or email to it yet.

• To check, look for your town in the federal .gov registry.

• If your town isn’t listed, you can raise it with your town clerk, town manager or select board.

For town officials: getting a .gov address

• Registration is free. Start at get.gov.

• A senior town official has to approve the request.

• Moving your website and email to the new address is separate work. The state’s assessment program, below, can help with it.

For town officials: free MS-ISAC membership

• Start with the state’s instructions at ready.vermont.gov/cybersecurity. The page explains what to do whether or not you’re already a member.

• Questions go to the Agency of Digital Services at VermontCIO@vermont.gov.

For town officials: a free state cybersecurity assessment

• Ask for one through the state’s contact form.

• All grant-funded work on the projects now offered must be finished by Nov. 30, 2026, and projects are first come, first served while money lasts. The state’s FAQ has the details.

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ANALYSIS

Amanda Janoo, the Democratic/Progressive candidate for governor, says private equity and large corporations buying homes are among the biggest reasons Vermont housing costs so much. She wants to tax them at the highest rates.

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The records Compass reviewed show little of that buying in Vermont. A national tracker counts 80 private equity–owned apartments in the state, the lowest number on its map. The big investors went to fast-growing Sun Belt cities instead.

We provide the data. You make the decisions. At the bottom: how to see who owns homes in Vermont, and where to read each candidate’s housing plan before Nov. 3.

What Janoo Says

Private equity firms pool money from wealthy investors and institutions to buy assets, then sell them later for a profit. In housing, they buy apartment buildings and, in some markets, single-family homes in bulk to rent out.

Janoo wants “the highest tax rates to be for private equity and for large corporate ownership of the housing stock, because that’s one of the largest drivers right now of the increase of the price of housing,” she told WCAX on Oct. 1.

Her campaign platform puts large corporate and private-equity owners in a higher property tax class, alongside luxury second homes, commercial vacation rentals and vacant investment properties. It also promises to close loopholes that let large investors “hide behind multiple LLCs.”

Janoo has also framed it as prevention. The Essex Reporter reported that she wants to stop a corporate takeover of Vermont housing.

Those are two different arguments. The first is a claim about what is happening now, which records can check. The second is a judgment about the future.

What Vermont’s Records Show

The state and private records Compass checked find corporate ownership small, and large-investor buying rare:

• Who owns homes: Corporations, partnerships and other entities owned 2% to 3% of Vermont’s residential properties every year from 2015 through 2025, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency found in town property records. The count rose from about 5,000 to about 7,000. That group includes nonprofits and government, so private equity is only part of it.

• Who the landlords are: The real estate data firm BatchData counts about 18% of Vermont’s single-family homes as investor-owned. Individuals hold about 82% of those homes, and about 91% belong to landlords who own just that one property. Owners with 1,000 or more homes bought one Vermont house in the last three months of 2025, and sold more than they bought in early 2026.

The two counts measure different things. The housing finance agency counts properties owned by companies and other entities. BatchData counts any owner who doesn’t live in the home, including individuals.

Lawmakers weighed the issue this year. H.607, which would limit large investors’ purchases of one- and two-family homes, got House committee hearings from January to March and never came to a vote.

Where the Big Buyers Went

Nationally, 32 investors each owned more than 1,000 single-family rental homes in 2022, nearly 450,000 homes in all, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported. That was about 3% of the country’s single-family rentals.

Those homes are concentrated in a few Sun Belt cities. Large investors held about 25% of single-family rentals in the Atlanta area, 21% around Jacksonville and 18% around Charlotte.

The GAO found the big investors look for:

• Fast-growing places, with rising population, jobs and rental demand

• Dense clusters of rentals, which keep repair and leasing costs down

• Newer homes. In an Atlanta study, the homes they owned were more likely to have been built after 1999.

Vermont matches none of those. Its population grew 0.2% from 2020 to 2025, according to the Census Bureau. Its homes are spread across small towns, and its biggest metro area, around Burlington, is small by national standards.

Vermont’s 2021 Investor Surge, and How It Faded

Vermont did see a burst of investor buying when interest rates were near zero. Investors bought 17% of the 13,999 homes sold in Vermont in 2021, up from 2% before 2016, VTDigger reported from CoreLogic data. That was the largest jump of any state.

By mid-2022, as rates rose, the share fell back to 7%.

CoreLogic counted as an investor anyone who had owned three or more homes at once in the previous 10 years. That includes people with a vacation house or two, not just companies, and the data didn’t separate the two.

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Congress Already Acted

Worry about large investors buying homes isn’t only a Democratic issue. President Trump issued an executive order on it in January. Congress then passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law without the president’s signature on July 11.

The law bars for-profit companies that control 350 or more single-family homes from buying more, starting Jan. 7, 2027, according to legal analyses by Latham & Watkins and Greenberg Traurig. Violations can cost up to $1 million each, or three times the home’s price, whichever is greater, Latham & Watkins notes. The U.S. Treasury still has to write the rules.

The law leaves gaps, and they are where Janoo’s forward-looking case still applies. It doesn’t cover:

• Apartment buildings

• Manufactured homes

• New homes built to rent

• Rundown homes bought and substantially rebuilt to rent

Apartments are the one gap someone has counted. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog that scrutinizes private equity’s effects on housing and other industries, tracks apartment buildings with five or more units. Its tracker finds private equity firms own about 13% of U.S. apartments, almost 3 million units, as of April 1.

In Vermont, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s latest state map counts 80 private equity–owned apartments, the lowest number on the map. Texas, at the top, has 579,608. The tracker doesn’t say who owns them. The group calls its list incomplete, so the true number could be somewhat higher.

The biggest firms are concentrated elsewhere. The 11 largest private equity apartment owners on the group’s list, led by Blackstone, Greystar and Starwood Capital, together hold more than 1 million apartments. That’s more than a third of all the private equity–owned apartments the group counted nationally. Compass found no public record of any of them owning apartments in Vermont.

When Harbor Group International, one of those 11, agreed in 2025 to buy five New England apartment complexes for $740 million, they were in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, Bisnow reported.

What It Means for Your Tax Bill

If you own the home you live in, you would not be in the private-equity tax class Janoo proposes. That class reaches large corporate owners, and the records show few of them own Vermont homes. A top rate on that group would likely land on a small number of properties.

The parts of her plan more likely to reach Vermonters are the higher rates on luxury second homes and commercial vacation rentals. Her platform sets no rate for any of the new tax classes and doesn’t define either one. Any new tax class would need a vote of the Legislature.

The records show Vermont isn’t where large investors have been buying. Janoo’s argument is that Vermont should act before that changes. Congress has now made a version of that bet for the whole country, starting Jan. 7.

Check It Yourself

The records are public, so you can weigh the claims for yourself.

• Who owns Vermont homes: HousingData.org’s residential ownership page breaks down owners by type, from town property records.

• The candidates’ own plans: Read Janoo’s platform and Scott’s campaign site.

• Your ballot and polling place: Use the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page to find your sample ballot and polling place. Election Day is Nov. 3.

  Updated Oct. 29, 2026: This story was updated to clarify the BatchData ownership figure, attribute the federal penalty amounts to Latham & Watkins, note that the “corporate takeover” line is the Essex Reporter’s paraphrase, and explain why the two ownership counts differ. No findings changed.

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Half of the employers participating in the 2026 Vermont Business Climate Survey reported raising prices in response to business conditions during the previous year. About one-third delayed hiring or left positions unfilled, and 26% delayed or canceled capital investments, according to the published findings.

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The survey, conducted by the Vermont Futures Project in partnership with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, connects employers’ concerns about healthcare, housing, workforce availability and operating expenses with decisions affecting customers and employees. It also presents a mixed picture: some businesses are pulling back, while others report growth and expect further gains.

The findings describe participating employers, rather than providing a statistically representative measurement of every Vermont business. The Chamber’s methodology summary says the survey collected responses from 135 businesses across all 14 counties between August 28 and October 15, 2026. Results are unweighted, and changes in participants, questions and response categories limit comparisons with 2025.

When costs become decisions

Beyond price increases and postponed hiring, the published findings report that 17% of respondents postponed expansion and 17% invested or expanded outside Vermont instead. Those percentages should not be added together as a count of distinct businesses.

Investment elsewhere does not necessarily mean a business closed Vermont operations or relocated its headquarters. The published percentage also does not measure the dollars involved.

These distinctions matter. A delayed investment, an expansion elsewhere and the departure of an existing business are different events. Similarly, a hiring delay is not necessarily a layoff, and a price increase does not reveal how much additional expense customers absorbed.

The survey nevertheless identifies decisions through which business pressures can reach households: higher charges for goods and services, fewer immediate hiring opportunities and postponed spending on facilities or equipment.

Healthcare leads the concerns

Healthcare and health-insurance costs were the most frequently cited business challenge, selected by 59% of respondents.

They also led the policy wish list. Asked to choose up to three state policy outcomes that would improve their ability to operate, invest or grow, 54% selected reducing healthcare and insurance costs. Containing education spending and property-tax growth followed at 33%, with increasing housing production at 32%.

The Futures Project’s summary says 60% of participating employers offer employer-sponsored health insurance. Among those providing benefits, it reports that 65% expect to absorb increases to maintain current benefit designs, while 11% plan to increase employee cost-sharing.

Those figures concern employers providing coverage, rather than the entire survey group. They illustrate different responses to benefit costs: maintaining coverage can require employers to absorb additional expense, while increased employee contributions can move more of that expense into household budgets.

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Finding workers also means finding housing

Employers’ recruitment concerns extend beyond the availability of applicants. The survey identifies housing and Vermont’s cost of living as barriers to attracting and retaining workers.

Separate Census figures provide context for the population and housing issues highlighted in the Futures Project’s Competitiveness Dashboard.

Census population estimates published through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis put Vermont’s population at 644,663 in July 2025, down from 646,521 a year earlier—a decline of 1,858. That is a total-population measure, not a count of workers lost or people leaving for employment elsewhere.

The Census Bureau’s Vermont figures also show permits for 2,294 housing units in 2025. The bureau’s Building Permits Survey measures new privately owned housing units authorized by permits. It does not measure how many homes were completed that year.

The Futures Project’s targets—802,000 residents and 350,000 non-seasonal housing units by 2035—are goals of its Economic Action Plan. They describe the organization’s proposed direction for Vermont, rather than Census forecasts.

Vermont policy is only part of the picture

Respondents identified taxes, regulation and permitting as constraints. But the survey also records pressures that extend beyond state government.

According to the Chamber’s findings, 68% reported negative effects from tariffs, trade policy or Canada–U.S. cross-border conditions. Because the question groups those factors together, the result does not isolate the effect of any individual tariff or policy.

The survey therefore cannot assign all reported business difficulties to decisions in Montpelier. Nor does it establish precisely how much any one cost or policy contributed to a particular price increase, hiring delay or investment decision.

Growth has not disappeared

The Chamber’s detailed presentation reports that 37% of participating businesses experienced growth over the previous year, compared with 32% reporting decline and 31% remaining relatively steady.

Looking ahead, 37% anticipate growth and 19% expect decline. Capital-investment expectations are more closely divided: 21% expect an increase and 20% expect a decrease. Ten percent reported making a significant investment or expansion in Vermont during the previous year.

Those results show why dissatisfaction with the business climate should not be read as a claim that every business is contracting.

Respondents gave Vermont an overall business-climate score of 2.62 out of five, compared with 2.86 in 2025. The lower rating describes a difference between the two surveys; given the changes in participation and questions, it does not independently establish the size of a statewide economic deterioration.

What happens next

The Chamber says the findings will help shape its 2027 legislative agenda. The Futures Project connects them with its broader economic research and long-term growth proposals.

The survey identifies participating employers’ priorities. Whether policies developed in response change healthcare expenses, housing availability, hiring or investment will require subsequent evidence.