House, Senate negotiators strike emergency housing deal, restricting...
The Quality Inn in Barre is part of the emergency housing program. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger Vermont House and Senate budget writers have hammered out a deal to extend emergency housing in...
View ArticleSen. Jane Kitchel proposes parental leave and child care deal, sets up...
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, left, confers with Sen. Tom Chittenden, D-Chittenden Southeast, at the Statehouse in Montpelier in January. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Full-day pre-K is out...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Stakeholders scramble to compromise on fossil fuel divestment
Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, at the Statehouse in Montpelier in January. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Another year has brought another effort to divest Vermont’s pension fund from the fossil...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Vermont DMV plans to roll out mobile driver’s licenses
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is planning to stop producing validation stickers, like the one shown here, per an ongoing "modernization project." Photo by Shaun Robinson/VTDigger “Modern”...
View ArticleTo pay for child care, state senators propose killing child tax credit
Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, listens as the Senate Finance Committee takes testimony on a child care bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Photo by Glenn...
View ArticleFull Disclosure: The ‘people’s house’ or the ‘house of landlords’?
As lawmakers ponder Vermont’s housing crisis, disproportionately few rent — and many make their money selling or renting out real estate. Photo illustration by Taylor Haynes/VTDigger Amid the lowest...
View ArticleFull Disclosure: Lawmakers serve on the boards of nonprofits they fund
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, confers with colleagues on the Senate floor at the Statehouse in Montpelier on March 22. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger As chair of the Senate Appropriations...
View ArticleAmid a housing crisis, will Vermont keep paying people to move here?
Senate Appropriations chair Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, said she’d agreed to continue funding for the program in deference to the Senate’s economic development committee and the administration. File...
View ArticleVermont Senate gives preliminary approval to its $8.5 billion budget plan
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, explains details of the budget bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, April 26. Photo by Glenn...
View ArticleAs clean heat standard nears the finish line, officials debate the bill’s...
Gov. Phil Scott speaks during his weekly press conference at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, April 25. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger As the biggest climate change bill of Vermont’s...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Taylor Small speaks out against the silencing of Zooey Zephyr,...
Zooey Zephyr’s battle hits close to home for Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, Vermont’s first and only transgender legislator. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger “I hope the next time there’s an...
View Article‘On their hands’: About to lose shelter, a mother urges officials to...
Rebecca Duprey lives with her two sons at the Hilltop Inn in Berlin. The stability she says the motel housing has brought for her family is very likely to end July 1. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger...
View ArticleVermont Legislature approves universal school meals bill
Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, said universal school meals is one of his top priorities. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Vermont lawmakers in both chambers have now given approval to legislation...
View ArticleFamilies of Vermont public school students to receive $120 in food benefits...
The state is slated to send $9.6 million in federal pandemic funds to the families of all students in Vermont public schools, and some in independent schools. Photo by Matheus Cenali via Pexels The...
View ArticleWith Phil Scott’s signature, motel residents can stay until April. What...
Activists march through the Statehouse as they protest the end of the state’s program to house homeless people in motels before a veto session of the Legislature in Montpelier on Tuesday, June 20,...
View Article‘I don’t see how I can manage’: In Rutland, a motel resident struggles with...
Susan Ladmer and her two dogs live at the Quality Inn in Rutland. They are seen on Thursday, June 29. As debates continued in Montpelier through the beginning of last week, Ladmer was unsure whether...
View ArticleVermont State Colleges get retroactive approval to give up 2 radio licenses,...
Woodruff Hall at Castleton University. Photo by Jared C. Benedict via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0) Lawmakers gave the Vermont State Colleges retroactive approval to relinquish two radio licenses, closing...
View ArticleScott administration calls for spending limits in kickoff to budget season
Finance Commissioner Adam Greshin briefs reporters in advance of Gov. Phil Scott’s budget address to the Legislature in Montpelier in January 2019. Greshin told lawmakers on Wednesday that the state’s...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Vermont’s Senate president pro tem is a Swiftie
Have you heard? The Senate president pro tem is a Swiftie. Photo illustration by Natalie Williams/VTDigger. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDigger and Eva Rinaldi via Wikimedia Commons Welcome to Power...
View ArticleLawmakers hear plan to use Waterbury armory as a 40-50-bed emergency shelter
The Vermont National Guard armory in Waterbury sits on 2.5 acres between Interstate 89 and Stowe Street. File photo by Gordon Miller/Waterbury Roundabout This story by Lisa Scagliotti was first...
View ArticleScott administration rings alarm over proposed increase in 2024 spending
Jane Kitchel and Adam Greshin. Photos by Colin Meyn/VTDigger and Mike Dougherty/VTDigger As the Vermont Senate launches into its work on this year’s budget adjustment, passed last week by the House,...
View ArticleFinal Reading: What do the bells that go off in the Statehouse actually mean?
Rep. Heather Suprenant, P/D-Barnard, rushes by a flashing light, which is accompanied by a repeating tone, that signals the House is about to convene at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Jan. 9. Photo...
View ArticleHow a small pot of after-school funding ballooned into a pitched policy battle
Heather Bouchey, interim secretary of education, speaks about statewide flooding during a press conference in Berlin on Dec. 19. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger A debate that simmered in legislative...
View ArticleFinal Reading: ‘A small fraction of a small fraction’: Lawmakers weigh risks...
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee listen to testimony on education spending during a joint meeting with the House Education Committee at the Statehouse on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. Photo...
View ArticleSenate passes budget adjustment featuring flood recovery grants, extension to...
Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, speaks as the Senate considers the Budget Adjustment Act at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday, Feb. 8. Photo by...
View Article‘It’s certainly been a good run’: Dick Mazza, dean of the Vermont Senate,...
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, in the Senate Transportation Committee room at the Statehouse on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger MONTPELIER — As word got out last week that...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Vermont lawmakers consider a reboot on requiring hybrid public...
The Burlington City Council, meeting by video-conferencing on Monday, March 23, 2020, passed a resolution to establish a resource center in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. To Zoom or not to Zoom,...
View ArticleFinal Reading: Omnibus motor vehicle bill tackles vehicle lights, window tints
Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden Southeast, discusses a motor vehicle bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Credit: Glenn Russell Sen. Thomas Chittenden,...
View ArticleFlood safety bill proposes big reforms to developing near rivers. It faces a...
A goose swims along a flooded Main Street in Montpelier on July 11. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger A goose swims along a flooded Main Street in Montpelier on July 11. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger...
View ArticleSenate signs off on Budget Adjustment Act despite concerns from housing...
The Senate Appropriations Committee considers the Budget Adjustment Act at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Feb. 13. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Credit: Glenn Russell The Senate Appropriations...
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