Common Sense Radio: Vermont’s Business Climate and Proposition 3 with Elizabeth Brown
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, on Common Sense Radio, with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.
Elizabeth Brown, Vermont State Director for the Fiscal Alliance Foundation, joins Bill to discuss how the tax and regulatory climate affect the competitiveness of Vermont as a place where families, particularly young families, want to live and can afford to do so; and as a place where entrepreneurs and other businesses want start, grow, invest, and hire. With Special Emphasis on Proposition 3 and its effect on the business climate.
Potential Questions and Issues
What measures do we use to measure the friendliness of Vermont’s business climate. Tax burdens, relative to income. Regulatory burdens, raising the cost of employing, for example. Reducing flexibility and options, for both employers and employees.
What is Proposition 3, particularly the second sentence. Should workers have the right not join a union, or not pay for a union’s political contributions? Particularly as a condition of employment? What is a Closed Shop? And what is an Open Shop? How will Proposition 3, if it were to pass this election, likely to affect the Vermont business climate? What would it signal about the attitude of the Legislature, and the Vermont people, toward economic growth, job creation, taxes and regulation.
What is Right-to-Work Legislation? And what are Agency fees? What do we know about the strength of the economy, job creation, wages, fiscal responsibility, and taxes in Right-to-Work States, as compared with States that are not? What other States have adopted a Constitutional Amendment like Proposition 3? Only Illinois. Would you consider Illinois to have fiscally responsible public policies? What has happened to their employment and tax burdens? And to litigation over the meaning and implications of Proposition 3 or its equivalent.
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Do you think that national or international companies will be likely to start or expand operations in Vermont, if Proposition were to pass in Vermont?
Do you think that the Vermont voters know much about Proposition 3? If not, how did it get this far through the process, before the final stage? Do you think the Supermajority had an effect in getting it started in 2023?
What other factors should we consider if we are to improve Vermont’s business climate? Fiscal responsibility. Can a State reduce its tax burden without reducing the growth in spending? Spending relative to inflation; Spending relative to family income; Spending growth relative to that of other States. If the Vermont economy grows faster than State spending, does that produce more revenue for the State, to fund the necessary functions of government, without raising tax rates? What components of State spending have risen much faster than the economy, and family income, in the past 25 years?
What components of State spending should be controlled more carefully, to make Vermont more affordable? Does raising taxes on one portion of the public, to subsidize another portion of the public, truly increase overall affordability? Or just increase affordability for one portion, at the expense of another portion? If a better way to increase affordability, to reducing the costs of government, for example, the cost of education, because lower costs help all taxpayers, and will continue after special subsidies, such as transfers from the general fund, end.
How much higher than the national average is Vermont’s cost per student? About 75 percent. What is the effect of this higher spending on other categories of State spending? Transportation, particularly paving, for example.
What factors are causing our State spending per student to be so much higher than the national average? The effect of Act 60, which created a disconnect between School District spending and the Taxes that District Taxpayers pay. So is one of the solutions to strengthen the connection between District spending and District taxes? What are some ways that could be done? How does a Statewide property tax affect the willingness of localities to welcome new business investment in property, and possibly new housing projects also.
What should we know about proposed taxes on high income earners? And on second homes? What might be the unintended consequences of these new taxes? Should we be striving to live within our means instead of looking for new or increased taxes? Do we have a spending problem not a revenue problem? Are our high taxes a factor in which we are losing population, particularly working age population, which is down 10,000 from the peak? And second oldest population of any State in the nation. Lowest number of births since the 1850s. Lowest fertility rate. What has been the effect on school enrollment, and rural hospitals.
What about a Carbon tax, direct or indirectly, through a Byzantine system of credits and debits? And restrictions on the sale of gasoline/diesel powered trucks. Are there other parts of the Global Warming Solutions Act that should concern us? Will suing the Secretary of Natural Resources help reduce Carbon emissions, more than adding to the cost of Vermont’s government?
What other business climate issues affect the attractiveness of Vermont as a place where families want live and work? How do businesses react if they can’t find employees to help the businesses grow.
Health Care Costs, Health Insurance Costs, Housing Costs, Public Safety and Opiate Addiction.
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