Common Sense Radio: Making Vermont More Affordable with Senator Russ Ingalls
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, on Common Sense Radio with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.
Russ Ingalls, Vermont Entrepreneur and State Senator representing Orleans and Essex Counties, joins Bill to discuss how best to make Vermont more affordable as a place to live, work, and raise a family; and also, a place where Vermont businesses, want to grow, fire, and invest.por
Potential Questions and Issues
What is the Vermont Promise, offered by the vermont Republican Senators, and how would it change Vermont law, regulation, and policy? In particular, how will Property Tax law change? Will this change help strengthen the connection between what School Districts spend, and what their resident pay? For example, with education reform underway, should Districts that carefully control spending be able to hold down their taxes,
Why is it important for Government, like families and businesses, to live within its means? When government spending grows faster than family income, does that mean that family budgets must be cut in order for the government budget to increase?
Why are pro porter rights important to rural families, businesses, and communities? For a rural landowner, their land is their life savings? Often, they have no pension fund, trust fund, or mutual funds. And when rights are taken from them as to how they use their land, that is the same as reaching into the savings account of a person with no land, with more of an urban orientation and culture, and removing a quarter of it, or half of it. In effect, it a discriminatory tax on owners of rural property, to fund a public purpose.
Was the Legislature able to correct some areas of over-reach from the time when a super-majority dominated the Legislature? Road Rule and Tier 3 Designated areas. What is the difference between stopping bad Legislation and passing good Legislation? Of course, this depends on the point of view of the one who is being asked. Does this show why it it important to have balance in the Legislature? What role does the Governor, from the minority party (whichever party that may be) play in establishing balance in State policy, law, and regulation?.
What issues could have been addressed in the Session just passed, but were not, and therefore remain to be address in the Session upcoming? Education governance and finance. Health insurance and health care reform. Property taxes, and proposed increases in Income Taxes. Energy regulation, and proposed Energy Taxes. Land use regulations. Substance Use Abuse and Public Safety.
Education, How do our education costs in Vermont today compare with those in earlier times, and with those in other States. We now are about $9,000 per student, or 70 percent, over the national average. Compared with 30 years ago, prior to the creation of a Statewide Property Tax. And yet, even with all the extra spending, our student test scores have declined over that same period, from among the highest in the nation, to now midrange. And if adjusted for demographics, near the bottom of all States>. How can this be, and what are the factors in causing it to happen? Why does School District spending seem disconnected from School District taxes?
At $9,000 per student, that totals about $700 million. Are there other ways, beside education, that those funds could be used? Opportunity Cost? Including returning money to the taxpayers. What might some of those other uses be? How might we be able to put those funds to use for other purposes?
What should we know about student proficiency test scores in Vermont? And about Career Technical Education? And about School Choice?
Health Insurance and health care. Many of our rural hospitals are in danger of being substantially curtailed, or even closing. Vermont is the only State besides New York, that does not allow any risk adjustment for age. What is the unintended consequence of this policy? What is a way to correct to correct this — catastrophic insurance, with a large deductible, and health savings accounts, would get many of our young uninsured back into the pool. Are Association plans part of the solution to high health insurance costs. Should small businesses have access to the same health insurance benefits as large employers?
Similarly for Energy and Climate. What regulations affect the affordability of energy? And what energy taxes have been proposed? And the connections to Climate policy? The Global Warming Solutions Act, mandated goals, the Climate Council, and the private right of action. How do climate policies disproportionately affect rural families, enterprises, and communities? What other energy and climate regulation and policies require attention — Clean Heat Standard; Renewable Energy Standards, proposed taxes on hydrocarbon fields — at home, on the road, and at work.
What is a better way? Making use of our working forests and farms, and the people who earn their living by growing, harvesting, transporting, and adding value to the product of these working lands. Value added manufacturing.
Transportation. What is the condition of Vermont’s roads and bridges and culverts? How much road should be paved every year, to maintain their condition? 200 miles, perhaps 300 miles, depending on their state of repair. How miles of road are we paving this year?
What should we know about public safety in Vermont, and also, the connection to substance use disorder — particularly in Burlington, but also in other areas of the State.
How do Vermont’s demographics affect, and how are they affected by, all of the above affordability issues? Vermont population has declined two years in a row, one of the few States for which that is true. Particularly the decline in young families. How does this affect the tax base — grand list and taxation income and sales? And the ability of Vermont businesses to grow.
Taxes. Proposed increases in income taxes on the highest income earners. Second homes. Wealth. What can we learn from history and from the experience of other States and nations. Why is it important for government at all levels to live within its means. And to increase tax revenue by growing the economy, not by raising tax rates.
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