Common Sense Radio: Vermont’s Business Climate, Taxes and the Election with Austin Davis

Friday, November 6, 2026, on Common Sense Radio, with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.

Austin Davis, of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, joins Bill to discuss how best to improve the business climate in Vermont to be a place where more entrepreneurs and other businesses want to invest, grow, and hire; also a place where families, particularly young families, want to live, and can afford to live. And the effect of the elections, earlier this week, to that end.

Potential Questions and Issues

Let’s summarize the results of the last election, and how you think they will affect policy in Legislature and the Executive Branch, and thereby, Vermont? The Blue Wave reaches Vermont, and reverses much of the Red Wave of 2024. What accounts for the change? National Factors — War in Iran, high prices for gasoline and diesel, Executive over-reach. Vermont Factors — High Property Taxes, Contentiousness over the direction Education Reform;

What are the best measures of our business climate, the factors that affect the willingness and ability of our entrepreneurs and other businesses to grow, invest, and hire? Tax policy — property, income — including proposals to raise taxes on highest earners. Also, a new tax and likely higher tax rate on second homes. What might be the difference between the intended and unintended consequences? On where high earners choose to live and work? Which occupations would be most affected — doctors and other professionals, particularly dual-income households, and successful entrepreneurs? Also, for high income earners, one time events, such as selling their businesses.

Taxing Second Homes is another idea that is popular in a faction of the Legislature, and of the general public. And what might be the unintended consequences? First, what is the purpose of a tax on Second Homes? Then, what are the challenges in defining what a second home is? What about Second Homes owned by someone who lives in Vermont, possibly the same Town? What if the Second Home is an investment for a Vermont family, like investing in stocks and bonds? What if the Second Home is part of the hospitality industry, with the owner, or those to whom he or she rents, coming to Vermont to ski or to participate in summer recreation.

And the effect on tax revenue, and resources available to help those who have suffered misfortune, temporarily or long term. How do our tax burdens compare with those in other States? New Hampshire, for example. Or with the national averages, or State rankings? What portion of our income taxes are paid by the highest 1 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent. What should be their fair share?

Regulatory burdens. Housing. What is the cost of regulation? Act 250 reform. Why has Act 181 faced such fierce opposition from rural landowners and businesses? What is the road rule, and tier 3 designation?

How about energy regulation, and possibly energy taxes? Global Warming Solutions Act. Clean Heat Standard. Energy Code requirements. Renewable Energy Standards. Should we reconsider the use of nuclear power, particularly as it has improved in safety, recycling, reduced by products. And a much lower Carbon footprint. What does James Hanson, the father of the Global Warming warnings, say about nuclear energy? What have we learned from our nuclear submarines?

Health Insurance. Why are our insurance rates so high compared with those in other States? The evidence indicates that other States with similar demographics have significantly lower rates? What might the other factors be?

Education costs. What will be the nature of a reasonable compromise in reforming education finance and governance? How do our education costs compare with those in other States? What can we learn from the experience in other States that are equally rural, with just as many small schools, but much lower costs per child? What should we know about our student scores on standardized tests? Why have our scores declined in recent years?

What should we know about other affordability issues — infrastructure and flood resilience; opiate addiction, homelessness, and public safety — particularly in downtown Burlington. Should Burlington restore the police force size to what it was before the Pandemic?

What has been the effect of tariff policy, and disheartening language from the White House, upon retail sales to, and tourism by, our Canadian neighbors?

How do growing businesses, grow the economy, and grow family incomes? Why is it especially important to make Vermont more affordable for Vermont families? What is the connection between affordability for Vermont’s working age population, and the potential for Vermont businesses to grow? Why is it important for Vermont’s tax climate to be competitive with that in other States of the nation? Is it possible for Vermont’s tax burden to become more affordable if spending and taxes don’t grow more slowly than family income, and grand list values? What is the connection between Vermont’s demographic crisis and the affordability crisis — both as cause and effect? If Vermont is to become more affordabile — especially for middle class, young families — why is it important for Vermont government to live within its means? And to raise State revenue not by raising tax rates, but by growing the economy?

How are demographic trends — as both cause and effect — connected to the above public policy? Declining population, particularly in the working age cohort? Smaller household size, two thirds are 2 people or less? Median age in Vermont. Labor Force declines. And employment stagnant or declining, not having gained the peak prior to the Pandemic. Declining school enrollments. Declining rural populations, affecting rural hospitals.

What are better ways — less costly and just as effective — to accomplish public policy objectives? Working forests and farms? And the manufacture and use of wood and paper products, to reduce our Carbon footprint. The advent of wood structures, called Mass Timber, as high as 18 stories, certified to meet the same standards for structural integrity and for fire safety, as structures made from other materials.

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