Lieutenant Governor's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Wayne Billado III; Independent.  Covered in the Governor's race.

Ralph Corbo; Banish the F35s.  Answered VTDigger's questions, if extremely briefly.  In this VPR interview, he calls out a lack of leadership on issues.  I can sympathize with this take, but he doesn't seem interested in providing a vision of his own.

Cris Ericson; Progressive.  Chris has her own wikipedia page and a website with a pitch for each of the five races she's running in.  This feels more like a stunt than a serious endeavor.  Did not answer VTDigger's questions. 

Molly Gray; Democratic.   Answered VTDigger's questions in detail.  In addition to the other platforms, has a website with a clearly labeled Issues page.  The issues page is well-organized around four main themes, with a bulleted list of the main points under each theme, and further details for each point. 

Scott Milne; Republican.  Did not answer VTDigger's questions.  When I first looked at his website, I thought it would be policy-free, like Phil Scott's.  Then I glanced down his campaign FB feed and found this post that suggested he did publish a plan, but... the link was broken.  So I went back to his website and clicked on ProgressVT, which isn't clear that it's about his policy on issues, but whatever, I found it now, and it's a 35-page PDF organized around the acrostic "ProgressVT".  I'm really glad he took the time to lay out his plans, and there is a lot to agree with in here, but I have serious concerns about the organizational skills of a candidate who has broken links on their site and puts up a 10-point plan in the form of an acrostic in 2020.

Also see: the Governor's race

Governor's race VT 2020

Ballot arrived Friday.  Looking through all the candidates today.  VPIRG has a list of links to candidates' platforms, and VTDigger has a candidate guide.  

Wayne Billado III; Independent.  His most easily discoverable online presence related to his gubernatorial run appears to be an 8 month old reddit thread, and a Facebook page that was moribund until last week.  He's also running for Lt. Governor.  If you can't decide which statewide office you're suited for, don't expect me to decide for you.  

Michael Devost; Independent.  No presence beyond a candidate profile video.

Charly Dickerson; Unaffiliated. No web presence. 

Kevin Hoyt; Independent.  Facebook page full of videos.  Appears to be a one issue candidate (2nd amendment) full of vague accusations of corrupt Montpelier leadership and the need for Vermonters to "stand up and reclaim their state".  

Emily Peyton; Truth Matters.  Unlike the first four candidates, has actually responded to VTDigger's questions for candidates, created a website, maintains an active Facebook page (though it's not clear how all of the activity relates to her candidacy), and Twitter account (ditto).  The answers to VTDigger's questions are most illuminating.  There's a lot to agree with in there, but there's also a suggestion that most of the COVID-19 deaths are due to recent installation of 5G networks and not COVID-19.

Phil Scott; Republican.  Scott's website outlines no plans or policy positions, which matches his Governance by reaction, rather than leadership.  Has not answered VTDigger's questions.  He's running on his COVID-19 response and incumbency.  

Erynn Hazlett Whitney; Independent.  A website that clearly lays out the candidate's most important issues, but without any links to further details on policy for those issues, so while there's a lot to agree with in there, one is left with questions...  Facebook, Twitter, and Insta presences are collectively reasonably active, but not illuminating.  Has not answered VTDigger's questions.

David Zuckerman; Prog/Dem.  Website lays out the candidate's plans and positions on the issues in detail.  Has responded to VTDigger's questions.  I am a little concerned about a supermajority in the state congress + governor, because best policy doesn't come from an echo chamber.

The Terminator(s)

Number one son wanted to see the Terminator movies.  I told him there was only one Terminator movie, but he didn't believe me.  And so, here we are, with 10 hours of our lives we're never getting back.

There's:

1. The Terminator
2. Terminator: let's make a PG-13 version that parents can show to younger kids without feeling too guilty about it
3. Terminator: what if we had a *sexy* Terminator?
4. Terminator: how John met Kyle
5. Terminator: what if we rebooted the original movie in a new timeline?
6. Terminator: what if we brought Linda Hamilton back?  (this wasn't at the library, so we still haven't seen this one)

We haven't seen the Sarah Connor Chronicles, though I've heard Good Things (tm) about them. What's interesting is that, aside from Linda Hamilton, the character has been played by Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.

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Later, while watching a palate cleanser:

I'll be back
Soon you'll see
If you want to live you'll come with me.

I'll be back
Time will tell
Your son John sent me to serve you well.

Machines rise
Humans fall
Skynet always wants to crush your skull.

And when time
Starts to run
I will send another version to protect you with a gun!
Da da da dat da dat da da da da ya da
Da da dat dat da ya da!

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Note: I created this post on 9/3/2026, and backdated to when it was first shared with friends on FB.

Burlington Property Taxes

I'm not usually a person to gripe about taxes.  Generally speaking, if I'm paying more in income taxes now than 1, 5, or more years ago, that's good, because it means I'm making more money. 

I have a concern about the property taxes in Burlington, VT.

I've been a resident and property owner in the city since 2001, and thus have property tax forms for the fiscal years ending in 2002-2021.  So I can tell you:

• For the fiscal year ending in 2002, the total rate was 1.3734%**.  
• For the fiscal year ending in 2021, the total rate was 2.9571%.

That's an average increase of just over 4.1% per year over 19 years.

• The median household income in Vermont in 2002 was $43,914. 
• The median household income in Vermont in 2019 was $60,076.

That's an average increase of just over 1.86% per year over 17 years.

This isn't sustainable long-term.

** This is an estimate.  There was a citywide reappraisal in 2004-5 that increased the appraised value of our property by 75% and lowered the tax rates, so I adjusted the tax rates prior to the reappraisal by this factor so that they are comparable to the rates post-reappraisal.

Trash in the time of COVID-19

The City of Burlington does not have trash collection as a service**, ***.  Citizens either contract with a private hauler or haul it themselves.  

I've been hauling trash to the Pine St drop-off for nearly 16 years.  Unfortunately, it's currently closed due to the pandemic, so today I hauled to the Milton drop-off.  This adds a good 40 minutes to the time to haul, and isn't easily combined with a post-haul trip to the grocery store.  So if the Pine St drop-off doesn't reopen, then consolidated collection starts to look better.

The Pine St drop-off is also the only facility in CSWD that weighs your trash, so I have 16 years of collected data on each haul.  For today's haul to Milton, I used our postal scale to measure its total weight of 48lbs spread across two 45-gallon bags and two 45-gallon trash cans.  CSWD is currently charging $10 for four 45-gallon containers, which is almost exactly what it would cost to haul 48lbs at $0.21/lb to Pine St.  So yay for that! but I still hope Pine St reopens within the next few months.

** Yet.  Burlington is considering consolidated collection.  While I support the general idea of reducing environmental impacts through consolidated collection, it is likely to be far more expensive for no added benefit:

• Cost.  We currently haul about 200lbs/yr of trash.  This means that, at the current prices, we are averaging about $40/yr on trash.  That's about the monthly cost for some private haulers.
• Other materials.  I'm glad to see that compost is covered under the proposed plan, but we also sort and haul batteries, books, scrap metal, used clothes and electronics.  If we will need to continue to haul these, that will negate savings we might have seen from not having to spend the time & gas to haul our own trash.

*** This gave rise to a now-amusing anecdote because when we moved to Burlington from out of state, we engaged the services of a buyer broker.  Because they lived in a condominium complex where the association negotiated with a trash hauler, he was unaware until we told him that the City didn't do trash collection.