Amen. I grew up in VT and I've been told I'm not a "real Vermonter" more times than I can count. I think maybe I'm not wearing enough camo or something, idk.

Housing is a need that everyone has. This is hilarious. Affordable housing is somehow serving "special interest groups"? You ok bro? Did the man on tv tell you to be angry about homeless people and now here we are? This is odd.

Bummer. I'm screwed if that happens

That's just completely unrealistic and incredibly short sighted. Lots of towns, state departments, transportation depts, etc, use socials for messaging. There is no better way to reach that many people.

As someone who manages socials for corpos I have to completely disagree with you. Some platforms absolutely force you to use the app either by making you finish setting up your account in one, or by making their web app so broken/annoying you have to use the app for your own sanity. Also, like others have mentioned, you want to see what your users are seeing.

I am one of two people in my company that has access to our social media accounts. The other person is in marketing and uses the platforms for ad management. Our company pays for our personal cell phones because of this.

We also want to be on every platform, and we always want to test out new platforms, because we want as many people to see our messaging as possible. The same goes for whatever the state is trying to communicate.

This all being said, the state can absolutely provide secure phones that allow socials to the folks who might need to be able to access them. And only allow it for those specific folks. They can also provide them a second phone for all other work related needs.

Apologies for the delay. IIRC it was about $13k... comprised of labor, machinery, and the conduit itself.

With an expired inspection? Yes. With an expired registration? Not so likely.

Not surprised the average Amerifat thinks they have it bad

Yes, so true, agree to all this.

On the flip side, if your supply of housing is so low that out-of-state skilled professionals like Doctors and engineers can’t find or afford housing, then that likely means that building housing probably should come first.

I understand your point but I know of nurses, doctors, social workers, and educators who want to move here or have left because they simply can not find housing here. Housing is the most critical issue for Vt right now as we can’t even get the people who could help with other issues. If we do increase subsidies now, a large chunk will just be going to those professionals’ ever-increasing cost of living with real change being minimal.

If the housing issue had been seriously addressed at all in the last 5 years, I’d definitely agree with you. However, whenever articles like this come out nothing meaningful actually happens and the can is kicked further down the road until housing becomes an even bigger issue.

> houses are needed

no, housing is needed. not sfh. up not out. etc.

The worst part is Vermont made me pay $900 sales tax on a truck I first leased in 2016 and then bought out at lease end in 2019 in North Carolina (had a ton of equity).

That means I've now paid sales tax three times on one truck. In addition to property taxes on it. That's borderline fucking criminal.

I had a cashier at a thrift store berate me a couple of weeks ago. I had made a comment about something I had found and how awesome it was to find such a thing because I was in a Vermont thrift store, and he lost it on me. From my understanding, my job had no in-state applicants. Only out-of-state. Also, last time I checked, it’s a free country, and I can live anywhere I want in it. I’m sorry housing is expensive, but it’s expensive for just about all of us located literally anywhere in the United States.

It's depressing how quick we are to blame people on the other side of an imaginary line for our problems, even when those people are virtually indistinguishable from us. It really puts into perspective how easy it must be to do if the line is a militarized border and the people on the other side speak a different language.

Keep looking for a reasonable mechanic, in the mean time... just run it. The inspection requirements in VT are an absolute joke. I haven't had a current inspection on one of my daily drivers in 13 years. I'm already enough of a revenue source for those greedy fuckers.

It's silly to focus on needs that everyone has, instead of special interest groups? Explain.

I used to live in Williston, too, for about 15 years. I'm just not used to that level of development so my opinion is probably more cynical. IMO it's closer to Soviet planning than anything historically present in Vermont. Those brick office buildings being built by 89 in Williston are a great example of what I'm talking about. It's the same drab building and Williston has now built it over 20 times. The apartment complexes surrounding Home2 are the same as well. Give Williston 30 years and those apartments will look like THIS

They are hideous but very practical. It's painfully obvious we've lost control of our housing economy and are desperately trying to keep up with demand. Hard not to draw a parallel to Soviet city planning.

This is silly.

LOL Yeah, sorry I don’t speak acronym.

I think there is a happy medium. One trip to michigan would show you what it could be like to allow people to do this in a state that has roadsalt. You'll see truck bedsides flapping in the wind as you go down the road. Cracked frames on vehicles, broken windshields, non-functional lights, etc.

For me the happy medium is allowing more budget friendly fixes on non-structutal/safety related components. Rusted cab corners on a truck is not a big deal, just let the owner bondo it and it will hold for a few years.

This is the most hilariously ignorant thing I've read this week. Bravo.

Conservative fiscal policy is a driving force behind the social unrest you claim to care to change. Fiscal and social policy are not in separate vacuums lmfao

I don't like Phil Scott either, seeing as he won't raise the state minimum wage and decided to lift mask mandates, which is causing a lot of our labor shortages now.

"Former 2000s democrat" is confusing phrasing you should change by the way.

I'm 41 and "real Vermonters" have been loudly complaining about "flatlanders" and out of staters for as long as I can remember. Meanwhile those people keep coming here and boosting the economy these wood-boogers barely partake in. It's embarrassing at this point. If Fox News was based in VT there would constant coverage of caravans coming from Massachusetts.

I miss the days of driving a car into the ground.

I personally don't think the government should be telling me what I can drive. If they want us to maintain our cars better, they should use more carrots and less sticks.

> I remember trump having a lot more to do with that than the average republican would care to acknowledge.

Not a trumper - sorry.

> Does this mean you also voted for Bush?

No, I was a democrat through high school until the 2016 election. After watching the DNC collude against Bernie at the top levels with DWS at the helm I realized I wanted nothing to do with democrats. Essentially politically homeless, but caucus with hill billies. Did not vote for trump, but did not vote for Hillary either. (that woman has a lot of skeletons in her closet. did ya hear about the haiti relief fund the Clinton foundation took nearly all the money from?)

While I am a rino, I don't follow the public platform of the GOP, that's what the name RINO implies. Think more like Phil Scott and not your crazy Obama hating uncle. In fact, I think Obama was the last respectable president we had IMHO.

Simply put - liberal with social policy, conservative with fiscal policy, live a rural life, work in tech, make things with my hands for fun.