Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signs $9.1 billion FY26 state budget
Gov. Phil Scott signed the fiscal year 2026 budget appropriations bill on Wednesday, while urging lawmakers to continue working on policies that will bring down the cost of living for Vermonters.
At $9.1 billion, the FY26 budget is about $360 million more than FY25 spending. Scott said that while the final version was $30 million less than the Vermont Senate had proposed, it was $20 million more than his budget proposal.
The budget includes $2.4 billion for education, which is boosted by $77.2 million from the state's general fund to buy down property tax rates.
Gov. Scott school choice plan receiving mixed reviews
In a letter to lawmakers, Scott said legislative leaders needed to continue work on education reform, beginning with H.454.
Scott noted that $4 million in the FY26 budget would to ' support educational transformation.'
He also urged the Legislature to pass his proposed housing bill.
Democrats accept Scott's budget requests, with a caveat
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White House officials also believe that Trump's tough border policy and plan for deportations won over a broader cohort of voters. 'America voted for mass deportations,' top Trump aide Stephen Miller posted Wednesday on X. Immigration issues have often worked in Trump's favor before. But the risk here is that he's inciting a crisis that could spread, get out of control and cost lives. He might pine to run an autocracy, but it's not clear that most Americans want to live in such conditions. And if protesters or police officers and soldiers were hurt in violence he exacerbated, it's on him. Trump lost after his first term because he made a crisis – the pandemic – worse. History could repeat itself. And once presidents lose the public's confidence, they tend to find it impossible to regain. The breaking point could come if the expulsions widen. Recent polls have shown that while Americans do back deportations and a tougher border policy, they don't necessarily agree when friends, neighbors and otherwise law-abiding members of the community get swept up. In Trump's first term, the zero-tolerance policy of separating migrant kids from their parents caused a public furor encapsulated by the phrase 'kids in cages.' Most political observers believe the country has moved right on immigration because of the Biden administration's hapless performance at the southern border. But a piece of poignant imagery that encapsulates cruelty or incompetence could yet shatter Trump's credibility. Democrats face an extraordinarily complex political situation without a leader recognized by most of the country. Combating Trump's demagoguery and spinning of alternative realities would be nearly impossible if the party were firing on all cylinders – never mind when it's wandering in the wilderness. 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Before the Los Angeles protests, he was already trying to cut federal aid to California – seeking to punish its people effectively for the way they voted. Several sitting Democratic governors – Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland – might also be planning runs in 2028, and could end up facing similar challenges to Newsom. Perhaps one of them will solve the dilemma of how to avoid angering base voters sympathetic to migrants while building support among centrists, independents and moderate Republicans who still want tougher border policies. If they do, they will achieve something almost no center-left politician in the Western world has yet managed. Democratic leaders will also be desperate to make sure the current crisis doesn't unleash reactions inside the party that make it unpalatable to voters more generally. The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 provide a warning. 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