October 28, 2026 | By Jane Gallagher
There's a lot at stake in this year’s election, including stark differences in worldview behind our political choices. Will we vote for leaders who believe Vermonters lack the ingenuity to make good decisions at the community level, requiring the state to decide for us? Or will we vote with confidence that our communities already have everything we need, if only state government would invest in the creative solutions being incubated there?
I’ve supported Gov. Phil Scott in the past and am grateful for his wise leadership during the COVID pandemic. However, when considering the governor’s race this year, I’ve read that he intends to cut taxes for everyone. That sounds appealing, but when you think about all the financial challenges the state faces, it’s disturbing.
Cutting taxes without changing the tax structure would ultimately make our economy more dependent on a corrupt, out-of-control federal government to provide missing funds for critical programs, hand-in-hand with large corporations that might bring jobs to the state but would siphon off much of the profit to benefit out-of-state stakeholders.
That’s a top-down approach to governing that stems from a worldview that sees Vermonters as not only struggling to get by, which many of us are, but also believing we lack a deep enough commitment to place, generosity of spirit, wisdom and skills needed to pool our resources of all kinds to improve our towns’ quality of life.
Gov. Scott may see things that way because we’re still facing the same problems we had when he first took office 10 years ago. Perhaps out of frustration, he imagines solving them now by forcing the consolidation of school districts and entrusting related funding decisions to the state rather than the towns served by the schools he would close. He also supports bringing more big business to our state and instituting public policies mirroring economic structures of more urban states. Is that really what we want?
By contrast, Gov. Scott’s opponent, Amanda Janoo, a seasoned economist, proposes solving our state’s financial problems from a bottom-up worldview that honors the strength and creativity at the heart of our local communities. As a Vermonter who grew up in a small rural town, she’s campaigned by traveling around the state to personally ask thousands of people what they love about their towns. She’s done that because her policies would build on those valued strengths, collaborating with local leaders to invest in them.
She proposes reorganizing the tax structure to make it fairer by decreasing the cost of living for low- and middle-income Vermonters. She would also require those with annual incomes above $250,000 to pay the state the equivalent of the tax cut they received from the federal “Big Beautiful Bill,” something such Vermonters could easily afford.
She proposes investing those funds in innovative solutions to state problems advocated by the people facing them, who know best what they need. Her administration would prioritize support for homegrown entrepreneurial businesses and family farms. She would also lower property taxes for Vermonters who live here year-round and raise taxes on second homes owned by out-of-staters, and on corporations that construct rental housing to deliver profits to out-of-state shareholders.
Her plan to use those funds to provide free primary healthcare to every Vermont community, bypassing health insurance companies to pay a general practice doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician’s assistant in each town through the state budget, would significantly lower healthcare costs. It would greatly reduce the amount of costly emergency room care for hospitals as well as for people with chronic conditions who can’t afford health insurance.
Amanda Janoo would also end the push to close and consolidate local schools, which serve as community engagement hubs in every Vermont town, especially smaller ones with fewer public spaces. Instead, she would work with local residents to creatively use schools with few students for multiple purposes. Schools might also become community health, senior, or art centers, for example.
Although I believe from his record that Gov. Scott has the best interests of all Vermonters at heart, this political moment doesn’t call for more top-down solutions like those he’s proposing. Instead, we need a governor with a creative vision rooted in locally based, bottom-up solutions.
Amanda Janoo is a candidate for governor who recognizes that solutions to our state’s problems already exist as hyper-local models in communities throughout the state, which she will tell you about when asked.
She would be a governor who would bring home her wide experience in successfully transforming profit-based economic systems into economies focused on the well-being of the people and the land that make a place feel like home. That vision fits hand-in-glove with the cultural history of our brave little state.
Jane Gallagher lives in Waterbury Center.