November 9, 2026 | By Bill SchubartIn an historic Vermont win, five-term incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott, long considered one of the most popular governors in the country, clinched a sixth term in the recent midterm election and did so in a predominantly progressive blue state.
Pundits have offered many reasons for Scott beating his challenger, Amanda Janoo, including many Vermonters’ goal of maintaining a firewall around the progressive agenda of Vermont’s liberal legislature – now a supermajority in both legislative chambers. A long-standing tradition in Vermont politics holds that dialogue and compromise among opponents produces better statutory and policy results.
So, in what will be his legacy term, Scott has a crucial choice to make: Will he define his gubernatorial legacy by being a naysayer, exercising his veto pen against progressive initiatives of which he doesn’t approve as he did in the last term? Or will he spend his next two years working with the legislature – which now has the capacity to override his vetoes – to address the pain points Vermonters struggle with?
Scott’s favorite nemesis – “affordability” – is little more than an ill-defined political meme that only takes on meaning when its user articulates its component causes and then charts a path to effective policies that could provide relief. These policies then become fodder for debate and compromise between the executive and legislative branches, with input, if needed, from the judicial branch – the three components of government that must work effectively together to address the issues that are only accelerating for Vermonters in the current standoff.
In his next term, Scott has the opportunity to define his legacy by leading a broad effort to find solutions to the challenges that currently make life difficult for Vermonters of all ages.
One key underlying issue transcends the current debate about raising taxes to fund solutions. What if instead we were to look strategically at how we might raise tax revenues more equitably across the economic spectrum and then how we might spend those revenues more efficiently?
If we were to reimagine a tax code that takes into account “affordability,” it would look different from what our tax code looks like today. For starters, it would reflect not only income and assets, but also age, family circumstance, property tax discounts for home-sharing, community service, local primary care, discounts for first-time buyers, etc.
Let’s not waste time discussing how to improve and expand on what we’re already doing. This only adds expense and complexity. Instead, we must start afresh and explore new models for our current challenges: housing, healthcare, public education, public transport, agriculture and food systems, the environment, and criminal justice. Let’s find and create new, more efficient models that deliver these basic elements of a functional, “affordable” society.
How? The governor would partner with legislative leaders to create small, focused working groups to explore and reimagine new solutions for each. The working groups would be convened from academics and students at the Leahy Institute, Vermont nonprofit and business leaders, public servants, and community constituents. They’d be given a finite time period during which to prepare and articulate alternative solutions to Vermont’s key challenges.
The governor and the legislature would then partner and accept responsibility for bringing them to fruition, monitoring their success and failures, adjusting as necessary, and completing the process of reinvention.
The old ways have failed us. Let’s try new ones.
Bill Schubart is a retired businessman and writer of fiction, nonfiction, and regular columns on public affairs. He is a past chair of the board of directors of Vermont Journalism Trust, the parent nonprofit organization for VTDigger and Waterbury Roundabout’s fiscal sponsor. He lives in Hinesburg.