Editorial: Town Meeting: School budgets see modest hikes; town budgets are mixed

As Town Meeting gets underway as early as this weekend in some Addison County towns, and next Monday and Tuesday for others, most residents will face much lower school taxes than the prior year, and modest increases in their town budgets. The sticker shock on some special bond votes, however, will test the community resolve of some voters.

This Town Meeting, Middlebury residents will decide their largest bond vote ever: a $49.5 million makeover of its 25-year-old sewer plant. Built in 2000, the 20-year projected lifespan of the plant is five years past that due date and will be forced to ho … (read more)

The slash-and-burn strategy of the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force actions, and its support by this lemming-like Republican Congress, is as wasteful and destructive as it is idiotic.

As Vermonters begin to understand the debate around reforming Vermont’s educational system, a few priorities should remain front and center: first, change is needed; second, we shouldn’t be in the business of funding charter or religious schools (which wi … (read more)

As the nation’s increasingly discredited president continues to sow chaos at every level — domestic and international — it helps to understand what we can of his tactics. A recent piece by Jess Bidgood, a New York Times correspondent, explains how Trump u … (read more)

When Trump issued his ill-considered order to freeze federal funding for thousands of programs across the country, it’s unlikely he and his team didn’t realize it would cause chaos, havoc and fear for millions of Americans. Why Trump and his advisors know … (read more)

The sight of more than 100 area citizens braving sub-freezing temperatures on Middlebury’s Town Green to protest the most egregious of the incoming president’s policies, while championing the work of famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King, is a fitt … (read more)

Of the dozens of executive orders President Trump enacted during his first two days of offices, most are more ordinary than not, some are more vengeful than impactful, others seek to reorder the way government has governed for the past several decades and … (read more)

Early statewide conversations on school funding and housing offer some hope that progress on these two crucial issues will finally occur.

In a written statement released the opening day of the 2025 Legislative session and a day ahead of his fifth inaugural address, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott encouraged Vermont residents to watchdog the Legislature for excessive spending.

It’s big news that Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram, is dropping its fact-checking program and instigating a system in which the public fact-checks itself.

As 2024 draws to a close and 2025 opens a fresh chapter, the sense of renewal and rejuvenation, of starting with a fresh slate, has a strong cultural pull.

ABC settled a defamation suit in which George Stephanopoulos incorrectly said Trump had been found liable of raping E. Jean Carrol, rather than liable of sexual abuse. There’s a lot to unpack in this story.

Good progress. That’s an apt reflection of the town of Middlebury’s effort to manage its relatively small, and mostly cooperative, houseless population. 

Leading off the front page in today’s Addison Independent is a blaring headline with two stories about two parents who have asked the Mary Hogan Elementary School to ban five books that teach gender issues to kindergarten students.