Phil Scott Has Got To Go A Vermont Retirement Committee

Nine years is plenty

Tell everyone
you know,
Phil Scott has
got to go

He listens. He learns. He vetoes. Vermont has spent nearly a decade waiting for the third one to stop cancelling out the first two.

Register to Vote See the Record
Governor Phil Scott at a press conference.
65
Vetoes since 2017. The previous Vermont record was 21.
2 sources
116–31
House vote to override his child care veto. It became Act 76.
1 source
$70M
IT overhaul, postponed after warnings of cost overruns and delays.
1 source
Nov 3
The date any of this can actually be settled.
1 source
Governor Phil Scott outside the Vermont State House.
Fig. 1 — The incumbent, listening

Meet Phil

Listen. Learn. Veto.

Phil Scott has been governor since 2017. In that time he has perfected a distinctive style of leadership: appear reasonable, decline to lead, and then send the bill back to the legislature with a letter explaining that now is not the right moment.

He is affable. He is a race car driver. He is, by most accounts, a pleasant man to be stuck in an elevator with. None of these are policies.

Nine years of “affordability” has meant, in practice, that Vermonters pay for things later and more expensively — in deferred climate costs, in unbuilt housing, in child care that took a veto override to fund, in state computer systems that fall over on a Tuesday.

Read the full record →

The Issues

10 of them, sourced

01
On the record

Return to office, by force

He ordered nearly all state employees back to their desks three days a week without bargaining it with their union first. The union sued. A judge declined to block the order, and it took effect on schedule.

State employees
4 sources
02
On the record

The state IT situation

VTBuys, the new state procurement system, was so broken on rollout that the state discontinued the deployment outright. Contractors went unpaid. Staff were told to sit on invoices and avoid signing new contracts.

Administration
5 sources
05
On the record

The property tax spiral

Close to 30% of school budgets failed at the polls in spring 2024, a record, as voters braced for the education property tax hike everyone knew was coming. In June the legislature passed H.887, the annual "yield bill" that sets the actual rate — an average 13.8% increase.

Education funding
2 sources
06
On the record

Emergency shelter, cut by rule

The motel voucher program that housed over 2,000 households at its pandemic peak was scaled back by administrative rule, not a vote. In spring 2024 around 1,500 households were told to check out under a new seasonal cap. Vermont Legal Aid sued to slow it down and lost.

Homelessness
4 sources
07
On the record

The privacy veto

H.121 would have limited how platforms collect data on Vermonters and target ads at kids, and let consumers sue over violations. It passed with broad support. He vetoed it in June 2024, calling it a legal and economic risk to businesses — the same argument the ad industry's own lobbyists had made against it.

Consumer protection
3 sources
08
On the record

The prison reversal

In 2019, citing a 33% rise in Vermont's violent crime rate since 2007, his administration launched a reform effort to shrink the incarcerated population and cut probation revocations. It worked, for a while, then reversed. By 2025 the direction was a public-safety push for tougher bail and sentencing rules — and in April, a Department of Corrections policy letting the state hold people past their court-ordered minimum release dates.

Corrections
7 sources
09
Opinion

Affable is not a policy

He is pleasant. He is a race car driver. He is, by most accounts, a good man to be stuck in an elevator with. None of these are policies, and all of them have been doing a great deal of work for a very long time.

Leadership
10
Opinion

Quiet when it counts

Asked to speak plainly about corruption and the rule of law in Washington, he reaches for the same register he uses for a budget adjustment: measured, regretful, non-specific.

Leadership

A partial list

Every entry links to its source

2017

Cannabis legalization, vetoed

Veto stood

S.22 would have legalized possession and limited home cultivation. Sent back over roadside testing and youth access. Legalization arrived anyway, later and messier.

1 source
2018

Minimum wage and paid family leave, vetoed

Veto stood

Both framed as unaffordable. He vetoed four bills that May, including a $15 minimum wage and a mandatory paid family leave program.

1 source
2020

Minimum wage, vetoed again

Overridden

The House overrode him 100–49 and the increase became law. His paid family leave veto survived the same session by a single vote.

2 sources
2020

Global Warming Solutions Act, vetoed

Overridden

H.688 became law on September 22 when the House overrode 103–47 and the Senate 22–8. Vermont's binding climate targets exist because the legislature declined to take no for an answer.

2 sources
2023

Affordable Heat Act, vetoed

Overridden

S.5 set up a clean heat standard for further study and guaranteed the legislature a second vote before anything took effect. He vetoed the study. The Senate overrode him 20–10.

1 source
2023

Child care funding, vetoed

Overridden

H.217 was vetoed on June 6 over its payroll contribution. The House overrode 116–31 and the Senate followed. It is now Act 76, and it is among the most significant things Vermont has done for families in a generation.

2 sources
2023

Bottle bill expansion, vetoed

Veto stood

Vermont, of all states, told that expanding the bottle deposit was a bridge too far. The House overrode him 112–32. The Senate came up short at 17–13, and the veto held.

2 sources
2024

Property tax yield bill, vetoed

Overridden

H.887 set education property tax rates for the year at an average 13.8% increase. He vetoed it, wanting to defer the increase instead. The House overrode him 103–42, the Senate 22–7, and the increase took effect as written.

1 source
2024

Data privacy act, vetoed

Veto stood

H.121 would have limited data collection and let consumers sue over violations. He vetoed it after ad-industry lobbying. The House overrode him 128–17; the Senate fell short, 14–15.

1 source
2025

Risk containment policy adopted

Still in effect

The Department of Corrections started holding people past their court-ordered minimum release dates on "risk" grounds, directed by his own office. Fewer than 10 people were held under it at the start; 77 were by September 2026.

1 source
2025

Motel voucher overhaul, vetoed

Veto stood

H.91 would have replaced the shrinking motel program with one run by regional nonprofits. He vetoed it as inadequate. The override attempt failed — Democrats had lost their veto-proof majority that November.

1 source
2025–26

Return-to-office order

Before the Supreme Court

Ordered without bargaining. A judge declined to block it. The Labor Relations Board then ruled he should have bargained and ordered it rescinded. His administration appealed, and the Vermont Supreme Court heard argument in June 2026.

2 sources

The slogan fits
on a sign

Print one. Stake it. Stick it on the tailgate. The design files are free, and nobody is selling anything.

See the signs

Tell everyone you know

Then make sure everyone you know is registered.

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