Suzi Wizowaty

Are taxes by definition "bad for business"? Are a lovely environment, a strong educational system, a healthy population "bad for business"? The conservative Tax Foundation apparently thinks so. But let's take a closer look at the statistics released in their recent report. (Thanks, Mark Mitchell, for drawing my attention to the following.)

Take Mississippi, the state hailed (more…)

Because I'm running for re-election for the first time, I've been thinking recently about how one best goes about this. Typically, I've noticed, politicians send reports that say "I've done this, I've done that. Look at all I've done on your behalf." Me, me, me.

But I'm not crazy about that kind of self-promotion. It seems, um, unattractive? Tacky? My Texas (more…)

When I was elected, a neighbor who knows much more about politics than I ever will said to me, somewhat ruefully, "All the decisions in Montpelier are made by a small handful of people." I thought about this quite a bit. Since I obviously wasn’t one of that handful, (more…)

Yesterday we passed a budget and an accompanying tax bill that will require non-profit performing arts organizations (those that sold more than $50,000 worth of tickets the previous year) to collect taxes on ticket sales. I certainly appreciate the financial straits the state is in and the desire and the need to find more money. But (more…)

Last Friday, we spent several hours debating (and ultimately passing) S.292, a bill that makes some excellent changes to the current "corrections" system. It's a good bill; it makes many processes more fair and saves money. But some people on both sides of the aisle vehemently opposed it. Most of the opposition seemed to center on a fear of "those people." (more…)

It takes a long time to make good laws. This is a little dry, but bear with me. Someone introduces a bill into one of the two bodies—let’s say the House in this case—where the Speaker assigns it to a committee. The committee takes testimony on the bill, sometimes for weeks, (more…)

Every Tuesday afternoon, the three parties hold their caucuses, to go over the bills to be introduced that week. This last Tuesday, we Dems got an advance look at the budget and what's called the Miscellaneous Tax Bill. Now both Appropriations and Ways and Means committees consist of smart, incredibly hardworking people who this year managed to come up with a balanced budget and some creative solutions that kept the state's human services programs from being eviscerated, as Governor Douglas had proposed. But. (more…)

What's keeping me awake at night these days is the growing sense that, with repect to health care reform, we're avoiding the most important, and the hardest, question.

I suppose we're trying. After all, we do talk about "containing costs." But what do we mean? Which costs? Whose costs?

Pharmaceutical costs? The cost of (more…)

I always imagined that the push to legalize marijuana came from small-time users who otherwise lived within the law--i.e. generally law-abiding folks who didn't want to go to jail for what they considered a harmless activity. In all honesty, it wasn't an issue that I gave much thought to.

But over the past decade I've spent more time working in jails, off and on, (more…)

Vermont's vigorous populist movement for health care reform has rallied behind the slogan, "Health care is a human right." The unspoken follow-up is "and we demand our rights!" Demands generate a lot of energy.

But the language of demand doesn't speak to me as much as the language of civic responsibility. The language of demand (more…)