As someone who works in municipal infrastructure, this is the biggest load of bullshit. We are one of very few states states doesn't have corruption in construction.

I also worked as a legislative Paige. We are VERY FAR from anything resembling corruption.

"State most likely to actually go after corruption."

NY, California, and Florida the least corrupt in the country, fucking come on.

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On a state level i cant speak, but on a local level, my town is very corrupt.

I used to live in Florida and I still try to keep up with all the sh*t that happens there but jfc the corruption is out of control and they’re not even trying to hide it.

Stopping universities from requiring masks and covid vaccinations. Pushing out a county school board member because they wanted to require masks in schools. Replaced the university of Florida’s president with a desantis lackey. Tried to cover up Covid deaths in nursing homes. Tried to incorrectly report Covid deaths on the state dashboard and went after the whistle blower.

Bot written article that fails to understand that corruption convictions is not a great metric of corruption. Vermont actually goes after people who do the dirty.

My town is as well. It's insane and run by like two guys who are part of the good ol boys network for sure. I would love to the state require mandatory outside audits bi annually or something like that.

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Yup you nailed it, everyones related. Its a bunch of drama. I wouldnt care if they were responsible with my tax dollars, but the work bids that get accepted are absolutely ridiculous.

A culvert replacement recently went to bid - lowest came in at 21k, highest 35k....guess who won? 35k guess who is also the brother of the treasurer? Yup...

I do remember the parking garage in Burlington had some corruption issues

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My town guys work 4 10hr days whenever possible...4hrs of overtime every week on 40hrs...

Wouldnt be an issue if the roads didnt still SUCK.

Its just frustrating because we have the tax dollars for nice infrastructure, it just doesnt go to that.

Oh ya here they "appoint" their buddies to whatever dumb town jobs they have like delinquent tax collector to a guy who cant do basic math even though qualified residents actually wanted the spot. Mismanagement of funds so bad it would make you puke. Lack of minutes being recorded, all the zoom only town meeting recordings gone, family of selectboard members gatekeeping who gets to talk at meetings it's just stupid crooked. The biggest insult though is even after they siphon off state grants and cash to fix their own trucks they leave us this paltry pile of "resident use sand" at the town garage. No salt so of course it's a frozen pile of ice left in the middle of the parking lot with no cover. They get pissy if they see you load a home depot bucket up from the other pile but at this point they can kiss my fat ass.

I didn't know about corruption in Vermont. A report in 2011- Marquet Report on Embezzlement showed that Vermont had the highest risk for loss due to Embezzlement. I feel this was due to Individuals and not some State issues.

I would say that what Scumlin did to the Dodge guy with that land deal was corrupt as fuck. Not construction really but still a major state actor fucking people over. Coventry town clerk, that bridge on 91, The state heath care website debacle, per diem scam just a few that popped in my head right away.

Worse- It's human written, and poorly proofead. "... considered one of the [safest states](/state-rankings/safest-states with ..."

It used to be a men's lifestyle magazine, back in the early 2000s.

Florida would like to have a word.

Some folks move to small towns in Vermont and then start claiming corruption when they find out that local governments only have a handful of people fulfilling multiple roles. The reality is that only a few people want to be involved. Vermont has numerous ways to participate in the democratic process; from attending town meetings to going to or joining the select board or local planning commission. Fact is, it’s not particularly exciting stuff and few people show up to do the necessary work. Sure there is opportunity for bad actors but some folks would rather complain and create drama than do volunteer work to improve their community.

bruh... If you believe this, I've got a bridge for sale.

> rather complain and create drama than do volunteer work to improve their community.

Ya that must be it! FFS

Seriously.

This is the real answer. For a while VT had a very serious embezzlement problem. Seems to have gotten a bit better but for a while we were the top by some metric.

They also have Illinois as one of the least-corrupt states--you know, the same Illinois that has had two governors go to Federal prison in the last 20 years and another couple charged, and is home to Chicago, the most theatrically corrupt city in America. And I love Chicago! It's just that when I lived there back in the 2000s there was a routine story about an Alderman being found with 50K in cash hidden in a fridge and nobody batted an eye...

This. I went to a meeting a few years ago where someone asked why some important position in town wasn’t filled. The Selectboard said they couldn’t fill it. The person complained it was important and the Selectboard needed to do something about it. The Selectboard offered it to them then and there. The person said no. They shrugged at them.

Don’t like how your town is run? Run for Selectboard. Volunteer for the zoning board. This place only works if we make it work.

To everyone writing about local government corruption, I hear you. BUT, you should see the power County Commissioners have over unincorporated territories out west. Scary almost.

Remember the middle finger statue a few years ago because the guy on the zoning board vetoed his small repair shop because he was a competitor. That kinda of stuff can happen in a small state.

I'd rather read Maxim's take on corruption

As someone who grew up in Illinois, I don’t trust this list as far as I can throw it.

Also the corrupt parking garage construction under the UVM Medical building had someone going to jail

I forgot all those dairy farms and sugar shacks were fronts for the mafia...thats how they get you

I come from Texas and Louisiana, and if Vermont is more corrupt than those places, then more corruption please.

To correct the record, the Development Review Board turned down his application for a not-so-small shop that was going to do a heck of a lot more than repairs, including having semis blocking the 2 lane and steep Rt 128 to drop off spools full of metal wiring for recycling. He was not up front or honest about all of the uses when he filed his application.

His application and appeals were turned down by the whole board, not one dude who didn't want to compete. If he had proposed his business for a different site like the growth centers of the town with better utilities and roads, he probably would have been approved. Decisions like that can't be vetoed.

Lastly, he had to be removed from the DRB meetings for threatening the board members when he didn't get his way, like a child.

There was no corruption involved with Mr. Pelkey, he's just a jerk.

(Note: I'm not a member of the DRB board, but witnessed this asshole's threats to the board and chair while I was waiting for my own project to be reviewed.)

While I don't believe VT is remotely perfect in this realm, I think the other thing to consider, given that vt and Wyoming are the top, is that the per capita measures always skew data when it comes to things like this. Places with low population density have higher per capita representation. There is the same amount of government officials per town, but if the town has 1/5th the people, well 2 corrupt officials equates to a 5x higher per capita corruption number. It is a misapprorpriation of data and stats done by poor scientists, or worse, untrained reporters who don't actually understand statistical science and therefore shouldn't utilize it. Per capita of the total population when looking at a discrete subpopulation (government workers) does not equalize the numbers, they are not intrinsically related because, well, the number of government officials in a given area is completely arbitrarily defined by people, and therefore not predictable by basic statistics.

So I don't think this article actually says anything, because states with high pop density (NY, CA) appear low corruption for the same reason. It is an uncontrolled bias in the data manipulation.

• a data & information scientist

Maxim had words?

The number of posts in this subreddit with a 'score' of 0, and with a ton of comments, baffles me. Is that due to the low # of posts here, or low moderation?

As a Floridian, this has to be a joke. Governor DeSantis has basically turned out state government into an ideology cult.

His anti-CRT laws are so ridiculous even universities are struggling to find ways to teach basic historical facts, like slavery and the Holocaust. He was so angry that Disney decided to halt their donations to him and other conservatives over backlash from the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that he came up with a ludicrous redistricting bill that now has taxpayers footing the bill for Disney’s land formally called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

One of our senators and our former governor, Rick Scott, literally defrauded our state’s Medicare.

As someone who grew up in said small vermont town, with family members on said select boards, i see your point.

However the corruption still exists. You can find it right in the town report if you do a little research on some of the local family trees.

And Tricare. People forget, Rick Scott defrauded veterans and those on Medicare. Lowest of the lowest.

People like sharing their opinion when they disagree with content? I just removed this post though because I can't for the life of me find an overview of the methodology.

Removed this because a comprehensive overview of the methodology is missing.