The transportation fund already kicks $40 mil/year to the general fund. If they do this, it's not to fund transpo.

If you live up over 3000 ft on Mansfield you definitely want your own blower or plow.

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/snow-totals-vermont-new-york-noreaster-march-14-2023/43315707

If I was closer I would've happily come and plowed you out, but c'mon ma, you definitely didn't get 3 ft. I'm at a high elevation much farther south and barely got 18 inches.

That comes off as even more naive. Communication is a learned skill. Some people are never taught to communicate properly in a relationship or have poor examples to learn from. Needing a couples counselor to help facilitate that communication and learn how to do it effectively doesn't negate their love and can often strengthen it.

To your question: I'm going to go through life with the woman I love who lights up my day and I can't imagine being without. I am not going to presume it'll be a smooth ride forever. That just reeks of arrogance.

I've gotta be honest, your take seems incredibly naive. I don't think you find true love at all. I think true deep meaningful love is built and earned and communicated. Two people have to endeavor together to create it. Sometimes a therapist can help someone who never learned how to do that, especially if they never got to see a healthy working relationship in their life.

Some states will charge you $2400 just for littering. I don't know why we don't up this. Come to think of it, why don't we up the littering penalty from $200 while we're at it?

I think this is the one you're referring to. Talks about how geology has affected the development of VT and NH.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/programs/2017-09-08/how-has-the-geology-of-vermont-affected-its-character

Take it from someone who spent their entire 36 years in VT. This essay is spot on. Act 250 is no longer needed the same way it was in the 70s. Regulators have created a strong framework for responsible development that exists apart from Act 250. When someone asks me to describe land use in VT I tell them to imagine it as a statewide HOA.

Zoning minimums are making it harder to build SFH. My house on 3.5 acres that is part of a neighborhood in rural VT subdivided in the 90s was rezoned to a 5 acre minimum several years ago. This means my neighborhood, if built today, would have significantly fewer lots than it does.

You want change that would help but almost no one would support. Reduce acreage minimums for residential development across the state.

My house is on 3.5 acres in a subdivision from the 90s. We were rezoned to a 5 acre minimum a few years ago. So my current, very spacious lot and those of all my neighbors' wouldn't be allowed today for being too small. Our dozen houses would be 7.

This is the sunk cost fallacy and almost everyone does it. The first step to avoiding it is understanding it.

No, we don't.

You sound like you're skirting the edge of social Darwinism...

You realize the reason we are not still stone age brutes is because we came together in groups to achieve a common purpose?

Get your head out of your ass and realize you are responsible to/for others in addition to yourself.

VT never votes out incumbent governors.

There are responsible and less harmful ways to manage and harvest forests that allows for the production of wood products.

I don't know anything about this group, but I'm all for responsible forestry in general and I do like the idea of preserving old growth forests.

Edit: You got me doing some reading. According to this study large trees that are only about 3% of the forest accounted for 33%-46% of carbon storage. That's pretty wild.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.594274/full

If only we hadn't shut down that really stable base load power plant that we used to have...

Part of it for us is living out in the woods out of sight or earshot of neighbors, a locked door is hardly a deterrent. If someone wants in the can just break a window and no one will know.

I agree there's no excuse and truck drivers should be using truck gps. An engineering solution won't fix drivers ignoring signs and blindly following GPS. At best it can get them stuck in a location that makes it easier to remove them or that allows cars to bypass them while stuck (not a small or simple solution).

Not sure the whopping $3600 bucks from fines this year is incentive to "keep letting this happen", but an engineering solution to prevent trucks from ending up in the Notch will be very expensive and most likely entirely state funded.

If we're waiting on the $3600/yr to fund a half million dollar project, we'll be waiting about 135 more years.

It's a gps thing. The trucks that get stuck are using things like Google maps which show it as a viable route for "cars" and not a commercial truck GPS that accounts for things like low bridges and restricted roads.

NH 18/234 or 7.6%

Maine 46/483 or 9.5%

Conn 22/169 or 13.0%

Mass 46/351 or 13.1%

RI 6/39 or 15.4%