Dear Reader,

At VTDigger, we believe the future of our state depends on more than public service journalism — it also requires investing in the next generation of news readers. That’s why your donation to VTDigger will do double duty today: supporting independent journalism and delivering a new children’s book to a Vermont child.

This week, we’re partnering with the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), a Vermont-based nonprofit that has brought books, author visits and interactive literacy programs to more than 350,000 children in local communities with the fewest resources. Often a book from CLiF is the first new book a child has ever owned.

Every donation we receive by Saturday will send a book directly to a Vermont child through CLiF. Our goal is to send 350 books from 350 community-minded VTDigger readers.

Reading is the foundation of community participation and civic engagement. Every child deserves access to stories, facts and ideas that expand their world. But in many Vermont homes, new children’s books are a luxury. Your gift today helps close that gap.

We’re so grateful to the 76 readers who have already stepped up and we only have a few days to inspire 274 more donors to help us reach our goal. Every gift, no matter the size, brings us closer to delivering both trusted news and the gift of reading to Vermont families.

As a thank you, if you become a monthly sustaining member at $20/month, you’ll receive your choice of a hat or a tote bag from our summer merch drop while helping us invest in a more curious, informed and equitable Vermont.

Your support powers journalism that holds leaders accountable and gives voice to Vermont’s communities. And right now, it also opens doors for children, sparking curiosity and hope with every book delivered.

Join us in building Vermont’s civic future.

Sincerely,

Neal Goswami
Managing Editor, VTDigger

Each donation of a brand-new children’s book via the Children’s Literacy Foundation has been generously underwritten by the Vermont Book Shop. 100% of your gift to VTDigger will directly support our journalism.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Give by Saturday: One donation powers local news and early childhood literacy.

Dear Reader,

Affording a life in Vermont is becoming harder for more people and the consequences are real. From housing and child care to health care and food, many Vermonters are navigating rising costs with fewer options and more stress.

Too often, public conversations rely on averages that mask the realities many Vermonters face. At VTDigger, we believe journalism has a responsibility to go deeper and reflect lived experiences, expose systemic gaps and ask tough questions about what’s working and what’s not.

That’s why we’re launching a new reporting beat focused on wealth, poverty and economic inequality in Vermont.

Report for America is helping fund this new beat. But to fully sustain it, we need our readers to chip in for the remainder. Our goal is to raise $50,000 this year.

Thanks to a generous local donor, all gifts made by Saturday, June 14 at 11:59 p.m. will be matched dollar for dollar. Will you double your impact and help us launch this new beat?

A familiar name. A critical new role.

We’re proud to share that Theo Wells-Spackman will join VTDigger in July as our newest Report for America corps member.

Theo, who grew up in Weybridge and interned in our newsroom last summer, recently graduated from Princeton University. As part of the national Report for America service program — which places talented journalists in local newsrooms across the country to report on undercovered topics — Theo will investigate the economic policies and systems that shape life for Vermonters across income levels, regions and backgrounds.

During his previous stint at VTDigger, Theo covered a range of topics including flood recovery and the Vermont state college system with empathy, insight and rigor. We’re thrilled to welcome him back and excited to see what he uncovers next.

But we can’t do this without you.

Every donation through Saturday will be matched and bring us closer to launching a beat that delivers real answers. Any gift up to $500 will be doubled and help us launch this beat with care, accuracy and a community mandate.

Theo’s reporting will focus on the root causes of Vermont’s affordability crisis, follow the flow of public funding and elevate the experiences of those most affected by economic hardship. He’ll look closely at proposed solutions and report back on what’s actually making a difference.

If you believe Vermont needs deeper, clearer, more consistent reporting on the rising cost of living, now is the time to act. Help us build a beat that delivers answers.

Your donation today will go twice as far to support hard-hitting, solutions-focused journalism.

Sincerely,

Neal Goswami
Manaing Editor, VTDigger

Read the story on VTDigger here: Introducing VTDigger’s new Report for America corps member: Theo Wells-Spackman.

Behind every breaking story, every investigative deep dive and every carefully crafted newsletter is a team of VTDigger journalists who make it happen.

I have the privilege of seeing that work up close every day. And I can tell you: it’s not easy. It takes relentless curiosity, an unshakable commitment to truth and long hours spent digging — sometimes through documents, sometimes through floodwaters, sometimes through political spin.

If you can, please contribute today during VTDigger’s Spring Member Drive. Your gift in any size will help our nonprofit newsroom bring you news you can’t find anywhere else.

Local journalism doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because dedicated reporters ask tough questions, follow leads, and show up when it matters. It happens because an editor pushes for accuracy, a photographer captures the essence of a moment and a data journalist turns numbers into stories that hold the powerful accountable.

At VTDigger, everything we publish is made possible by a newsroom that works tirelessly to inform Vermont. And that newsroom is powered by readers like you.

VTDigger is not backed by corporate owners or investors. The vast majority of our budget comes from donations and goes directly to paying our journalists — because they are the reason we exist. 

The only way we can continue this work is with the support of our readers. Will you join us?

If you value journalists who hold power to account and ask the tough questions, I hope you’ll make a gift today. Your support ensures that this work continues—this year, next year, and for years to come.

Sincerely,

Neal Goswami
Acting editor-in-chief, VTDigger

Read the story on VTDigger here: The journalists who keep Vermont informed — and why they need you.

At VTDigger, we know Town Meeting Day is more than a tradition — it’s democracy in action. Our team is committed to bringing you in-depth reporting so you have the information you need to participate in decisions that shape your community.

If you value this kind of news, please help support it by becoming a sustaining member or making a one-time donation.

Local democracy depends on an informed public — and that’s where VTDigger comes in. Our newsroom works tirelessly before, during and after March 4 to cover Town Meeting Day from every corner of Vermont. From tracking key votes to delivering results in real time (sometimes into the early morning hours), our journalists ensure Vermonters stay informed.

Imagine what Vermont would look like without a press dedicated to keeping democracy transparent — or if this reporting were locked behind a paywall.

If you value having a trusted, independent news source covering Town Meeting Day, I invite you to make a donation today — or better yet, become a monthly sustaining member.

Your gift helps us cover more towns, report on more critical decisions and keep this vital service available to all.

Join us in making sure local democracy has the coverage it deserves.

With gratitude,

Neal Goswami
Managing editor, VTDigger

Read the story on VTDigger here: Town Meeting Day: A win for local democracy.

Dear readers,

As winter approaches, many Vermonters face an impossible choice: paying for groceries or other essential needs like heating their homes. The need for food assistance from the Vermont Foodbank and its partners has increased steadily over the past two years, driven by factors including inflation, the housing shortage and the lasting impact of recent floods.

This is where you come in. There are less than ten days left in our Thanksgiving drive to support the Vermont Foodbank and fund VTDigger’s statewide journalism. Your contribution helps VTDigger continue covering critical issues while sending meals to neighbors in need. 

Here’s how your donation can make a difference today:

• $25 provides 1 meal for a family in need and supports our reporting.
• $50 provides 5 meals and fuels in-depth investigative journalism.
• $100 provides 25 meals and helps us continue covering stories that matter.
• $1,000 provides 50 meals and helps rebuild Vermont’s press corps.

The Vermont Foodbank has seen unprecedented demand this year, distributing over 14.5 million pounds of food — a significant increase from previous years. In some areas of Vermont hit hard by flooding, like parts of the Northeast Kingdom, families are not only seeking food, but also water and other items to meet their basic needs.

At VTDigger, we’re committed to reporting on the challenges our communities face, and with your help, we can do even more. Your support fuels our journalism and helps put food on the table for families struggling this holiday season.

Donate now and join us in making a real difference for Vermont.

With gratitude,

Neal Goswami
Managing Editor, VTDigger

Read the story on VTDigger here: As winter approaches, many Vermonters face an impossible choice.

Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas is calling for a revote in the race for the Bennington-1 House seat after an error was discovered in the town of Pownal’s voter checklist that may have impacted the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

About 40 voters on Pownal’s checklist were placed in the wrong legislative district, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Democrat John Cooper won the race for the House seat by 25 votes over Republican Bruce Busa, according to unofficial results. Cooper received 1,265 votes (48.3%) to Busa’s 1,240 votes (47.35%).

The error, according to the office, stemmed from the reapportionment process, which redraws district boundaries in the Vermont House and Senate every 10 years to adjust for population changes. When new districts were created in 2022, the centerline of Barber Pond Road in Pownal was set as the boundary between two legislative districts.

The Bennington-5 House district covers the north side of the road, while the south side is in the Bennington-1 district. Residents on the south side were erroneously recorded as living in Bennington-5 — an error not discovered until after both the 2022 and 2024 elections. In Tuesday’s election, the mistake led to roughly 40 voters receiving a ballot with the wrong House district, according to the secretary of state. 

For a revote to take place, Vermont law requires the losing candidate to file a request for  a recount within seven calendar days of the election. The court, in this case Bennington County Superior Court, then has several ways to address the problem.

Among the court’s options are ordering a district-wide recount, a town-wide revote or a district-wide revote. The Vermont Secretary of State’s Office said it supports a district-wide revote so every voter in the district has a chance to have their vote counted.

The office said it isn’t calling for a revote in the Bennington-5 House race because it wasn’t close enough for the error to have impacted the outcome. Incumbent Rep. Jim Carroll, a Democrat, was defeated, while Republican Rep. Mary Morrissey was reelected. Former Rep. Michael Nigro, a Democrat, was also elected. Morrissey received the most votes (2,157), followed by Nigro (1,940) and Carroll (1,763).

Read the story on VTDigger here: Voter checklist error prompts call for revote in Pownal House race.

Updated Nov. 6 at 2:12 a.m.

The Democratic supermajority in the Vermont House is no more. 

Republicans picked up 18 seats in the 150-member chamber on Tuesday, dramatically reshaping power dynamics in the House. They’re set to hold 55 seats in the next biennium — enough to prevent Democrats and Progressives, who will hold 92 seats together, from overriding Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes. Three independents won races Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.

The chairs of two House committees were among several Democratic incumbents unseated Tuesday — as was an assistant majority leader of the party — ensuring major changes to the chamber when lawmakers return to Montpelier in January.

The outcome mirrored that of the Vermont Senate, where Republicans toppled four incumbents and picked up two additional seats in the 30-member body. 

Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame said the Republican successes in legislative races will force Democrats to work with Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who cruised to reelection Tuesday.

"I don't think we've had a night this good in 10 years," Dame said. "Tonight, voters have weighed in on how to solve that stalemate. They said, 'You should have been listening to the governor in (the) last two years.'"

Speaking at an election party in South Burlington on Tuesday night, House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, bemoaned the outcomes of that day’s elections. 

"Our stomachs are in knots tonight about what's happening with the national election and elections here at home," said Krowinski, flanked by about a dozen House colleagues. "We are still waiting to get final results from across the state. We've picked up some seats. We've lost some seats. It's difficult, but what I want Vermonters to know is that we still have your back."

The loss of two committee chairs was a particularly tough blow for Democrats.

Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, came in third in a four-way race for two seats in the Addison-3 district, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. 

Republican Rob North finished first with 24.67% of the vote. Lanpher’s fellow incumbent, Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, finished second with 21.86%. Lanpher picked up 21.7%, finishing just 17 votes behind Birong. Republican Joseph Baker took 20.63%.

Lanpher's leadership position on the powerful money committee is among the most coveted posts in the House and helps guide state spending. She was first elected in 2008, led the House Transportation Committee and took over the appropriations panel in 2023. 

Rep. Mike McCarthy of St. Albans, the chair of the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, lost his reelection bid to Republican Joe Luneau in the single-member Franklin-3 district. Luneau won 52.53% to McCarthy's 44.43%.

In the Rutland-7 House district, Rep. William Notte, one of the Democrats' assistant majority leaders, was also defeated. Republican Chris Keyser won 55.9% of the vote to Notte's 40.43%.

Other House Democratic incumbents ousted Tuesday included:

• Rep. Josie Leavitt in the Grand Isle-Chittenden district
• Rep. Dennis Labounty in the Caledonia-3 district
• Rep. Robin Chestnut-Tangerman in the Bennington-Rutland district
• Rep. Jim Carroll in the Bennington-5 district

Jim Dandeneau, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party, said in an interview around 11:15 p.m. at the party’s election night gathering in South Burlington that the state GOP’s — and particularly Scott’s — messaging over property taxes proved to be more effective on the campaign trail than what he called Democrats’ ‘herculean work’ knocking on doors and engaging with voters on the ground.

Scott and the GOP, Dandeneau said, “overwhelmed people’s concerns about the future of our democracy with concerns about the future of their own pocketbooks.”

“We were fighting this fight one person at a time, one household at a time,” he added, holding several boxes of uneaten finger foods from the party’s hors d'oeuvres spread as workers began to break down the event space. “He was blanketing the airwaves with his messaging about cutting taxes. That ended up being not great for us.”

Shaun Robinson and Sarah Mearhoff contributed to this story.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Democrats lose supermajority — and a pair of committee chairs — in the Vermont House.

Updated at 4:24 p.m.

Throughout Vermont on Tuesday, voters streamed into polling places to cast their ballots in an election that has been marked by extraordinary anticipation and division at the national level and a more muted debate closer to home.

More than 220,000 Vermonters — roughly two-fifths of the state’s registered voters — had already voted before Tuesday, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said at a press conference that afternoon. 

She said she expected overall voter turnout to be high, though she said it was too soon to say whether it would exceed the high-water mark set four years earlier, when nearly 371,000 Vermonters — or roughly 73% of registered voters — took part in the election. 

“There’s a great deal of energy among Vermonters wanting to cast their ballots,” Copeland Hanzas said.

Though many voted early, some said they preferred to wait until Election Day to part with their ballot. 

“I really like voting in person,” said Jenn Childress, a literacy coach from Winooski who lined up outside the Winooski Senior Center before the polls opened Tuesday morning. “There’s something about the act of showing up and voting on the day-of that feels, I don’t know, that feels right to me.”

In the Northeast Kingdom town of Glover, Sheila Fraser said she just didn’t feel confident sending her ballot in by mail. “You don’t know if it’s going to get there,” said Fraser, 70, who is recently retired. “I know it got here today.”

No matter the method, the most important thing is to vote, according to 32-year-old firefighter Nick Benson. 

“My personal belief is, if you don’t vote, don’t bitch,” Benson said Tuesday morning after casting his ballot at Barre Town Middle and Elementary School.”

Though few statewide candidates in Vermont face serious challenges this cycle, Gov. Phil Scott and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the election a referendum on the Democratic supermajority that controls the Statehouse. 

That message resonated for Joan Forbes, a 73-year-old Middlebury resident who owns a concrete company. Outside the Middlebury Recreation Center on Tuesday morning, she said that she was hoping to give Scott “the help that he needs to do things to make Vermont livable right now.” 

But like Vermonters traditionally do, Forbes said she was splitting her ticket — voting for Republicans in statewide races and for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, for president. “That’s new for me!” she exclaimed. 

Explaining her vote for Harris over former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, Forbes said, “I just don’t like the negativity. He has to badmouth everyone. People shouldn’t do that.” 

The debate over affordability in Vermont also brought Ellen Oxfeld out to the Middlebury rec center Tuesday, but for a different reason than Forbes. Oxfeld, a Middlebury College anthropology professor and longtime advocate for universal health care, said she wanted to volunteer at the polls to support Democratic candidates.

“I already voted, but then I thought, ‘Our state senator is in a little bit of trouble,’ so I brought the sign, too,” she said, referring to the placard she held featuring the name of Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison. “There are some real issues — the rise of fuel prices, the rise of property taxes.” But, Oxfeld said, many affordability challenges can be traced to the rising cost of health insurance, so the solution is to reform the health-care system. 

“I think a lot of people just see property taxes going up and they say, ‘Oh, maybe this guy did it,’” she said, tapping the Bray sign she held. 

Some Vermonters said Tuesday morning that they were particularly excited to vote in the presidential contest. 

Georgia Bruneau, a 19-year-old student and restaurant employee from Williston, was accompanied by her parents and older sister as she cast her first vote at the National Guard Armory in town. Her father, Matt Bruneau, called out to Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who was campaigning nearby, to tell him that he liked his shorter haircut. Her mother, Kelly Bruneau, snapped a photo of the family outside the polls. 

Georgia said her parents had always emphasized to her the importance of voting. And this year, she said, that was especially true.

“I think the outcomes are going to be really impactful on society,” she said. “Depending on who wins, a lot of things could happen — either good or bad, depending on which way you see it.”

For Georgia, the decision to vote for Harris was a no-brainer. “I don’t support Trump. Never have!” she said with a laugh. 

As for state races in Vermont? “I feel like it doesn’t really change around here that much,” she said. 

It wasn’t just young people casting ballots for the first time on Tuesday. Kerri Surridge, 39, said outside the Barre Town Middle and Elementary School that she had never before voted. 

In the past, she said, “I just didn’t feel like I was gonna make an impact.” But in 2024, amid a career shift to the insurance industry, Surridge said, she was feeling more confident about becoming civically engaged. And “I feel like the more I step out of my comfort zone, the more I’m like, ‘I am empowered and I am going to make a difference,’” she said.

Surridge’s family includes people of many political stripes, she said, and she had to “follow (her) heart” in making her choice for president. She landed on Donald Trump.

“That was a really hard choice for me, because I don’t like him as an individual, but I also feel like he’s a businessman,” she said. “And the nation itself was actually doing better (when he was president), before Harris and that whole situation started happening.”

But Surridge said she was extremely concerned about division in the U.S., noting that she had also voted for Melissa Battah, a Democrat, for state representative. 

“I just think the sides are really tearing our nation apart, and we just need to stop doing blue and red, and we just need to be like, ‘What can we do to build our nation together?’” Surridge said.

Norman Boyden, 80, a retired clockmaker from Williston, stood outside the armory in his town with a sign and a hat emblazoned with the name of his friend, Bruce Roy, a Republican candidate for state Senate in the Chittenden-South district. He noted that he also had a Trump hat waiting for him in his Jeep, which featured a Trump bumper sticker. 

“Trump is not a perfect person. None of us are. Has he made mistakes? Absolutely,” Boyden said. “But the other side has made far more mistakes.” Referring to two foiled assassination attempts on the Republican presidential nominee, Boyden said, “He’s risking his life to bring balance back.”

Donna Mae Peck, 78, sounded a similar note when voting at Lake Region Union High School in Barton Tuesday morning. 

“The country is going to hell and we need a big change in administration,” the retired chef said of the presidency. 

Peck said she believes Scott is an “excellent” governor. As for legislative Democrats? “Everything he tries to do, they override his veto,” she said. 

“There are too many out-of-staters, transplants, running the state now,” she said. “They don’t seem to care what the real Vermonters want.”

Many voters on Tuesday expressed strong support for Harris. 

As a Black woman whose immigrant parents hailed from Guyana and Jamaica, Winnie Wilkinson, 64, said outside St. Albans City Hall that she had been put off by Republican rhetoric disparaging immigrants. It was immigrants, she said, who built the U.S. — many of whom had been enslaved and had not chosen to leave their homes.

Wilkinson, a retired bank executive who has lived in St. Albans for 23 years, said she had voted for Harris, another child of immigrants. Among the issues that motivated her most? Abortion rights. “My back, my womb, my choice,” she said. 

Cole Pappas, 22, of Randolph, also cited identity and rights as deciding factors. “It’s very important, being someone who identifies as a woman, but also nonbinary, considering a very specific candidate’s political views on my rights and (the rights of) other people like me,” Pappas said, declining to say Trump’s name. 

Those rights, Pappas said in an interview outside Randolph Town Hall, included “reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, disability rights, every single human right that deserves to be protected, which is all of them.”

As Zuckerman pressed the flesh outside the polls in Williston, the Progressive/Democratic lieutenant governor lamented what he characterized as an increase in “personal attacks” in Vermont politics this election cycle — a development he blamed on the GOP’s standard-bearer. 

“The national energy led by Trump has filtered into everything,” Zuckerman said. “And I don’t mind that he has different views on things, but just the demonizing of people is not what I think represents either United States or Vermont values.”

Zuckerman’s challenger in the race for lieutenant governor, Republican John Rodgers, said Tuesday that, in the end, he could not vote for Trump or Harris. Instead, he said outside the municipal building in Glover, he had written in Scott for president. 

“I thought about it long and hard,” said Rodgers, a former Democratic state senator who has since switched parties. “It’s really a protest.”

Rodgers said he would have preferred to have voted for a centrist, such as U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, or U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent from West Virginia. “The left and the right wing are part of the same bird,” he said. 

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appeared to have no such trouble choosing which presidential candidate to support. After casting his ballot at the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in Burlington on Tuesday morning, he told reporters outside that the 2024 presidential contest was “the most consequential election, I think, in the modern history of this country.” 

“I hope that, if you’re in Vermont, we hope we show the way — that we need Kamala in the White House and that we defeat somebody who really is trying in many ways to undermine American democracy,” he said. 

Sanders, who is running for a fourth six-year term, declined to speculate on whether Democrats might retain control of the Senate — though he noted that the party with which he caucuses was on the defensive in Senate races around the country. 

In Brattleboro, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., stood outside the American Legion hall, as she has every two years since she first sought election to the state Senate a decade ago. 

But this time, she wasn’t planning to move on to a string of other campaign stops. Instead, the Democrat returned home to spend Election Day making calls for Harris.

“The most important thing for me is to make sure I have a president I can work with,” Balint said. “We have to figure out how to bring people back together.”

Correction: Earlier versions of this story misstated the party affiliation of Sen. Joe Manchin, an independent from West Virginia; mischaracterized Ellen Oxfeld’s comments and employment status; and misstated the total number of votes cast in the 2020 election.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters take to the polls on a historic Election Day.

Orvis, a 168-year-old Vermont-based company, said Friday it will lay off 112 workers, close some undisclosed retail locations, and discontinue its catalog “to enable a smaller and more agile business.”

“Orvis is in a period of business evolution that requires us to think differently. Over the course of our nearly 170-year history, the company has experienced similar cycles, but today’s challenges are new, and they require us to be bold in order to continue sharing stories, experiences, and products that inspire our customers well into the future,” company president Simon Perkins wrote in a statement Friday.

The pending layoffs represent 8% of the company’s workforce. Orvis was founded by Charles F. Orvis in Manchester in 1856 and makes and sells fishing and hunting gear. 

The company announced in January that it was moving its headquarters from Sunderland to Manchester as it sought to shrink its footprint in response to a new hybrid work environment.

A spokesperson for the company, Laura Schaffer, said Friday that 50 positions “within driving distance of our headquarters have been impacted by the reduction in force.” She said no additional details were available, including the type of jobs being cut, where the positions are based, or when the cuts will occur.

“We’re not able to provide more detail at this time,” Schaffer said.

Perkins said impacted employees “will receive two months of full pay and benefits, additional severance pay, and assistance with health insurance and job transition services.”

“The people we are saying goodbye to have made indelible impacts on the brand, their colleagues and the lives of our customers. We are investing the time, care and resources needed to honor and support them throughout this process,” he wrote.

Orvis claims to be the oldest mail-order retailer in the U.S. It was purchased in 1965 by Leigh Perkins, who is credited with building it into one of the country’s largest sporting lifestyle brands. Simon Perkins is the third generation of the Perkins family to run the company.

A New York Times obituary for Leigh Perkins noted the company “was sending out catalogs before the Civil War and predated Sears, Roebuck by more than 20 years.”

Michael Harrington, Vermont’s labor commissioner, said Friday the state will work with the company to ensure impacted employees are aware of unemployment benefits and other services.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Orvis, a Vermont-based outdoor gear and apparel company, to cut 8% of its workforce.

Dear reader,

Have you ever wondered what it takes to produce a single investigative report? It’s not just about writing; it’s about uncovering the truth. Our journalists spend countless hours researching, fact-checking, and sometimes even battling legal challenges to bring you the stories that others might want to keep hidden. 

At the same time, we’re working around the clock to keep you informed about the latest developments in our state. From breaking news to local events, our reporters are on the ground gathering the daily information you need to make decisions.

This kind of journalism is essential to a functioning democracy, but it’s also expensive. That’s why we’re asking for your support during our Fall Membership Drive. 

We have until September 22 to raise $75,000 to fund the critical work that informs and empowers our community — and we’re over halfway to our goal. Will you join us?

If you are already a recurring monthly supporter of VTDigger and you’d like to make a special gift during the Fall Member Drive, it will be matched dollar for dollar up to $50,000 by a generous Vermont donor.

Your donation helps cover the costs of producing the journalism that makes a difference. It’s an investment in truth, transparency, and a stronger Vermont.

Please consider making a contribution today.

Sincerely,

Neal Goswami
Managing Editor, VTDigger

Read the story on VTDigger here: VTDigger Fall Member Drive: Why your support matters this fall.