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potroast1251 t1_j1zpvcz wrote

Reply to comment by headgasketidiot in Vermont lawmakers aim to make housing more available and affordable by dropkickninja

Being a short term rental landlord should be allowed only for residents of Vermont. You then keep Vermonters who rent out their little cabin or in law suite intact while stopping the gobbling up of home by out of state investors.

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you_give_me_coupon t1_j20f8s4 wrote

There was a bill in the legislature to ban airbnbs unless the owner lived in them 60-70% of the year. This would have meant that renting in-law apartments or spare rooms would still be fine, as well as renting out your house for a month while you go somewhere else in the summer, but that speculating on housing just to rent it out short-term wouldn't be allowed.

It got killed very quickly. Our legislators work for wealthy people and tourists, not us.

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TrumpImpeachedAugust t1_j20pd8d wrote

> It got killed very quickly. Our legislators work for wealthy people and tourists, not us.

Our legislative compensation makes sure of this.

In order to be a legislator in Vermont, you either need to be independently wealthy, or otherwise self-funded, which tends to result in a lot of business-owner legislators.

I'm not just referring to the money needed in order to run for office--once they're in office, they need to have a source of wealth, because they are paid ~$750/week (plus a per diem) but only for the 18 weeks that the legislature is in session. The result is not enough to live on for a year.

This means that unless you happen to work in a field where you can just disappear for four months in a row every spring, you have to be independently wealthy or retired. If you or I ran for office and won, we'd probably be financially ruined.

It's a controversial opinion, but I think we need to pay our state legislators more. The current system means that regular Vermonters literally could not afford to hold office even if they won it. You'd be elected to office, have to quit your job, and then survive on the $14k/yr legislative salary plus whatever seasonal minimum wage jobs you could find. (Except a good legislator has work to do year-round, making seasonal employment even more difficult.)

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