(Host) Workers around the state are on the street at this hour to rally against planned state budget cuts.
A number of groups joined together to sponsor candlelight vigils in at least 14 communities.
James Haslam of the Vermont Workers Center says the groups are sending a simple message.
(Haslam) “This is not the time that we need to be cutting public services when people need them the most. And this is not the time to be laying off workers when we don’t need anymore unemployed people out there than we already have.”
(Host) Haslam says organizers want the Legislature and the governor to consider alternatives to worker layoffs and program cuts.
The groups call for the state to raise taxes. Haslam says wealthy Vermonters could pay a surcharge on their income taxes. He also says the state could eliminate an exemption on the capital gains tax.
Haslam says the groups would consider targeted spending cuts. But he says social programs need to be preserved to protect the most vulnerable.