Chris Taylor settled into his chair at the front of the room, his nameplate on the table before him facing the audience. Taylor surveyed the small gathering of residents and town employees who had ventured out on a cold, windy February evening for a Milton Selectboard meeting. The agenda laid out a range of town issues needing action, from road conditions to contracts for emergency dispatch services.
Taylor had just come from a long day working in Montpelier as a state representative. So, too, had three of his four fellow selectboard members: Leland Morgan; Leland’s nephew, Michael Morgan; and Brenda Steady. Now they were all back at work guiding their hometown affairs in a meeting that highlighted the overlap between state and local issues — as well as the dual roles of many officeholders.
Roughly one in six people serving in Vermont’s state legislature also hold local elected office. The surprisingly large number of people in dual roles reflects not just electoral victories but also the common path from local office to state government, current and former legislators told Seven Days. The work in each forum informs the other, they said, and helps them foster greater understanding of how municipal and state policies intersect.
But the dual roles also highlight the challenge of finding candidates willing to take on the demanding, often thankless work of serving in state and local government. The long hours and scant compensation — Milton Selectboard members earn $50 per meeting, for example — means the positions are untenable for many Vermonters, particularly for those with young children or full-time jobs. That limits who can bring their perspectives to local and state governance. Nowhere in Vermont is this more evident than in Milton.
Milton Selectboard chair Darren Adams, its lone non-legislator, stressed the positive aspect of his colleagues’ dual roles.
You end up cutting out the middle person and having a more direct voice for Milton in the Statehouse. Darren Adams
“For me, it’s a force multiplier,” Adams said. “You end up cutting out the middle person and having a more direct voice for Milton in the Statehouse.”
Bill Kaigle, a Milton resident and small business owner, said these legislature/selectboard members bring particularly informed perspectives on state issues. He said serving in both offices has helped the selectboard effectively advocate for the town, which has led to better outcomes for its residents.
This session, all four representatives have sponsored a bill that would enable Milton to recoup more than $180,000 paid in error by local taxpayers to the state education fund. The state auditor identified the overpayment when reviewing the town’s tax increment financing, or TIF, district late last year. (The auditor identified a similar error involving Barre City’s TIF district.)
If the bill becomes law, Milton would have more money to help tackle urgent infrastructure improvements, such as adding safety measures to intersections along Route 7 at the center of town, Adams said. The state representatives’ selectboard experience will help them be effective advocates as the bill moves through the legislative process, he added.
“Once things get out of committee, they’re going to be better versed than others to be able to make sure that it gets across the finish line,” Adams said.
Still, having the same people making decisions for Milton on the selectboard and in the Statehouse does mean fewer voices are involved in high-level decision making, Kaigle acknowledged.
“They’ve been a good voice in Montpelier, but it is becoming a specific voice,” Kaigle said. All four of the representatives from Milton, a GOP stronghold in Chittenden County, are Republican.
Kaigle and others were quick to note that the representatives serve in both positions because voters chose them. It’s hard to find people who are willing to serve in either local or state government, Rep. Joseph Parsons (R-Newbury) said. In many cases, candidates are recruited by outgoing incumbents and run for office unopposed.
“It’s a story that rings true in so many small towns,” Parsons said. “You’re just trying to find people to fill these roles.”
Public service often starts at the local level. After Taylor and his wife chose Milton as the place to grow their family, he volunteered in various positions in the community before deciding to run for the selectboard. After two failed campaigns, he was elected.
Similarly, in Springfield, Rep. Kristi Morris sought local office after years of volunteering for the town’s fire department and emergency medical services. With a nudge from his family, Morris decided to run for the Springfield Selectboard in 2010 to help his town recover from years of economic malaise.
“I want to be part of the rebuild,” Morris said.
Work for the selectboard eventually introduced him to the Statehouse, where he observed state legislators in action. He realized that he could advance the issues Springfield faced in this arena, too.
Part of the challenge in attracting people to run for elected offices is that the work doesn’t appeal to everyone, said Rep. Alicia Malay (R/D-Pittsford), who also chairs the Pittsford Selectboard.
“We do a lot of sitting and listening, a lot of reading that’s not always for pleasure,” Malay said. “That’s not appealing to everyone.”
Malay also noted that the unusual time demands of serving in the General Assembly, which meets in person four days a week from January through May, mean Vermonters with caregiving duties or conflicting work schedules can’t serve. Malay waited until her children were older before she ran for the selectboard, since the role demands night work.
Compensation can be another significant barrier for Vermonters considering running for the House or Senate, according to Malay. Legislators have tried to raise their own pay in recent years. Lawmakers earn roughly $800 per week, plus stipends for food and travel, while they are in session. Last term, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed legislation that would have doubled lawmaker pay by 2027. Members of the House and Senate also do not receive full health insurance coverage, though they can choose to pay out of pocket for dental coverage.
“It’s not an accident that … a lot of people in the Statehouse are retired or have already made their money,” Malay said.
Taylor, who works as a school-wide behavior interventionist at Milton Elementary School during part of the year, knew this before he ran for state representative. Though Taylor said he does not believe serving in the state legislature should become a full-time job, he recognizes that the time demands and pay do limit the number of people who run.
But having found a way to make it work, Taylor said, he appreciates that he can serve as a “pipeline” to ensure the town’s needs are reflected in state policy making, such as the bill he helped craft this session to recoup Milton’s TIF district overpayments.
In Springfield, Morris, who currently serves on the House Committee on Environment, said he experiences the inverse, as well: His Statehouse role has helped him be more effective on the Springfield Selectboard, particularly on issues of groundwater contamination by “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, which has been a concern among town residents.
“My environment committee is giving me the perspective of what we can do for the citizens of Springfield through legislation up here to try to protect those areas,” Morris said.
Legislators who serve on school boards experience similar advantages, said Rep. Elizabeth Burrows (D-West Windsor), who is on the board of the Mount Ascutney School District in Windsor and West Windsor. Burrows’ assignment to the House Committee on General and Housing this session doesn’t place her at the center of school-related matters before the chamber. Still, her committee does grapple with issues such as providing affordable housing to attract teachers.
“The decisions that we make in my committee do affect education,” Burrows said. “It’s just from a completely different perspective.”
During the February 18 Milton Selectboard meeting on that cold night, Taylor and his colleagues voted to affirm that the town’s roads and bridges meet the standards set by Vermont’s Agency of Transportation. The vote was an important step in making sure Milton would be eligible for federal aid in the event of natural disasters such as flooding.
Shortly before 8 p.m., nearly 10 hours after the legislature convened in Montpelier, the selectboard adjourned. It will reconvene on the eve of Town Meeting Day, when Vermonters across the state will gather to vote on the next round of local budgets and candidates for local office.
Taylor is up for reelection, along with Adams, the board chair, and Leland Morgan.
But they have little reason to worry about losing their local seats: All three candidates are running unopposed.
Correction, February 26, 2025: Milton is in Chittenden County. An earlier version of this story contained an error.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Side Hustle | Four of five Milton Selectboard members are also Vermont lawmakers. Here’s why dual roles such as theirs have become commonplace.”
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2025.
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