The results of this year’s annual Town Meeting Day survey amply demonstrate this. The survey, conducted by Washington County Senator Bill Doyle, is made available at every Town Meeting in the state and provides a nonscientific but well-regarded barometer of public opinion.
This year, 15,402 people from 152 towns and cities answered the survey. Vermonters (green before green was cool) favor expanding the bottle deposit law to include all bottled beverages, 79 to 14 percent, and are willing to pay more for renewable energy, 45 to 39 percent.
Yet, 45 percent of Vermonters would like to see Vermont Yankee’s license renewed in 2012, compared to 41 percent who do not.
However, 72 percent of those who responded want the Vermont Legislature to encourage bicycling and walking.
Personal liberty be damned! Seventy-five percent of Vermonters who responded to the survey would like to see drivers be prohibited from using cell phones while driving and 90 percent want Vermont to continue to require motorcycle helmets.
But . . . only 30 percent of those who responded want Vermonters to be required to buy health insurance.
And when it comes to Tasers, 56 percent of those who responded said that law enforcement personnel should be permitted to use Tasers. Twenty-four percent said no and 20 percent were undecided.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents would like to see a minimum mandatory sentence for repeat DUI offenders and 50 percent favor legalizing physician-assisted suicide.
The diversity, the apparent contradictions and the similarities are just part of what makes Vermont a great place to live.
Vive le différence as the saying goes.
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