VTDigger employs the only dedicated health care reporter in the state of Vermont and has closely followed the state’s health care reform efforts for years. OneCare is the accountable care organization implementing the state’s all-payer health care system, which lawmakers have promised will cost less and make Vermonters healthier.

Reporter Katie Jickling has reported in depth on OneCare’s budget and lack of public access to the company’s detailed financial and salary information. Jickling covered OneCare’s refusal to share salaries of its top earners and resistance to a bill that would have granted state auditors more access to financial information. Seeking to improve the public perception of OneCare state officials, including Governor Phil Scott and Secretary of Human Services Mike Smith, are now pressuring the organization to seek nonprofit statusand become more accountable to the public.

VTDigger has been battling with the statefor nearly a year and a half over the release of records related to the demotion of Edward Adams, former superintendent of the state’s largest prison. The Agency of Human Services, which oversees the Vermont Department of Corrections, appeared poised to reverse course and release the documents when Adams and the Vermont State Employees Association union intervened to block the move.

VTDigger originally sought the records pertaining to complaints against Adams in September 2018. The public release of the documents is relevant to widespread concern following 2019 revelations of systematic sexual abuse and harassment within Vermont’s prison system.

Reporter Xander Landen wrote about how the State of Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles has raised $15 million since 2015 from selling Vermonters’ private information.

As a result of VTDigger’s reporting, Governor Phil Scott took immediate action to block the DMV from sharing personal information with private investigators while the state re-examines its policies; House representatives are drafting a bill to address privacy concerns in the 2020 session; and the Senate Pro Tem committed to looking at ways to curb the practice.

This past year saw major developments in the ongoing saga of the EB-5 scandal at Jay Peak resort. The former Jay Peak developers, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, were indicted by a federal grand jury on 14 criminal charges. In the fall VTDigger reported on a final decision from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to permanently close the Vermont EB-5 Regional Center and the Vermont Supreme Court greenlighting of an investor lawsuit against the state.

VTDigger's Anne Galloway began reporting on allegations of financial impropriety in 2014, eventually breaking the story of the biggest fraud in Vermont’s history. Anne and criminal justice reporter Alan Keays have tirelessly followed the case which has implicated leaders at every level of state government. The latest criminal indictments against the former developers have set the stage for a battle over the state’s role in the fraud.

VTDigger covered the ballooning fiscal burden stemming from the state’s underfunded pension systemduring the 2019 legislative session. Colin Meyn broke down complex policy history to explain to readers why Vermont is forced to pay 40 percent of its expected surplus to pension liability at the expense of other service areas.

Our reporting generated an immense amount of public discourse calling on lawmakers to take corrective action. As a result of increased public pressure in part, the state has increased its annual payments toward the unfunded liabilities.

Reporter Kevin O'Connor wrote a four-part series about priest abuse in the wake of new allegations in a report from the Catholic Church that 40 priests (about 10% of clergy) sexually assaulted children in Vermont. The series included a story about how Edward Paquette abused a boy paralyzed from the waist down. Paquette went on to abuse dozens of boys over several decades.

O'Connor found that ten years ago, the Vermont Catholic Church stashed $500 million in assets to prevent abuse victims from seeking settlements from the church. Since the series was published, we have received numerous tips from other abuse victims that we are following up on.

Managing editor Colin Meyn investigated FirstLight’s use of banned Huawei equipment. The story spurred Vermont state utility regulators to launch their own investigation into the state contractor’s actions. The Scott administration had previously outlawed equipment manufactured by the Chinese company Huawei due to federal concerns that the equipment could be used by the Chinese government to spy on networks.

VTDigger revealed that FirstLight was using Huawei equipment despite the statewide ban. Retaliatory action taken by FirstLight against VTel, a competitor, for its role in VTDigger’s reporting, also came under state scrutiny. FirstLight retaliated against VTDigger as well by yanking their $15,000 underwriting contract with the news organization.