ANDREW KLEIN
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Record Review · October 29, 2026

Sen. Ruth Hardy’s record in review.

233 bills. Only 9 focused on the core issues facing Vermonters.

By Andrew Klein · Candidate, Vermont State Senate

Vermont faces a few core issues: an aging population, too few workers, and a rising cost of living, with housing that is too scarce and too expensive, high energy bills, high taxes, and schools that cost more without getting better. The fixes aren’t a mystery. Make it easier to build homes. Stop adding mandates and regulations that drive up costs for families, businesses and farms. Think hard before adding new taxes. Raise the quality of our schools.

I’ve written about these issues in I’m Mad. You Should Be Too. and When Policy Defeats Purpose, and UVM economist Art Woolf has long called for the same kind of fixes.

Here I apply the same test to Sen. Ruth Hardy’s record:

  1. Where she spent her time. Every Senate bill she has sponsored or cosponsored since 2019, sorted by whether it worked on the problems facing Vermonters, plus key votes.
  2. How she spent our tax dollars. What the programs she backed cost, and what they delivered.
  3. Who supported her campaign. The groups that gave the most, and how their priorities line up with her bills.

Has Sen. Hardy left Vermont better off than when she was first elected? Has she been careful with taxpayer money? Has she worked on the legislation Vermont needs most? The record is here. You be the judge, because on Tuesday, you are.

The core issues

Fewer people, too few workers24% of Vermonters are 65 or older, and fewer people lived here in 2025 than in 2024.The fixKeep and attract working familiesHer record ↓HousingVermont needs 24,000 to 36,000 more homes by 2029.The fixMake it easier to build homesHer record ↓Cost of livingAbout 4 in 10 Vermonters say they are likely to move out within five years, citing housing, the cost of living and taxes (UNH poll, July 2026).The fixStop piling on mandates and regulations that drive up costs for families, businesses and farmsHer record ↓TaxesA single worker’s income-tax rate nearly doubles, from 3.35% to 6.6%, above $50,750 of taxable income.The fixThink hard before adding new taxesHer record ↓Schools$28,818 per student, third highest in the country, for results no better than average.The fixRaise the quality of our schoolsHer record ↓

Her bills, and where they went

Tap any colored box to see the bills in it.

233Senate bills she sponsored or cosponsored since 2019

The core issues, checked against her 233 bills

Each box takes one of the fixes Vermont needs and asks how many of her bills worked on it. For the full argument behind each one, read I’m Mad. You Should Be Too. and When Policy Defeats Purpose.

Each count comes from the bill's own title and statement of purpose. A bill can appear under more than one fix. Paid family leave (S.88, 2019–20), for example, is both a new payroll contribution and a new rule for employers.

What she supported that would make life worse

bills she sponsored or voted for

Her side of the ledger

bills she voted for that would make life better

Counted the same way as the list above: passed or not, each counts once, and each had to make it easier to build, cut a tax, lower a cost or add workers, by its own text. Not counted: the 2026 law that repealed parts of Act 181 (Act 152). It undid rules she voted for in 2024.

Time and money spent on plans that haven't delivered

Three bills she cosponsored that became law committed $3,075,000 to three new programs. Years later, the Clean Heat Standard never ran, the map isn't finished, and no company can be billed under the Superfund before mid-2028. And 11 of her 233 bills create a study, a working group or a study committee.

Follow the money, then the bills

The groups that gave most to Sen. Hardy, and the issues her Senate bills took up. None of this is illegal, and it doesn't mean anyone bought a vote. These groups back her because she already agrees with them. It shows whose list she is working from.

Sources: Vermont Secretary of State campaign finance records, 2020 to Oct. 15, 2026; Vermont lobbying registrations, 2025–26; Vermont General Assembly sponsorship records, 2019–2026. Top seven group donors shown; the total includes all groups. Money to a campaign is pooled, so the arrows show matching issues, not where any dollar went. * $1,940 of this total appears on the union PAC's own report; Hardy's reports as of Oct. 15 do not list it.

How we sorted the bills

  • Which bills. Every Senate bill listing Ruth Hardy as a sponsor or cosponsor in the 2019–20, 2021–22, 2023–24 and 2025–26 sessions: 233 in all. Committee bills are not counted, because they list a committee as sponsor, not a senator. One example is the 2022 pupil-weighting law (S.287, Act 127), which changed how students are counted when school tax rates are set; it came from the Senate Finance Committee, where she served.
  • On the problems means the bill's main purpose is housing, property taxes and school costs or results, the workforce, energy costs, or the cost of living. Partly means it touches one of them indirectly or for a small group. Aimed at none of them means it is about something else, only moves a cost onto other Vermonters (through higher premiums, taxes or new charges) rather than lowering it, or, in most cases, only calls for a study. Close calls were counted in her favor.
  • Bills that became law. Descriptions are of each bill as introduced unless they say otherwise. Two bills the House rewrote are sorted by the final version: S.51 (2025–26) and S.53 (2021–22).
  • What this does not measure. Sponsoring a bill is one way a senator shows priorities. Her bill list above is complete. The sections on what would make life worse or better also include her votes on other senators’ bills and House bills, but only the votes that met the test are shown; minor votes, and votes that cut both ways, are not listed.

Sources

All records read October 2026.