I am not, at present, a Vermont resident. Having said that however, I do know quite a lot about the state. I am a native Vermonter and my family goes back at least four generations in the state. About four years ago, long before I heard about FSP, I started investigating the prospects for relocating to the mainland ( I have been living and working in Hawaii for the past 25 years). My criteria were similar to the FSP with the added condition of my wife's desire to raise and train horses.
We went through many of the same arguments presented in the FSP forums and, not surprisingly came up with a short list of states very much like that of the FSP. MT,WY, ID and SD were on the list. Also on the list were VT, ME and NH. Since I am near my early retirement goal, employment prospects were less of a concern than availability of good land suitable for raising horses and living in a rural environment far enough out of the way so as to limit the likelyhood of development in the forseeable future. We considered the political climate and what kind of people we would have for neighbors as well as cost of living and other things that are important to us.
We did considerable research on all of the states on our list and got down to three, Montana, New Hampshire and Vermont. I was leaning towards VT because of my family history, Laura was favoring Montana because she didn't know any better (Being from BC). After a two week visit to VT including a day at the UVM Morgan horse farm, Laura was convinced.
To make a long story a bit shorter, we found a very nice piece of property in Orleans County, 38.7 acres with power and phone lines along 300 feet of road frontage (Town road, gravel surface, plowed in winter), 900 feet of river frontage on the Missisquoi, a stream with an old beaver dam, at least two springs, 20 acres of woods, mixed hard and soft, maples, raspberries, apple trees and more, about 18 acres of meadow/old pasture.
See 7 pages of photos at
http://groups.msn.com/SVLealeaandCrew/vermont.msnwOh yeah, almost forgot the best part - $34,000

Our place is almost exactly half way between the two villages that make up the township of Troy, 3.5 miles either way on the River Road to the Post Office, bank, general store, cafe, restaraunt etc. and about 12 miles to Newport for major shopping or 8 miles to Jay Peak Ski Areas.
During our search for a place we found land (Undeveloped) from $500 an acre and houses in the village with anywhere from 1/2 to 5 acres from about $45,000 for a 100 Y/O fixer upper on a 1/2 acre to a brand new 2 B/R ranch on 5 acres for $65,000. We were shown several HUGE houses on really big lots, 5 or more bedrooms on 20 acres seemed to be the norm, for under $100K.
Burlington is the only city in the state worthy of the name with about 65,000 population. Montpelier, the capitol, has a population of only about 12,000. I've seen mention of concern for jobs itn the IT field so I'll remind everyone that IBM is in Burlington and is the major employer in the state. Burlington is a pretty and bustling little university town on the shore of Lake Champlain, very attractive as towns go IMO, much improved over the days I lived there as a child in the fifties.
It seems to me that Vermont is best suited for folks who want to do a little subsistance or hobby farming or entreprenureal (sp?) types. Vermonters are fiercely independent and liberty loving folks with a colorful and fascinating history. The one down side is the apparent leftist political climate.
On the politics of Vermonters, all I can say is that in all of my visits and correspondence with Real Vermonters (tm) I saw none of the big government/welfare state mentality that one might expect. These people more readily fall into the category of "Classical Liberal". Without exception I found the people there to be, above all, INDEPENDANT, liberty loving and active participants in the democratic process. I LOVE the town meeting system! When I asked how, given how everyone I talked to seems to feel, the state has such a reputation as a hotbed of liberal activism, they all said just one word..."Outsiders". It seems the leftists recognized the vulnerability of Vermont and exploited it.
I think that Real Vermonters(tm) would welcome the Free State Project.
That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Chuck