Gov. Phil Scott urged lawmakers to heed the message that voters sent in November and work with him to lower the cost of living for Vermonters fed up with higher taxes and fees. During his fifth inaugural address, Scott told lawmakers on Thursday afternoon that despite his efforts to hold the line on tax increases, lawmakers over the past two years had lost sight of how their policies were affecting the lives of their constituents. “Vermonters told us — loudly and clearly — they expect us to get back on course; to spend within their means; and above all else, make Vermont more affordable for them,” he said to a joint session of the General Assembly. The line was met with a standing ovation from Republicans in the chamber. At Scott’s urging, voters in November broke Democrats’ supermajority in the legislature, boosting the ranks of Republicans in both chambers and altering the balance of power in the Statehouse. Collaboration is now the name of the game, and Democrats have said they know only bipartisan solutions to the health care, housing and climate crises have any hope of success this session. As he has time and again, Scott highlighted the state’s demographic challenges as the source of many of its ills. In an aging state where fewer children attend schools and more workers are needed for childcare centers, construction and eldercare, the costs rise for everyone. “With fewer to pay for the growing burden of taxes and fees, education, utilities, and health care, Vermont becomes less and less affordable for those still here,” he said. “And as competition for a limited workforce pushes wages up, everything gets more expensive.” To combat these challenges, he intends to focus on building more housing and reforming the education system. He proposed what he called an “actual housing bill” that would dramatically speed the construction of homes and create incentives to renovate dilapidated properties. He also proposed a way to rein in property taxes funding education, which soared an average of 14 percent last year and are projected to rise another 6 percent this year. The state is spending $2.3 billion annually to educate 83,500 children in a system that he said is “out of scale and very expensive.” In his budget proposal later this month, Scott said, he will lay out a “multiyear plan to transform education.” The effort will include a new…