VPR Commentary: Death & Taxes by Bill Schubart

From VPR Public NewsRoom (Commentary)

I agree with Bill's assessment that Vermont needs enlightened taxation and that some traditional services are best provided by government. However, as he points out, enlightened taxation should be by design, rather than by default merely to raise revenue to meet Vermont's constitutional requirement for a balanced budget. If we had strategic policy making and a rational tax code to encourage behavior that supported that strategy, then maybe we could justify the 'highest tax burden in the nation.' If our tax code is biased in favor of higher income taxpayers ( This may be true at the federal level, but I don't agree it's true in Vermont because of the heavy property tax effect), then we should address Vermont's tax code).

The reason people so object to taxes, particularly in our state, is because we don't trust that government spends wisely. When we grow our government and spending in a fashion that consumes more dollars than citizens believe warranted, of course they will object. But the only practical way citizens can object to high taxes is to vote big spenders out. They haven't done that yet because voters tend to align themselves with special interest groups, especially those advocating social services, who are very effective in swaying the Legislature to spend for this or that special need.

Vermont certainly has decided to grow government faster than our sister New England states. Consider this:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 2001-2005, Vermont, at 4.5%, had by far the highest growth in state and local government jobs among the six New England states. In fact, three states substantially reduced the number of government jobs while we had double the growth rate in Maine and triple that in New Hampshire! And we wonder why Vermonters complain about their tax burden!