Our own Vermont Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission created by the Legislature in the 2009 session would do well to consider this recommendation by a similar group in California. Vermont, on a much smaller scale, has many of the same problems and underlying culture/ideologies driving the painful deficits that are staring us in the face in the next 2-3 years.
"...They [CA commission members] may be motivated by the reality that California's steeply progressive tax rates are defeating the purposes of progressive government. To wit, only a growing economy can create opportunity for the middle class and enough state revenues to finance schools and health care for the poor. A tax code that depends on 1% of taxpayers, 144,000 filers, to finance 50% of state income tax revenues has proven to be unsustainable, notwithstanding the liberal dogma that says tax rates don't matter."
Businesses have been fleeing California for tax-friendlier states. Meanwhile, Vermont has seen little economic growth and virtually no job growth in the private sector during the past decade.
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