The Property Tax Gaslighting Has Begun!
The Property Tax Gaslighting Has Begun!
No, a 14% property tax increase is not a decrease.
If you thought the biggest most brazen political lie from this past week was “Joe Biden is sharp as a tack,” you would be wrong. That prize has to go to Vermont state Representative Mike Mrowicki (D-Putney) who said in an op-ed that he and the Democrat/Progressive supermajority “…lowered property tax rates — with a yield bill that’s fiscally responsible." Lowered property tax rates? Um…. No. You raised property taxes by an average of 13.8 percent. And in no way, shape, or form was that fiscally responsible.
Sorry, dude, but your ludicrous attempt at a Jedi mind trick isn’t going to fool Vermont property owners when we discover this month in hard numbers what this 14 percent property tax INCREASE really means for us. And I’ve got to say that sticking your constituents with an unprecedentedly enormous property tax hike – roughly three to five times the usual annual increases which were bad enough, and over the Governor’s veto by the way -- and then patting yourselves on the back because it could have been even higher is nauseating. Especially when you “lowered” (LOL!) the property tax by screwing another $25 million out of us through two new taxes on internet-based software ($14.7 million) and short-term rentals ($11.8 million), which, sad irony, many Vermonters have to resort to pay their freakin’ unaffordable property taxes.
Heaping three tax increases for a total of roughly $200,000,000 on a state with about 240,000 households on top of what is already one of the brutally taxed populations in the nation in a time of high inflation is fiscally responsible? How, for whom, and on what planet? Not the people paying the taxes in Vermont, Earth, that’s for sure!
But some other recent op-eds on this topic (almost as infuriating as Mrowicki’s) do shine some light on those questions.
Don Tinney, writing in Vermont Digger, described the vote to override the governor’s veto and initiate the giant sucking sound emanating from our bank accounts as an act of “political courage.” Of course, Tinney is the president of the Vermont Teachers’ Union (VNTEA), and that wasn’t a soap box he was standing on to deliver his message but a massive, boxcar-sized pallet of cash -- ours to be exact – giftwrapped and delivered to his doorstep by Mrowicki and his colleagues. “Courage” indeed! And, no, it’s not an act of political courage by a politician to pay off a powerful special interest group at the expense of his constituents.
Tinney’s pot shot at the Governor is also revealing when he accuses Scott of offering “no plan to find the necessary revenues [emphasis added] to support an education system that meets the needs of young Vermonters and their families. ‘No new taxes’ is neither a plan nor effective public policy.” Well, one could argue that the $2 billion the state already collects from us every year to the tune of nearly $25,000 per student – second highest spending levels in the nation – already amounts to having found the “necessary revenues” for schools, were they competent, to do their job, and that “no new taxes” is quite an appropriate policy under these circumstances. “Cut the taxes” might even be more appropriate! Because what young Vermonters and their families need more than anything is to be able to afford a place to live, and that includes the taxes on that place.
Flor Diaz Smith, president of the Vermont School Boards Association, also put pen to paper to defend the property tax increases, citing as her main reason the creation in the yield bill of a new Commission on the Future of Public Education that will “get to the root causes” of the crisis. Excuse me but BARF!
A more accurate title for this $200,000 waste of time and even more taxpayer money would be Commission on Maintaining an Ever Increasing Flow of Taxpayer Funds to a Failing, Unsustainable Bureaucratic Quagmire Despite the Overwhelming Public Outcry for Tax Relief.
This new thirteen-member panel is a phalanx of tax and spend special interests – the VTNEA, the Principals Association, the Superintendents Association, the School Boards Association… all the people who think taxing Vermonters out of their homes to enrich themselves is an act of “political courage.” Its mission is not to find ways to cut costs and improve outcomes. It is to “…make recommendations for a statewide vision for Vermont’s public education system to ensure that all students are afforded substantially equal educational opportunities in an efficient, sustainable, and stable education system.” Blah, blah, blah. Translation: to use union boss Tinney’s own words, this commission’s job is to “find the necessary revenues” to keep the gravy train running.
If you watched the committee discussions regarding the creation of this farcical body, as your humble writer did, you’d know that its final report on this “vision for Vermont’s public education system” will be nothing more than a wish list for new and increased spending and programs. Someone dressed in a Santa suit should be brought into the statehouse so these lobbyists can sit on his lap when presenting the Commission’s recommendations – in December 2025!
You read that date right. What this bill does is kick the can on any potential meaningful reform (while assuring it won’t be meaningful; belt and suspenders just to be safe) until the 2026 legislative session, which means nothing in effect until 2027 at the earliest. So if you can’t afford your property taxes this year, you won’t for sure be able to afford them next year, the year after that, or the year after that. And then… we can take bets on what happens.
My guess it will sound an awful lot like Representative Emilie Kornheiser’s (D-Battleboro) admonishment of her Ways & Means Committee this year, “There’s no decision on no taxes here. That’s just not an option.” Or Representative Brian Cina’s (D/P-Burlington) infamous, “Madam Speaker, read my lips. Yes new taxes!” That is if these folks are still around next year and beyond. The voters do have a say in that this November.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.
Well, thanks for saying the things I've been stewing on for weeks now. Sadly, the libs/progs in my area think this is a virtuous tax increase which assumingly manages to assuage their privileged guilt.
I've called for a "Conservative Voices" gathering in my town this Sat and already they have come after me. They are, to use my favorite phrase, bat shit crazy.
I do so dearly want us, as a civilization, to get back to being polite and truly tolerant (not the fake version they've been shoving down our throats the last 20 years). But every day I become more convinced that will never occur until a massive upheaval occurs. The likes of which I cannot forecast. But without which will not shake them from their horribly misguided reality or should I say fantasy.
In my post on FPF I entreated conservatives to take action lest their descendants say, "well my ancestors could have done something, but they were busy doing something else." We'll see how it shakes out. I'm not hopeful.