Who Voted How to Make Vermont So Freakin’ Unaffordable?
The key roll call votes driving up property taxes, energy costs, health insurance premiums and more.
The Vermont primaries are over, and the official general election campaign season of 2024 has begun! With property taxes increasing by unprecedented amounts, energy costs rising with a new, potentially massive tax on home heating fuels up for a vote in January 2025, another double-digit premium increase for health insurance just announced, a new payroll tax that started sapping workers’ take home pay taking effect this past July, “affordability” is more than ever the number one issue voters are concerned about. And it should be!
How did we get into this fiscal fiasco? The following policies passed into law by the legislature – almost all over the vetoes of Governor Scott – have a lot to do with it. As such, the incumbents who voted for these policies who chose to run for re-election have a lot to answer for. The organization Vermonters for Good Government has been doing a good job of compiling and explaining these votes, so I’ve provided links to their email reports which you can click on to see more in-depth analysis as well as the name by name roll call records.
Property Taxes and More! Act 183, The “Yield Bill. This is the one that sets the statewide property tax rate, which in this case resulted in the unprecedented 13.8% on-average increase we all just got hit with. Additionally, Act 183 also enacted a new “cloud tax” on internet-based services ($20 million), and a 3% surcharge on top of the rooms and meals tax for short term rentals. It also officially kicks the can down the road regarding any form of relief for at least two years by establishing the 38th (not hyperbole) committee to “study” the problem – and stacks that commission with all the special interest groups that have no interest in reforming the education financing or delivery systems. Act 183 passed over the Governor’s veto on largely party line votes of 103-42 in the House and 22-7 in the Senate. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
Higher Home Heating Bills. Act 18, The ”Clean Heat Standard.” This law commits Vermont to establishing a “carbon credit” market – a de facto carbon tax – on home heating fuels (oil, propane, natural gas, kerosene). The estimates of what this carbon credit system will cost those who heat their homes and businesses with the afore mentioned fuels range from 70 cents per gallon, as calculated by the Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, to in excess of $3 per gallon as roughly determined by a potential study commissioned by the Department of Public Services, a final draft of which will be out at the end of August.
The Clean Heat Standard was vetoed and defeated in 2022 by one vote in the House but returned in 2023 following the November 2022 election that swept in Democrat supermajorities in both the House and Senate. While the Governor vetoed the Clean Heat Standard again in 2023, this time that veto was overridden largely along party lines by votes of 107-42 in the House and 20-10 in the Senate. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
Thankfully, the law (Act 18) requires the new legislature that will convene in January 2025 to vote on whether or not to adopt the rules necessary to govern the Carbon Credit market/”Tax”. If a majority votes no, or the Governor is able to sustain a veto, the Clean Heat Standard will remain dormant. So, if you don’t want to pay as much as an extra $3 per gallon to survive the Vermont winter, vote Republican for State Representative, Senate, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor in this year’s election!
Higher Electric Bills. Act 179, The Renewable Energy Standard. This bill basically forces Vermont utilities to buy more “renewable” electricity from companies that just happen to be big donors to Democrats and left-wing causes. Yup. Watching this sausage made was probably the most disgustingly corrupt thing I have witnessed in twenty years of observing the goings on in the Vermont State House. Or at least it’s in the top five.
The Renewable Energy Standard is estimated to cost Vermont ratepayers somewhere between $450 million and $1 billion extra on our electric bills over ten years, or as much as $192 per year on average to keep your lights on and the food in the fridge fresh.
Governor Scott vetoed the Renewable Energy Standard bill, but that veto was overridden largely along party lines by votes of 102-43 in the House and 21-8 in the Senate. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
A New Payroll Tax! Act 76. Starting in July 2023, all Vermonters who earn a paycheck probably noticed that there is a new line item being deducted from their take-home pay. It is the 0.44% payroll tax, estimated to cost Vermont workers over $100 million/year, that is the result of Act 76. Governor Scott vetoed this payroll tax bill, but it was overridden by votes of 116-31 in the House and 23-7 in the Senate. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
It is worth noting that the 0.44% rate of tax passed in 2023 represents only a fraction of the total desired cost of the subsidized, government childcare program it is meant to fund, and a another massively expensive program that remains on the Democrat/Progressive wish list, government subsidized Paid Family Leave, also targets the newly created payroll tax as a revenue source. So, if you don’t want to see this initial bite out of your take home pay get even bigger, vote Republican for State Representative, Senate, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor in this year’s election!
Higher Health Insurance Premiums, Act 111. For everybody who trusts government to make healthcare and health insurance more affordable, I’m just going to quote this VT Digger piece from August 14, 2024,
For the third year in a row, the [government’s] Green Mountain Care Board has approved double-digit increases in the cost of annual premiums for individual Vermonters and small organizations who purchase their health insurance plans on [the government run] Vermont Health Connect.
The approved premium increases will affect both individual and small group plans available on the state-[government]-run Affordable Care Act marketplace in 2025, affecting approximately 70,000 people.
The state’s health care regulator [aka the government] will allow Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont to increase individual premiums by 19.8% and small group premiums by 22.8% over this year’s rates, according to a Green Mountain Care Board press release. MVP Health Care, the only other insurer to offer plans on the marketplace, will be allowed to raise its individual premiums by 14.2% for individuals and 11.1% for small groups over 2024 rates.
While Act 111 doesn’t account for all of that increase (that took years of meddling by these incompetent lawmakers), the estimates were that the bill would have put upward pressure on premiums amounting to 3-7%. Lesson: when you’re in a hole, take the shovels away from the politicians who live to dig. Act 111 passed in the House 104-23. There was no roll call taken in the Senate. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
Heaping All These Taxes/Fees/Etc on You Apparently Deserves a Raise! S.39. Adding insult to all this injury caused by the supermajority, in 2023 they voted largely along party lines (a few Democrats did break ranks to vote with Republicans in opposition) to more than double their own salaries and give themselves a very generous benefits package. Thankfully this was one veto by Governor Scott that was not challenged, so the raise did not go into effect. Still, S.39 passed the House on a vote of 102-44, and the Senate 19-10. See the detailed report and roll call HERE.
Though the pay raise bill did fall short of a veto override, of the six Democrat senators who opposed it, and therefore killed it, two have since died and three are not running for re-election. So, I’ll make this point one last time, if you don’t think making our state totally unaffordable for normal, working people is worthy of a 100% raise in salary plus benefits, vote Republican for State Representative, Senate, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor in this year’s election! At least. Because unless you do, this outrage and many more will be back for sure.
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.
Media Notes: Rob Roper will be on Vermont Daily Chronicle’s Friday at Four social media broadcast August 23 as the name suggests Friday at 4 pm. Tune in on Twitter or Youtube.
I concur with all the articles points, and nothing will change until voters are angered enough to vote out of office the Progressive/Dems who foisted this odious tax burden on us. Another point: why is no one talking about the comparison with NH? Their state budget is one half of VT’s. Since they have twice the population of VT that translates to VT taxpayers saddled with tax bill that is 400% greater (per capita) than the NH taxpayer….absolutely unconscionable!