Democrats in Vermont are like Democrats in New Hampshire, New York, California, and the District of Catastrophe (DC). There’s no such thing as too much spending or too much taxation but for sh! ts and giggles, they like to call it things like tax relief. As in, we’d like to relieve you of more of your income with more taxes.
If you’ve followed VermontGrok, you’ll know a few things about this, and we encourage everyone to get themselves educated, especially if your local Dems have ever suggested support for property tax relief. We’ve got those here in the Granite State, and for years, I’ve been warning people that 1) They are still (always) looking to raise more “revenue” to spend on schools, government programs, and handouts. More of everything. And (2) that means taking more of your money, not less, so taxes can’t go down. Whatever they are claiming is a massive bait and switch to swindle you and destroy New Hampshire’s unique place in New England, raising revenue by lowering taxes.
Vermont, our poster child for why we should not let Democrats get control of anything, has been spiraling for many years, but in recent sessions, the Democrat super-majority elected (presumably) by Vermonters has been showing us why (with Maine working hard to catch them). The Green Mountain State has a spending problem (all Dem States do, and it never goes away – look at California). To address this, we get news of a “crucial milestone for Vermont’s public education system.” The headline at Vermont Biz is “House passes property tax ‘yield bill’ with 15% increase.”
This week marked a crucial milestone for Vermont’s public education system as the House passed the annual yield bill, H.887, which aims to provide relief to property taxpayers and sets a clear path forward for education finance and taxation. It passed out of the House Wednesday on a vote of 101- 39, which, as is, would be sufficient to override a gubernatorial veto if it were to come to that. Governor Phil Scott has frequently made the point that Vermonters are already overtaxed, and this plan would raise property taxes by an average of 15%.
A bill aimed at property tax relief raises those taxes by 15%. That means people want or need more, and they’ll find it elsewhere, so your property taxes go up 15% instead of 20% or more. No one is cutting spending to provide relief – the same abovementioned lesson.
• Section 2 sets the property dollar equivalent yield, income dollar equivalent yield, and nonhomestead property tax rate for fiscal year 2025. JFO estimates that these yields and rates would correspond to an average increase of approximately 14.97% for homestead property tax bills and income education tax bills, and an average increase of 17.99% for nonhomestead property tax bills. The section also includes a one-time increase of 14.97% to each claimant’s property tax credit for fiscal year 2025.
• Sections 3 and 4 repeal the sales tax exemption for prewritten software accessed remotely. JFO estimates this change would generate $20.4 million in additional revenue for the Education Fund in fiscal year 2025.
• Section 5 imposes a 1.5% surcharge on short-term rentals and dedicates the revenue to the Education Fund. JFO estimates this surcharge would generate $6.5 million for the Education Fund in fiscal year 2025.
There are many other notes, but the cost of property tax relief, summarized, is a 15% rise in property taxes and 27 million in taxes by other means. And the beatings will continue until you stop electing Democrats (and those outside that party who enable them).
