It would be best if you never trusted anyone who sees no limit to how much the government can spend, always increases budgets, and then claims they want to lower your property taxes. They are lying to you. They have to tax you more, but they don’t want it showing up as a bill in your mailbox.
Taxpayers find it irksome, and legislators don’t want to have to explain to the peasants why they need more and more of your increasingly devalued dollars. Your role is to shut up and pay. If you must do anything, applaud all the services the state provides, none of which you use, while those you need, like plowed roads and public safety, take a back seat to things like making electricity unaffordable, gender-reassignment surgery, housing illegals, and buying needles for addicts.
There is no lowering of taxes under Democrats, ever, so any suggestion to the contrary is a bald-faced lie.
That’s the bait and switch New Hampshire Dems have been working for years. They can’t shut up about high property taxes but have never lowered a budget or cut a taxor spending in their political lives – unless forced by Republicans. Their ‘lowering the property tax scam’ is sleight of hand. Deflections and distractions. Were they to succeed, you might briefly see a lower rate in that next bill, but you’ll pay in more places and more often. Total taxes will rise, property values will follow (because they spent that money, too), and then those tax rates will increase, and before you know it, you’re Vermont with some of the highest total tax burdens in the nation.
And I’m not claiming that any Democrat in Vermont ever promised they’d lower property taxes; I’ll leave it up to our Vermont readers to clarify the history, but the spending that always follows a Democrat majority has come to call upon the Green (as in higher taxes) Mountain State, and it is an impressive abuse of Vermonters property rights.
This year’s letter projects property tax bills to increase by an average of 18.5 percent next fiscal year, driven largely by a forecasted 12 percent increase in year-over-year education spending. In addition, many districts are seeing changes in pupil counts due to implementation of the new pupil weights from Act 127 of 2022. Changes in pupil counts affect education tax rates, which are based on per pupil spending.
“I understand that this will not be welcome news for Vermonters,” said Commissioner Bolio, “This forecast predicts an unprecedented property tax increase next year, with very real financial impacts at a time Vermonters are already struggling to pay for housing.”
Governor Scott is less than pleased, not that he can do anything about it but bitch, which he has.
“Vermont’s tax burden is already, unfortunately, among the highest in the country, and families are bearing an incredible burden with increased costs of living across the board, including new and higher taxes and fees imposed by the Legislature. Put simply, a nearly 20% property tax increase would hurt Vermonters and our economy, and we cannot let it happen.
“At a time when housing costs and interest rates are elevated, higher property taxes will make our housing and workforce crises worse, and I sincerely hope the Legislature agrees.
“For years, I have warned that Vermont is unaffordable for too many families and small businesses. This is why for seven years I focused on holding the line on higher taxes and fees, while offering solutions to reduce the tax burden on Vermonters. And for six out of the seven years, we were successful in preventing new taxes and fees.
A warning that fell on deaf ears when whoever or whatever elected a veto-proof majority of spendaholic lefties to the legislature. True to their nature, they overbudgeted, over-regulated, and overspent, and the bill has come due. And this is not the end but the beginning, and I challenge anyone to find an example where this is not the case when Democrats get unobstructed control of a state budget.
For comparison, New Hampshire continues to have one of the lowest total tax burdens in the nation. In 2023, the Granite State was 48th lowest out of 50, while Vermont was 4th highest – before this considerable increase. (Related: Survey: New Hampshire Has Best Return on Taxes in the Nation.)
Vermont is also one of the least Free States (while NH is the most), and those two things are connected.
Vermont should expect to continue to become less free as its tax burden grows. When you rob people for that much, that often, you need to take their freedoms as well.
Still, on the bright side, councilors are available if you’d like help killing yourself – some conditions still apply, though we expect those to get less burdensome over time in relationship to the rise in taxes, regulations, and deliberate abuse of the citizenry.
Fewer peasants are bad for the tax base but good for the planet – or, at least, that’s their excuse for wanting people to die.
