For years, Democrats in New Hampshire have pretended to be the Jimmy McMillin of property taxes. Like the rent, they are too damn high. If elected, they promise to do something about it. Lower them. Not taxes; those will go up; you just won’t see them.
The goal is not fewer taxes but less visibility, at least initially. Your property tax bill will get a trim, but your total tax burden will grow substantially. These are Demcorats. It can’t go any other direction but up. Government always comes first; if you’ve any doubts, look left (from New Hampshire) to Vermont.
The Green Mountain State used to be safer and healthier but has been heading in the wrong direction on tax and regulatory policy for a long time. An itch it has gotten more aggressive at scratching as Democrat majorities increased to veto-proof majorities. Vermonters only have themselves ot blame, but it allows the rest of us to learn from their mistakes.
The Vermont House is expected to vote on an $8 billion state spending plan this week. It comes as lawmakers consider millions in new investments and millions in new taxes to fund them.
A key House panel advanced a plan to fund critical priorities in the budget, floated by about $125 million in new taxes.
The House Appropriations Committee is considering a state spending plan, including a big expansion of Medicaid, an expansion of the judiciary and more supports for affordable housing. And those ideas are all funded by new taxes– increases in the corporate income tax, the foreign income tax and the property transfer tax, and a new tax bracket for Vermonters who make more than $500,000 annually.
A proposal to tax unrealized gains like stocks did not advance.
Others, like a potential tax on candy, soda, streaming services and an expansion of the sales tax are still up for debate.
Vermont is already overtaxed. It has environmental aspirations that will cost billions and an education funding debacle it created that requires a 20% hike in … property taxes. That’s unpopular, so the people who made the mess are willing to consider raising less visible taxes as if that helps.
But a revenue option to buy down the property tax hike is not yet on the table, though Vt. House Speaker Jill Krowinski said last week they will work on ways to lower the property tax burden.
Gov. Phil Scott said last week he would consider raising taxes to buy down the $240 million ed fund increase, but he said he would only support that if lawmakers pass widespread systemic reform, which is something that would likely take multiple studies and legislative sessions.
The necessary reform is fewer Democrats and, it has to be said, fewer Republicans like Phil Scott, who can’t stop the Democrats he has and can do little more than appear to resist impulses he shares.
I’m not sure if Vermont can be saved. It would take a level of civic and electoral awareness that people who tend to vote for Demcorats lack. New Hampshire, on the other hand, is teetering on the ends of a bowl, leaning back against a growing army of Democrats trying to push it in. If they succeed in taking the majority and the governor’s office, we’ll be swirling in the blue water behind Maine, which has a bit of a head start but still has a way to go to catch Vermont.
Both places where the more the government takes, the worse everything else gets.
