When Governor Scott unveiled his education reform plan, I warned readers to be prepared to “kiss your sister.” There’s a lot to not like in what he came up with, but at least it reduced spending by $180 million in order to cut taxes. The plan the Democrats are putting forward, however, is more like getting violated by Uncle Ernie. It’s awful. A complete betrayal of the message voters sent last November.
The big knife in the back was revealed by Rep. Emilie Kornheiser (D-Brattleboro), chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, during a caucus of the whole when she admitted that the bill her committee passed out on a party line vote would “result in spending approximate to what we’re spending now. Slightly more.” Spending more, of course, requires more taxes, not less. This was not the mission!
I am reminded of a classic Far Side cartoon where a couple returning home from a date night confronts the witch in their living room with, “Now let me get this straight… We hired you to babysit the kids, and instead you cooked and ate them both?” Yeah, of course the witch ate the kids, that’s what witches do. And when you put an avowed Marxist, who is on the record stating that “everything” — every state program — is underfunded and “no taxes is not an option” in charge with the expectation that she would faithfully do the job the voters hired her to do and cut education spending and reduce taxes… let’s just say that was not well founded. This witch – indeed the whole coven — was always going to cook and eat the kids.
At a press conference announcing this plan, Speaker of the House, Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) unintentionally revealed the root problem driving the affordability crisis in Vermont when she introduced the people standing behind her who were responsible for writing this tax and spend more monstrosity. “The Vermont Principals’ Association, the Vermont School Board Association, the Vermont Superintendents’ Association, and the Vermont Association of School Business Officials, also educators, teachers, and legislators.” All special interest groups ready to cash in, and those endorsed by said special interest groups.
Who was not represented in this curtain call? Taxpayers.
So, when Krowinski summed up her argument by saying, “For those deciding whether to support this effort, look who is standing here,” I say, hell yeah! Do exactly that. Look at who is standing there and look who is not. Look at who they listened to and who they did not. Do that and it’s no surprise why your taxes will continue to rise.
We have an affordability crisis in Vermont because on just about every critical issue – environmental policy, energy policy, healthcare policy, and especially education policy – tax eating special interests own the majority party and are writing legislation to line their own pockets.
As such, under this proposed “reform” property tax relief is never and never was a consideration. The best lip service Democrats are willing to give is that they hope to “bend the cost curve” sometime in the future. What this means is that as far as they are concerned the 14 percent property tax increase we experienced last year is now permanently baked into Marie Antoinette’s cake, which they are telling us to eat. So, too will be the six percent spending increase this year. And next year and the year after that?
In addition to committing to spend even more than what is already the second highest per pupil spending rate in the country, the proposed “cost bending” mechanism (a foundation formula system that sends a school a set amount per pupil rather than allowing school districts to set their own budgets) is can-kicked down the road until the 2029-2030 school year. In the meantime we’re stuck with this unsustainable status quo. Well, unsustainable for us taxpayers, but quite lucrative for those standing behind Speaker Krowinski. Don’t forget to look!
A phrase Rep. Kornheiser used repeatedly during the Democrats’ press conference was that “we do not want scarcity driving policy.” That’s a fancy way of saying we don’t care about taxpayers’ ability to pay for these programs. We don’t care what they cost. We’re paying off the people standing behind us, and handing you the bill. And that’s that.
