News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Boston’s City Council is weighing a tax on sugary drinks to improve health, advance equity, and increase its coffers by tens of millions of dollars a year. Such progressive policies seek revenue in the name of rescue but inevitably inflict more significant inequities on the marginalized communities they purport to serve. A sugar tax is … Read more
Okay, we have established that the Clean Heat Standard is an unnecessarily costly, unnecessarily complicated, ruthlessly regressive, unworkable word salad of legal confusion. But, hey, at least, so bleated its supporters incessantly for three plus years, it wasn’t/isn’t a tax, fee, surcharge on home heating fuel, right? So, what’s are the options for moving forward … Read more
There is no connection between money and academic outcomes unless you mean that kids can learn more for a lot less – there is a lot of evidence for that. But the Ed god behemoth demands to be fed, and those who benefit politically from this arrangement insist the answer is more. Always more. They … Read more
The State New Hampshire and its towns and cities provide the opportunity to obtain a publicly funded education to every school-age child, regardless of income. And no one complains that this unfairly benefits higher-income households. To illustrate the point, the median household income in Hopkinton is $130,216. That’s 55% higher than in Concord ($83,701) and … Read more
Although many people resist acknowledging this, we use a kind of Marxism to fund our schools: The Accidental Marxist The Accidental Marxist, Part 2 That is, by taxing each property owner in a school district a flat rate on the assessed value of his property, we take more from people who have more. So that’s … Read more
One of the many problems with universal EFAs is that they take money from people who don’t have it, to give to people who don’t need it. Let’s ask a straightforward question: Under what conditions should we give tax money to, or spend tax money on, people who can afford to get along without it? … Read more
One of the many problems with EFAs is that they simply continue the Pay-and-Pray paradigm that is at the root of our failing school system. Let’s ask a straightforward question: Under what conditions should we spend tax money on something for which we have no specific, agreed-upon goals (and therefore no way to judge whether … Read more
Governor Scott is set to unveil his proposals for education reform this week, fulfilling campaign promises to lower property taxes which are a direct result of public school spending. But there are powerful special interests that want to keep that money flowing from your pocket to theirs. Chief among them, the Vermont Teacher’s Union, the … Read more
Let’s ask a straightforward question: Why should we spend tax money on education? The New Hampshire Constitution gives one possible answer: Education is essential to the preservation of a free government. The New Hampshire Supreme Court gave an expanded version of this answer: Every educable child should have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge … Read more
What did we learn from the Universal School Choice HB115 hearing? More importantly, WHY do I, as a Veteran Home Educator and Home Education Advocate in NH, care so much? Well, folks, I’ll tell you. The politics of this thing are ugly. Education Freedom Accounts and “School Choice” are ideas that Republicans nationwide invented in … Read more
So much to unpack from Thursday’s big reveal of the Clean Heat Standard rules package from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)! The big news is we got an “official” cost impact estimate – sort of. Just shy of a billion dollars over ten years with the impact per gallon of fuel oil bouncing from 8 … Read more
Governor Scott gave a good inaugural speech this week echoing the voters’ call for “affordability” in the last election. “Vermonters told us – loudly and clearly,” explained Scott, “they expect us to get back on course; to spend within THEIR means; and above all else, make Vermont more affordable for them.” I think this sums it … Read more
Suppose we ask a very basic question: Under what conditions should we give tax money to, or spend tax money on, people who can afford to get along without it? We don’t give LIHEAP subsidies to people who can already afford to heat their homes. We don’t give Section 8 subsidies to people … Read more
In response to Ron Willoughby, who is concerned about school spending in Haverhill, NH (“Haverhill Taxpayers-Are you happy?”, Caledonian-Record), he and every Grafton County resident/taxpayer should be deeply concerned about spending at the Grafton County Complex. While there is a minority of Republicans who make up the County Delegation and the Executive Committee, with every … Read more
Aside from the obvious charms of the state’s natural beauty, its variety of coastline, lakes, hills, and mountains, its plentiful ice cream shops, and its abundant maple syrup, humans have created additional benefits of living here. Below are five man-made reasons to be thankful for calling the “live free or die” state home. Capt. John … Read more
As we reach the quarter-century mark in the new millennium, it’s worth looking back on what the politics of this era have done for (or, spoiler alert, “to”) Vermont. First, some important historical context: The last time Vermont Republicans had a majority in the Senate was 1996. The last time Vermont Republicans had a majority … Read more
I found this, among some others, over at Barnorama: “Taxes are like a subscription to your Country that you can’t cancel, no matter how bad the service gets.” Well, the “can’t cancel” bit is undoubtedly valid. Even if you are so low on the economic totem pole that you do not pay income taxes, except … Read more
Vermont’s largest abortion provider wants the 2025 Legislature to make up a projected $8.6 million, three-year shortfall. According to the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Action Fund PAC 2024 candidate survey, the culprit is stingy, unsympathetic state and federal government services. “In recent years, Planned Parenthood patients’ access to care has been under attack … Read more
While the question remains to be seen if a majority of elected legislators got the message on November 5th that Vermonters want nothing to do with home heating taxes or any other fees and charges that make life in our state more unaffordable than it already is, one entity assuredly did not get the message: the … Read more
I opened this morning’s email to a group memo from former Alderman Teeboom, known locally as the author of the original cap. There’s so much to say about the cap, its history (SB 52 of 2021 and HB 1342 of 2022), and city baggage (including litigation) associated with it, but I’ll cut to the chase … Read more