Affordability, Taxes, Regulation and Vermont’s Economic Future

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, on Common Sense Radio with Bill Sayre, weekdays, 11 o’clock till Noon.

 

Mark Higley — Vermont State Representative from Orleans and Lamoille,  joins Bill to identify and explain the chief factors affecting affordability for Vermont families, particularly young families, and affordability for Vermont businesses that want to grow, hire, and invest?

Potential Questions and Issues: 

As you visit with potential voters this summer and fall, what are the main issues are prominent on their minds?  Property Taxes, Education Costs, Health Insurance Costs, Housing Costs,  Property Rights (such as the Road Rule and Tier 3 Lands), Energy costs and regulation, child care and taxes to subsidize child care, public safety and opiate addiction?

What is the definition of local control, and how did that change after the State took control of the property tax base, under Act 60 in the late 1990s?  With the effect of disconnecting, or at least severely weakening, the connection between District education spending and District Taxes.  Do you think it is a mere coincidence that property taxes have risen much faster than family incomes, that is , become more unaffordable, in the 25 years following the disconnection of local spending from local taxes?

The intent of the Statewide property tax was to make education spending, across districts, more fair and equitable.  Would you say that we, as a State, have moved closer to that goal, or further away from that goal, in the last 25 years?

Has the creation new taxes, or reassignment of existing taxes, to fund education, mostly had the effect of reducing property taxes, or of increasing education spending?  Is this where we get the assertion that Vermont does not have a revenue problem, instead, we have a spending problem?  What is the history in Vermont of creating or raising a tax to subside education?  Income Tax in ’34, Rooms and Meals Tax in ’59, Sales Tax in ’69, Statewide Property Tax in ’97, and many increases in those taxes in interim years?

As local taxes have become less connected from the local tax base, what has happened to the incentive of local communities to grow their tax base?  Is this a factor in the languishing growth in the tax base of commercial and industrial properties, and also residential properties?   Is the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Program, and also the Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP) two work-around initiative to correct for the lack of local incentive to build the Grand List?  How do TIF and CHIP work?

What other tax and regulatory burdens that affect Vermont families and businesses? How do our tax burdens compare to that of other States?  Why is it important for Vermont’s tax burden to be competitive with that in other States of the Nation?  Why is it important for Vermont Government to live within its means?  Why is it important to grow the economy?  Can the Vermont economy grow if Vermont businesses can’t grow?

What factors are restricting the growth of Vermont businesses?  In addition to high taxes, the availability of labor?  If Vermont businesses can’t grow here, where do they grow?  What are some examples?  Are complex, cumbersome, and costly energy regulations an issue for Vermont families and businesses?  Are these regulations, as proposed, in effect, a Carbon tax on fuels used for home heating, transportation, and the rural economy — tractors, trucks, skidders, construction equipment.  What kind of proposals does the Climate Action Plan require?  How does the Global Warming Solutions Act affect the litigation costs of Government?  How does State land use regulation affect affordability?  Recent changes in Act 250 — and the creation, then the Repeal of the Road Rule, and Tier 3 designations?

What does this illustrate about the importance of balance in the Legislature, and in State government in general?

What should we know about proposals to impose a special tax on Second Homes?  Or to increase taxes on high income earners?  Is Vermont’s tax structure one of the most progressive of any State in the Nation?   Some will say that high income earners aren’t paying their fair share?  What do these advocates say is a fair share — other than more?  What is the history of how taxes, initially proposed for only a few of the highest income taxpayers, have changed as time passed?

What proportion of income taxes are paid by the highest income taxpayers?  In the nation and in Vermont?  25 percent by highest 1 percent; more than 50 percent by the highest 10 percent, and more than the lowest 90 percent; and almost 100 percent of income taxes by the highest 50 percent.

Why should we treat Federal tax provisions that expire in less than 10 years the same Federal spending provisions that expire in less than 10 years?  Why is mobility an essential attribute of a free society?  Do we have a revenue problem in Vermont, or a spending problem?

What can we learn from the history of reducing property taxes by creating a new tax, or raising a tax other than property taxes?  What other proposals target high income taxpayers?  Do these proposals, like a proposed tax on camps and second homes, encourage class warfare, and the politics of envy?

What should we know about Proposition 3?  Should a person be free to join a Union, or free not to join a Union?  Should a person be forced to join a Union or pay Union dues, as a condition of employment?

What are better ways to accomplish social and environmental public policy goals, without creating new and additional programs, taxes, and regulations?  For example, is the best social program a good job?  Is the best way to raise tax revenue, to grow the economy, so that tax revenue grows without raising tax rates?  If it were more affordable to live and work in rural areas, resulting in more reasonable and less costly regulation of energy and housing construction, would the population likely increase in rural areas, helping to repopulate small schools in rural areas?  Are there ways to manage our forests to absorb and store Carbon, at lower cost and just as effectively as Byzantine regulation and Carbon taxes.  Should we revisit nuclear energy as a good way to reduce our Carbon Footprint, at much more affordable cost?

Why is diversity in forest age classes important to forest health?  What other public benefits do forests – particularly working forests – provide for us all – wildlife, songbirds, recreation (including hunting), filtering water and air, shade, tourism, and biodiversity – as well as contributing to the economic prosperity of Vermont, particularly our rural communities.  How is our rural economy, environment, and culture, much like a an ecosystem?

What is the connection of the above public policy issues to Vermont’s demographic challenge — particularly to a declining number of working age people and middle class families?