 |
Update June 2009
In this issue:
-- FL vs VT: A Tax Case Study
-- Budget Wrap-Up
-- Unemployment Benefits for the 21st Century
-- If Costs Must Shift, Less is Better
FL vs VT: A Tax Case Study
Stories of people fleeing Vermont to escape its taxes rarely come with specific details. Recently, a Burlington accountant went public with his reasons for moving to Florida, and cited his property tax bill as part of the problem. Read our analysis of how Vermont and Florida tax bills can differ and why buying a farm may be the key to lower taxes.
Budget Wrap-Up
Vermont's fiscal problems are far from over, but the Legislature correctly took a balanced approach to balancing the fiscal 2010 budget. Lawmakers faced more than a 20 percent budget gap as the session began last January. By June, in an historic override of a gubernatorial veto, the Legislature enacted a package of spending cuts and new revenues to close part of the gap. The rest was filled with funds from Washington's rescue plan. Read our 2010 budget wrap-up.
Unemployment Benefits for the 21st Century
Portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act make funds available to states that modernize their Unemployment Insurance programs to reflect the realities of work today. One of those realities is job retraining. Having already met most of the requirements to qualify for the federal money, Vermont has now changed its regulations to allow workers who run out of unemployment benefits while in an approved training program to get up to 26 additional weeks' benefits during the completion of the training. The change is part of Act 54, Vermont's own recovery and reinvestment act. Read more.
If Costs Must Shift, Less is Better
The governor's plan to transfer the obligation for teachers' retirement from the General Fund to the Education Fund—without proposing the requisite revenue increases to pay for it—would have pushed up property taxes more than $100 million in a few years—about a dime on tax rates throughout the state. Fortunately, the Legislature prevailed in this year's budget showdown, and that proposal died.
To solve the General Fund's grave problems, the Legislature did some cost-shifting of its own. But its shifts are small and temporary, whereas the governor's would have been large and permanent. Read more.
Public Assets Institute is funded by grants and donations. Please consider making a tax deductible contribution to support our work.
|
|
Fact: Health care services set a record in 2007: 17.1 percent of Vermont's Gross State Product.
Source: Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Health Care Administration
Save the Date
Our Annual Conference
October 21, 2009
8:30am - 4:00pm
Capitol Plaza, Montpelier
Public Structures Spotlight
Meat Inspection Section
Division of Food Safety and Consumer Protection, Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
Meats bound for market get the highest level of scrutiny from meat inspectors. But whether the meats are for sale or personal use, their slaughter, processing and sale are licensed and inspected to ensure proper animal treatment and food safety. Read more
RSS Feed
Subscribe to our feed and get
up-to-the-minute news from Public Assets Institute. Copy this url into your RSS reader and when we update the site, you will be one of the first to know!
More about RSS here.
Receive this from a friend?
Sign up to get our future updates.
|
|
