Challenges for Change has a familiar ring

Posted by Jack Hoffman on July 23, 2010 at 3:58 pm

After the early fanfare for Challenges for Change, the government reform plan proposed last session, legislators quickly discovered that the devil, indeed, was lurking in the details. The premise of Challenges was something everyone could support: government services delivered more effectively and at less cost. The devilish part came in measuring government output. How do you know you’re improving—or at least maintaining—the quality of public services while reducing expenditures?

The…

Fun with data: see where Americans are moving

Posted by Jack Hoffman on June 29, 2010 at 4:04 pm

Forbes Magazine has a new interactive map on its website that has been getting a certain amount of attention. The map shows all of the counties in the United States, and it’s linked to IRS migration data. Every year, the IRS tracks where people file their tax returns. There are some limitations to the data, but generally they provide a good overview of how the population is moving around the…

2010 middle-class property tax hike

Posted by Jack Hoffman on June 24, 2010 at 8:37 am

Despite professions of heart-felt concern for Vermont property taxpayers, the Legislature raised property taxes this year on a lot of middle-income Vermonters—resident homeowners with incomes less than $90,000. Lawmakers had solid information from the Tax Department showing that Vermonters with incomes over $1 million pay about 0.5 percent of their income to support public schools, while those with incomes of $60,000 pay almost 3 percent. Nevertheless, the Legislature chose to…