Where to find $195 million

Posted by Paul Cillo on March 19, 2010 at 8:17 am

A sales tax on household services in Vermont could generate up to $195 million in revenue. That’s according to testimony given by phone by Michael Mazerov, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, at the March 16 meeting of the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission in Montpelier.

He was talking about the options and issues of a sales tax on services in the state.…

Simple and fair

Posted by Paul Cillo on March 15, 2010 at 8:41 am

Montpelier should be trying to make the education tax system simpler and fairer.  But Republican Gov. Jim Douglas is proposing changes that would make the system more complicated and less fair: He’d increase taxes on middle-income Vermonters and lower them on wealthier ones.

Sound crazy? Then how about this: The Democratic-controlled House appears to be moving in the same direction.

Read Paul Cillo’s op-ed, from the Mar. 14 Times…

Challenges for Change: Keep the process open

Posted by Jack Hoffman on March 10, 2010 at 4:43 pm

Challenges for Change—the new government efficiency plan passed by the Legislature just before the Town Meeting Day recess—is getting off to a bad start. The Education Design Team, which has a little more than two weeks to come up with plans for pretty sweeping changes affecting how schools are run, held its first meeting on Monday behind closed doors. With good reason, school board members and others with a stake…