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Report Income, Home Value, and School Tax Data

Posted by rob on May 14, 2008 at 11:42 am

School property taxes pay for the bulk of public education in Vermont. They are the state’s biggest source of revenue, projected to be $860 million in Fiscal 2009. 

Who is paying these taxes and what do they earn? Information about household income, home values, and property taxes is necessary to making decisions about school funding and other issues. The state currently collects much of this information, but does not make it available in usable form.

In the mid-1990s, the Tax Department collected and published data on Vermonters’ property taxes and income. These reports were critical to building tax equity into Vermont’s current education funding system. Before Vermont considers more changes to the system, the Legislature and the public need a thorough
analysis of how the cost of education is distributed among taxpayers.

The Tax Department now has a better system for collecting data than it had 10 years ago, but it stopped publishing the property tax and income reports in 1999. Today, the department can link all residential property with a state income tax return. Without revealing confidential information, the state could publish annual statistical reports linking house values and property taxes with income levels.

To get a complete picture of the relationship between income and school taxes, the state also needs information on all property occupants – not just the owners. In addition, the Tax Department should collect data from renters to determine how much they are contributing to support schools and local government. 

Recommendation: The Legislature should direct the Tax Department to provide statistical reports on property taxes, income, and home values based on existing information. In addition, it should provide for the collection of addition information on other household members and renters. This statistical information should be made available to the public without disclosing confidential data. 

Prepared by Public Assets Institute, March 2008

Enable Citizens to Track Bills from Home

Posted by rob on May 12, 2008 at 11:48 am

Through the Internet, citizens have greater access to legislative documents than ever before. Daily calendars, journals, bills, and committee hearing schedules – as well as legislative reports and information about Vermont’s fiscal practices and policies – are easy to find online. But there’s more that would be useful to citizens who want to follow issues in the State House. The Legislature’s Five-Year Information Technology Plan identifies improvements to the computer system that would make it possible to post more information electronically. 

One big step would be providing public access to bills as they move through House and Senate committees. Currently, Internet users can look up bills online, but they don’t get a complete picture. They can see bills as they were introduced, the versions passed by the House or Senate, and the final version approved by both chambers and signed into law by the governor. But many bills, especially major ones, go through numerous iterations between introduction and final passage, and the amendments are difficult to track through the daily calendars and journals.

People with the time and inclination to sit through committee hearings have access to all of the printed versions of bills and proposed amendments as the committees consider them. They can watch as proposals are made, accepted, or rejected. Providing greater online access to documents now available to lobbyists and others inside the State House would go a long way toward enhancing public understanding and participation.

Recommendation:
Allow citizens to keep track of bill revisions as committees work on legislation by posting documents distributed in committee on the Legislature’s website at the end of each day.

Prepared by Public Assets Institute, March 2008

Start the Budget Discussion Earlier

Posted by rob on May 11, 2008 at 11:50 am

The state budget is not the only business the Legislature attends to each session, but it’s clearly at the top of the to-do list. Appropriating money has become a much bigger job in the last 25 years. More and more responsibility has devolved from the federal government to the states. Vermont state government now oversees expenditures totaling more than $4 billion.

It’s important, therefore, that legislators and the public have as much time as possible to scrutinize the blueprint for spending that the governor presents each year. It’s a dense document, which establishes Vermont’s priorities and determines the course the state will follow. 

By law, the Legislature sets a deadline of mid- to late January for the governor to deliver his annual budget to the lawmakers. Depending on the calendar, that date can fall in the third week of the session. That’s too late for legislators, and it’s too late for citizens who want to weigh in on how Vermont should use its tax dollars. Come May, it’s a safe bet that editorial writers, the governor’s spokesperson, and others will start complaining that that the Legislature has been in session long enough and urging lawmakers to go home. This year, legislators and the public will have had the budget for only 14 weeks on May 1. That’s not a lot of time for a large deliberative body to decide how to spend over $4 billion.

Recommendation:
Members of the House and Senate should direct the governor to deliver the budget earlier, for example the first Tuesday after opening day. That will get the session off to a quicker start.

Prepared by Public Assets Institute, Feb. 2008

To Follow the Money, Public Needs Better Reporting on Federal and Special Funds

Posted by rob on May 10, 2008 at 11:51 am

The General, Education, and Transportation Funds – three of the more than 500 state funds – account for almost two thirds of the money in the state budget. The state regularly publishes single-page reports that show sources and uses for the current year, as well as past and future years, for these funds.

Federal funds account for nearly a third of Vermont’s state spending each year. Special funds now provide 6 percent of money to cover state expenditures – about the same amount as the Transportation Fund. Nevertheless, tracking money into and out of these accounts is more difficult than following the state’s other three funds because this information is not regularly published in usable form.

Specific reporting on the sources and uses of federal and special funds would make it easier for the public to understand the budget. The budget bill lists how much various agencies and departments spend in federal or special funds. But the specific sources of these funds are often not clear; and the bill gives no information about past years or future projections for comparison.

Accessible information about these accounts – as is readily available for the General, Transportation, and Education Funds – would round out the fiscal picture for anyone interested in how money flows in and out of state coffers. More detailed accounting of the sources and uses of federal and special funds also would help legislators, businesses, and organizations with an interest in particular programs. 

Recommendation: Require the administration to publish regularly updated reports for federal and special funds that summarize sources and uses of the funds. It should provide this information for the current year, as well as at least three past years and projections for at least two years into the future.

Prepared by Public Assets Institute, www.publicassets.org, March 2008