Op-Eds
The People’s Budget puts Vermonters’ needs first
By Paul Cillo, VTDigger.org, April 11, 2012
The Vermont Workers Center has proposed a People’s Budget that would fundamentally change the way Vermont approaches budgeting…
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Manage government to need, not just money
By Jack Hoffman, VTDigger.org, October 27, 2011
One of the good things to come out of Tropical Storm Irene was seeing the state respond to…
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Facts and myths about taxes
By Jack Hoffman, Rutland Herald, August 7, 2011
Do wealthy residents move if they are asked to pay more in taxes? Another reliable report…
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All Vermonters should share the risks of health care reform
By Paul A. Cillo, Vt Digger, April 19, 2011
Governor Shumlin is right. Health care reform is needed—the sooner the better. One big reason: Health…
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A Welcome Change
By Jack Hoffman, VtDigger , March 7, 2011
Town Meeting last week marked the second year in a row that Vermont’s education spending has declined.…
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Public investment is key to prosperity
By PAUL CILLO – Rutland Herald, August 15, 2010
For 30 years, we’ve been told government is the problem and the best way to help…
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Dissing Vermont is Bad for Business
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (May 30, 2010, Times Argus)
For years, the governor has been repeating a mantra: Vermont is bad for business. Its taxes are too high, its environmental regulations too onerous, its schools too expensive, he says.
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School taxes may be more complex, less fair
OP-ED. Paul Cillo (Mar. 14, 2010, Times Argus)
Montpelier’s goal this year should be to make the education tax system simpler and fairer for all Vermonters. Instead, in the haste to cut General Fund spending, Gov. James Douglas would make it more complicated and less fair – increasing taxes on middle-income Vermonters and lowering them on those with higher incomes. Sound crazy? It is.
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Vermonters Are Not Just Taxpayers
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Jan. 3, 2010, Times Argus/Rutland Herald)
Elected officials often speak to voters as if they were taxpayers only. But all Vermonters also rely on the services those taxes pay for: safe food and drinking water, education, health care, highway maintenance, police protection, courts, care for those who are old, sick, or disabled, help for the unemployed, and more.
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Property Tax Rise: Don’t blame the schools
OP-ED. Paul Cillo (Dec. 6, 2009, Times Argus/Rutland Herald)
Vermont has a financially sustainable public education system that achieves excellent results. It keeps its education spending flat as a percentage of the economy under hugely trying circumstances. This should be cause for congratulations.
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Responsible funding begins at home
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Aug. 4, 2009, Times Argus)
If local districts are going to be asked to take on more financial obligations, they need additional revenue. No one wants to shoulder an unfunded mandate, whether it comes from Washington or Montpelier.
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Property Tax Increase – Unnecessary, Unwise, Unfair
OP-ED. Paul Cillo (Apr. 29, 2009)
Desperate to fill an estimated $250 million hole in the state’s general fund for next year, the Legislature is on the verge of accepting the governor’s plan to increase property taxes by $60 million or more.
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School funding ‘fundamentally broken’?
OP-ED. Paul Cillo (Mar. 8, 2009, Times Argus)
Vermont has the most equitable, stable, sustainable, and publicly accountable education funding system in America. Vermonters spend a lower percentage of their income on school property taxes now than they did before Act 60 was enacted in 1997. Yet we hear that Vermont’s school funding system is–in the words of one prominent critic–”fundamentally broken and beyond repair.” Why?
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An irrational fear of taxes
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Feb. 5, 2009, Rutland Herald)
The word taxes has become so toxic that it’s impairing our ability to talk rationally. Here’s an example: According to the governor, some middle-income Vermonters can afford to give up 5 percent of their salaries to help balance the state budget. Meanwhile, he says, asking others with the same income to pay far less than 5 percent in additional taxes would make living in Vermont “unaffordable.”
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State shouldn’t add to joblessness
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Jan. 22, 2009, Rutland Herald)
While Congress gets ready to spend hundreds of billions to keep people working, why is Vermont planning to lay off state workers and slash school budgets, sending teachers to the unemployment lines?
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Sharing the pain as battle lines are drawn
OP-ED. Paul Cillo (Dec. 7, 2008, Times Argus)
It’s been heartening to hear elected officials, editorial writers, and policy makers talking about Vermonters sharing the pain as we address the state’s massive revenue shortfall.
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Voters chose more effective government
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Nov. 9, 2008, Times Argus)
In fulfilling his promise to “revitalize Vermont’s economy,” the governor must be mindful of the enormous shift in the country’s — and the state’s — political mood that culminated on Tuesday.
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The T-word blocks all debate
OP-ED. Jack Hoffman (Oct. 15, 2008, Bennington Banner)
With a little less than a month to go before the election, it looks like we’ll go through another campaign cycle without an honest debate about taxes — in particular, taxes to pay for Vermont’s crumbling infrastructure.
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State budget cuts will hurt Vermonters
Paul Cillo (Aug. 17, 2008, Times Argus)
On Tuesday, Governor James Douglas will unveil his plan to a legislative committee for $32 million in emergency cuts to the state budget. Legislative leaders seem willing to go along. No hearings are scheduled, no citizens will be heard.
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State spending should reflect Vermonters’ needs
Jack Hoffman (Mar. 30, 2008, Times Argus)
When the Vermont House starts debating the 2009 state budget this week, wouldn’t it be great if most Vermonters knew what they were talking about?
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Poor towns aren’t gaming Act 68 system
Jack Hoffman (Feb. 24, 2008, Times Argus)
How and how much we pay for schools is never far from the top of the list of public policy discussions. That’s a good thing.
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Just the facts, please
Jack Hoffman (Oct. 28, 2007, Times Argus)
When the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office released its latest tax study recently, Gov.
James Douglas missed a great opportunity to give Vermonters some good news.
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School-financing law is working
Paul Cillo (Feb 25, 2007, Burlington Free Press)
Ten years ago — on Feb. 5, 1997, — the Vermont Supreme Court declared the state’s foundation formula for financing education unconstitutional because it failed to provide all Vermont children with equal educational opportunity.
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Vermont’s School Finance Law Is Still the Best
Paul Cillo (Jan 14, 2007, Valley News)
Act 68 is fairer and more sustainable than an all-property-tax system. It balances the needs of all of Vermont’s children with those of its taxpayers, and it trusts local communities to manage their schools best.
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Taxes are not the biggest burden
Paul Cillo (Nov 1, 2006, Rutland Herald)
Is Vermont affordable? The Public Assets Institute calculated expenses for different Vermont families to find out. The answer? For some Vermonters it is, for others it is not.
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