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Update June 2010
In this issue:
-- There Will Be A Lot At Stake In Vermont's Next Budget
-- Read the Census Data Warning Labels
-- Early Word: Health Care Reform Will Insure More Vermonters
-- Who Doesn't Raise Taxes in an Election Year?
-- Fun With Data
There Will Be A Lot At Stake In Vermont's Next Budget
Vermont has been relying on federal funds to balance its budget, but the federal recovery money runs out in fiscal 2012. Will the state choose to continue to provide the public services and structures that make Vermont a great place to live or will it accelerate the pace of government downsizing begun by the Douglas administration? Those choices will be at the heart of the fiscal 2012 budget debate, which begins next January with a new governor and a newly elected Legislature. Our report on the final 2011 budget and what's at stake for 2012 will be published July 1—look for it on our website.
Read the Census Data Warning Labels
Are taxes higher in Vermont than elsewhere? We'd like to know. Unfortunately, the data regularly used to compare Vermont's taxes to other states can be misleading. Even the organization that produces the data, the U.S. Census Bureau, warns against its misuse. Check out our op-ed or our blog post on the topic of per capita tax data.
Early Word: Health Care Reform Will Insure More Vermonters
After passage earlier this year of the federal health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), many are wondering what it will mean for Vermonters. A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation begins to tell us. Its basic message: the new law will reduce the number of people without health care coverage, and the federal government, not the state, will pay the lion's share of the cost. Vermont has already put a lot of effort into expanding health care coverage. Nevertheless, the report concludes that with an aggressive enrollment campaign, another 13,000 low-income Vermonters—those in a family of four with incomes of less than $29,300 in 2009, for example—could receive health care coverage. Check out the full Kaiser report.
Who Doesn't Raise Taxes in an Election Year?
After all the hand-wringing in Montpelier this year about school budgets and alleged overspending by local school boards, you might think the last thing elected officials would do would be to raise property taxes. Not so. They made changes to Vermont's school finance system that will increase taxes for many middle-income homeowners, add new complexity to a system that many believe is already complicated, and make school funding less fair. Check out this blog for details.
Fun With Data
We regularly report on migration data from the IRS, showing people and income moving to and from Vermont each year. Forbes Magazine has gone one better. It has produced an interactive map on its website that allows users to track the movement of people in and out of counties across the county. Read our blog about the site, or skip right to the map.
Public Assets Institute is funded by grants and donations. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to support our work.
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Fact: In 2009, 24.1 percent of Vermont's workforce was 55 or older—the highest percentage in the country.
Source: Economic Policy Institute analysis of Census data
Cracks in
the Public Structures
Where do you see cracks?
Vermont is a great place to live and work and an attractive place to do business because of the investments we've made over the years in our public structures like parks, courts, schools, and environmental protections.
With state budget cuts and state employee layoffs for the past several years, we are starting to see cracks in those public structures. In the Cracks in the Public Structures series published bi-monthly in this newsletter, we've looked closely at several areas of state government where the signs of deterioration are showing.
We are interested in knowing the places where you see cracks. Have you or someone you know noticed a reduction in services or a change in Vermont's quality of life as a result of state budget cuts?
Email sarah@publicassets.org with your thoughts.
Calendar
Blue Ribbon Tax Commission
July 20, 2010
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
133 State Street, Montpelier
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