Act 60 celebrates its 15th birthday this month, which makes it Vermont’s most durable education financing system in the last 50 years. Prior to Act 60, there was the Foundation Plan for state aid to education, the Morse-Giuliani formula, the Miller formula, and the Hunt-Simpson formula. Read more

The Legislature adopted three new provisions in this year’s appropriations bill that should move us all to start thinking differently about the budget and working together to re-shape state fiscal policy.

First, at the urging of the Vermont Workers’ Center, there is now a clear statement in law that the purpose of the Vermont budget is to provide for the wellbeing of the citizens of the state. Read more

The Legislature is missing an opportunity this year to undo changes to Vermont’s school tax system that have made it harder for some middle-class Vermonters, including those who are retired, to stay in their homes. They’re also missing a chance to repeal a provision that punishes certain homeowners who pay school taxes based on their income. Read more

Caught in the legislative logjam lawmakers are trying to clear before the end of the 2012 session are several bills containing tax breaks for individuals and businesses. The fate of the bills is still up in the air, but it’s safe to assume that many of the breaks will survive. Read more

It’s an election year in an era of divisive politics, so the campaign-style attacks on Vermont’s health care reform efforts probably shouldn’t be surprising. And from what we’ve seen on the national political stage, we know that campaign ads don’t have to make sense. Read more

As the Legislature pushes to pass bills before adjournment, it’s easy to enact a “quick little fix” that will turn into a major headache later on. The Vermont Senate still has a chance to avoid such a misstep and drop the idea of sending out budget-surplus, property-tax rebate checks at the end of each fiscal year. Read more

Campaign for Vermont took a wrong turn this week when it released the results of its first website visitor survey. “Citizens Want Property Tax Accountability” the press release asserted. “88% think $27 million should be restored to Education Fund.” To try to give the findings legitimacy, the press release compared the “poll” to similar surveys done on other websites and by state Sen. Read more

April 17th is Tax Day, for the IRS and many states, including Vermont. So we should expect stories about who pays, how much, and what we get for our taxes. But here’s something from the other side of the coin: The Pew Center on the States’ new study on the taxes people and businesses are not paying, thanks to tax incentives and other giveaways. Read more

A new study of employers in the Vermont Business Roundtable shows the vast majority are providing health plans that do not shift a lot of cost onto their employees. Most VBR members offer either “gold” plans, in which employees cover between 10 and 20 percent of their annual health care costs, or “platinum” plans, where employees, on average, pay no more than 10 percent of the annual costs. Read more

When the Vermont House takes up the fiscal 2013 budget this week, the focus will be on the money appropriated for all of the functions of state government—operating the courts, educating our children, protecting the environment, promoting tourism, maintaining the transportation network, and more. Read more