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

Town Meeting put Vermont in the national spotlight again after dozens of communities adopted resolutions calling for a constitutional fix to Citizens United, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that has opened new rivers of money flowing into political campaigns. But there was another resolution that some towns adopted that also deserves attention. Read more

Unless there is an unexpected rash of school budget defeats next week, it looks like Gov. Peter Shumlin won’t get his wish to keep school spending flat next year.

Earlier this year, the governor urged local voters to press for no increases in school budgets. Read more

This post is an edited version of Paul Cillo’s testimony to the Vermont House Education Committee in January 2012.

The comprehensive study of Vermont’s school funding system released last month should be welcome news to Vermonters, who have invested significant effort over the past fifteen years to reform the system. Read more

According to U.S. Census data, Vermont has been funding public education at about $50-60 for every $1000 of residents’ personal income for nearly 20 years. In fiscal 2009, the most recent data available, Vermont spent $1.4 billion, which worked out to about $57 per $1000 of personal income. Read more

Testimony on Vermont Employment Growth Incentive (VEGI) Program

State House; February 10, 2012; 10:45 AM

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee

My name is Paul Cillo.  I’m the President of the Public Assets Institute here in Montpelier.  We’re an independent nonprofit that analyzes Vermont’s tax, budget, and economic policies from the perspective of ordinary Vermonters.  Read more

Is Vermont a high-tax state?  It depends on whether you look at the taxes Vermonters pay, or the taxes the state collects? There’s a difference, which we should keep in mind when we see information like a recent item in the Burlington Free Press “Innovate”  section. Read more

It was an easy vote in the Vermont House on Friday. Fifteen years ago, it would not have been so.

Without a single nay, the House voted to use future budget surpluses to restore General Fund support for education. For the last three years, the Legislature has cut the annual transfer from the General Fund to the Education Fund, which covers all pre-K to 12 education costs in Vermont. Read more