January 26, 2011

My name is Jack Hoffman. I’m a policy analyst for Public Assets Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan organization in Montpelier that focuses on state fiscal policy. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the report of the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission. Read more

Governor Shumlin has rightly focused on two major structural problems that must be addressed if Vermont is going to develop a sustainable fiscal policy: the rising costs of health care and corrections. His commitment to a single-payer health care system is an important first step to both cost reductions and needed reforms. Read more

Vermont’s tax structure has had serious problems for a long time that have made the impact of the recession on Vermonters worse than it needed to be. Sales tax revenue has not kept pace with economic growth for decades. And while Vermont’s effective income tax rate—the taxes that Vermonters actually pay—puts the state in the middle of the pack nationally, our rates appear high because, as the commission has noted, those rates apply after people have taken Vermont’s generous deductions and exemptions. Read more

It’s not clear why former Vermont Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn wants to run from the notion that Vermont offers tax credits to businesses that create new jobs. In a recent letter to the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Dorn criticized both the newspapers and Public Assets Institute for saying Vermont had a tax credit program. Read more

You may have heard it said recently that Vermont has the highest property taxes in the country. The source of the information was Northern Economic Consulting, which seems to be the only organization that gives Vermont this dubious distinction. Not even the anti-tax Tax Foundation, which does three different calculations, puts Vermont at the top of the list. Read more

Balancing the 2012 budget will be tougher than anything the administration has had to deal with during this recession. If Montpelier uses the same “manage to the money” approach it’s been following so far, however, Vermonters will be out of luck. Read more

As Congress debates the extension of the Bush tax cuts, it’s a good time to look at what we got for the money we gave away. It’s a lot: an estimated $2.5 trillion by the time the cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. Read more

As the opening day of school approaches, local school officials gear up for the next budget season, and some campaigning politicians continue to insist that education is a luxury we can no longer afford, Vermont parents and others might like to get a glimpse of the future by reading a recent New York Times article. Read more

It may be too late for this year’s August primary elections, but for the general elections, Vermont’s political parties might want to collaborate to create fiscal fact kits for all of their candidates. It could help voters become better informed, and perhaps prevent candidates from making promises they can’t or shouldn’t keep. Read more

One criticism of the budget-cutting Vermont has done in recent years is that money and personnel have been reduced, but the mission has remained largely the same. There are fewer state employees, who have less money to spend, but they’re expected to do the same job. Read more