Stem mass ‘climate immigration’ with high taxes on second-homes
by Robert Fireovid
A friend shared an email he received from Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D), the powerful Chair of the Housing Committee in the Vermont Senate…
“We are looking at a need for 20-40,000 housing units in the next decade. The higher end of that range is specifically due to the need to address climate refugees, as we are projected to be one of the more climate stable states in the country. If you believe in climate change, then you believe in the real possibility that some of our major US cities may become at least partially uninhabitable and forced migration will take place. We will need to be prepared for that, as we are already seeing climate immigrants who are purchasing second homes and eating into our year-round housing stock.”
Her attitude reminds me of a question related to wine making. In wine, yeast multiply like crazy and consume all the sugars from the grapes. At some point, however, the yeast population crashes in a mass die-off on account of running out of food and choking from the toxic levels of their own excrement (alcohol). The question is, are humans smarter than yeast?
We present-day Vermonters inherited a place with a lot of sweetness, such as plenty of elbow room, nature, natural resources, frugality, hardworking, self-reliance, self-governance (i.e., little government). It seems that the Senator wants to invite in tens of thousands of outsiders to consume our sweetness. In addition to losing our way of life, Vermonters may also lose the ability to feed ourselves and stay warm during our long Winters.
But we can be smarter than yeast. Let’s dramatically increase real-estate taxes on second homes, especially for seasonal non-residents. Let’s discourage outsiders who aren’t interested in protecting our beautiful sweetness and who in fact would happily devour it.
And if legislators want to demonstrate some real intelligence, they should first assess how much our population already exceeds Vermont’s capacity to provide current residents with the absolute essentials (e.g., food and energy). This information should be a starting point for any discussion, let alone legislation, about encouraging more people to come here.
Another question for Sen. Hinsdale, whose family is one of the largest real estate owners in Chittenden and Addison counties. It seems that her position on the Senate Committee on Housing makes her an inside lobbyist for her family. Isn’t this a violation of the State’s own conflict of interest laws?
Categories: Commentary
Vermont’s population grew at 3.1% since 2010, contrasted with the national increase of 7.6% for the same time period. Vermont’s population is rapidly becoming majority ” white hairs ” which does not bode well for the tax base.
Guessing the climate refugees are more of the refugees from crime ridden, high tax states such as New York and New Jersey.
It seems to me that Vermont does need more housing but it seems to me that these are more localized problems. Vermont has always been a state which has attracted people who desire second homes and the out of staters already pay higher property taxes because they don’t qualify for the homestead exemption. Impairing the value of second home in ski towns does nothing to increase the supply of housing in Burlington. And let’s not forget all the jobs created for those who provide services to second homeowners. If we discourage people from coming to the state we can expect fewer jobs too. Localized problems need localized solutions.
If those second homes are Mansions in a ski town used a few times a year, I’m really not concerned if their taxes are raised while I struggle to pay mine. The goal of progressives is to make Vermont the playground for the rich and famous because the rich people buy things in Vermont. So, when these overlords convert everything to electric and ban Vermonters from registering their gasoline fired cars and trucks, will they stop the wealthy driving whatever they want from coming here. Seems like gas and diesel filling stations will be a thing of the past. The coming storm has nothing to do with snow and global warming train will be derailed because none of this works.
But I thought we were saving the planet by paying 10 cents for grocery bags, switching to CFL lightbulbs and making it too expensive to heat our homes! Surely, Vermont has nipped all this climate change in the bud! In fact, I bet we’ve already done such a great job that I predict there won’t be any uninhabitable cities in ten years. What do you say, Kesha? I’ll bet you a new Tesla battery!
Except for the early times when the soils were still virgin and a crop of wheat was money in the bank, Vermont has been more of a place to be from than where one lived and it’s hillside farms, small towns, sweated industry, high suicide rates, insane asylums, poor farms, opium addicts and harsh vagrancy laws convince most of the folks who left that they did the right thing. But since the Flatlanders took over the perception has changed as the experience of 3 out of 4 of my children and two grown grandkids will attest, not that life in Philly or Denver is bad on their own account but when they tell their neighbors and acquaintances that they were born and grew up on Vermont the reply is more like ‘you grew up in paradise’ rather than ‘I’m sorry to hear that you were born in some kind of a trash heap or dump.’ So let’s give the Flatlanders some credit, I must confess that though I’ve lived here for Sixty years I am still one, they’ve changed things for the better at least in reputation and care provided for the poor but you still gotta wonder how far they want to go making Vermont the preferred destination for the whole wide world or is that prospective Utopia is a great political strategy, what you can’t get it this session you can always promise for the next. This seems to be the main example Vermont is setting for the nation, at least for the mucky-muck elites in the Democratic Party.
If Kesha is expecting cities to empty out and the people to head to Vermont in search of food and shelter, that will mean they are desperate and desperate is dangerous. If she wants to be prepared for the dystopian invasion she should get prepared by investing in some good firearms and lots of ammo. The type of scenario that she is projecting is the apocalypse. Hungry people will kill to get what they need, similar to what’s happening on the southern border. You see, people like Kesha don’t have to worry about such things and she thinks people will just show up and ask nicely for a room and a hot meal. These are the people who are running our state into the ground and forcing Vermonters to move or freeze. They are full of virtue and no brains, just like Ann Watson who thinks that fuel oil and propane delivery truck drivers can moonlight as electricians and plumbers when they’re not driving. Like I said, no life experience other than talking and looking down on those who make things run. Thank a democrat for the misery you see coming.
THANK YOU, DEMOCRAT, FOR THE COMING MISERY!
Climate refugees or climate immigrants? US cities inhabitable? Forced migration? Yet, these downtrodden newcomers can afford second homes in Vermont? They are “eating” into year-round housing stock? George Soros is incredibly wealthy. And with that fact, the best his money can buy is people such as her who can’t even follow the WEF script or form intelligble sentences? He should demand his money back. If this lady wasn’t serious, I’d say she was an incredibly talented comedic actress and deserves an HBO special. Lord have mercy!
Ram really knows the meaning of “marginalized” & “downtrodden” – from her own personal horrific past & current experience(s) in living in proverbial hellholes like Shelburne and Charlotte; yet she SOMEHOW survived!
Kesha came here from Los Angeles CA for the same reasons that Bernie, Welch, Baruth, Ponytail Zuckerman and Balint came here… to be big political fish in a small pond. It is the self-hating white voters who fell for it and kept her in office all this time and now she has become a powerful enough parasite to kill the host organism…just like the liberals have done in her home state of California. We voted for this.