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by Don Keelan
Soon to be replaced, Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman spent the past year touring the state, warning us of the book ban crisis. His efforts have been a complete flop, so he has taken up a new role as “the guardian of the poor.”
His recent comments, noted in the Bennington Banner on December 3, 2024, were clear: “Taxes have gone up for working people while wealthy people have gotten tax cuts.” The Bernie want-to-be extols us to believe that wealthy people are not working people. Some statistics, noted below, should provide him with the actual facts about taxes and who is paying them.
The Lieutenant Governor’s traveling around the State to warn us of the crisis of book banning was irrelevant, and except for a few souls who came out to listen, it fell on deaf ears.
As someone who has occupied space in the State House for years, he should have known that affordability, housing, health care, and crime were at the forefront of what most Vermonters were concerned about, but not according to Zuckerman.
Zuckerman has picked up where his mentor, Bernie, has always been. He noted in his piece, “Our federal and state taxes are filled with loopholes and exceptions that only wealthy people can take advantage of.’ He goes on, ‘I believe that taxes should be paid based on ability to pay, without exceptions and loopholes that only lawyers and accountants can figure out to help high-wealth individuals.” Sound familiar from whom the ‘heir apparent’ is quoting?
I gather the Lt. Governor has yet to keep up with what the IRS recently published, as noted in the November 30, 2024, Wall Street Journal: “The top 1% of income-tax filers provided 40.4% of the (federal) income tax revenue in 2022.”
According to the WSJ, this group, which included about 1.5 million filers with adjusted gross incomes above $663,000, accounted for 22 percent of the country’s total earnings. Interestingly, they had an effective tax rate of 26.1 percent.
Even more revealing is that when one goes down the ladder of taxes paid, one discovers that when you arrive at the top 10% of all filers, that cohort accounts for 72% of the tax burden, according to the WSJ piece.
Back to what Zuckerman is trying to convince us: the working class is paying the lion’s share of the country’s tax burden. But that is not so. The WSJ notes that the IRS data points out that the bottom 50% of taxpayers, with income below $50,000 (about 77 million filers), shared about 3% of the total taxes and had a corresponding tax rate of 3.7%.
However, Zuckerman does not want to target only wealthy Vermont taxpayers. He also wants to target second homeowners: “We can require second homeowners (or expensive vacation homes, not hunting camps) to pay more.” I gather that he does not appreciate that the 58,000 VT second homeowners pay substantial real estate taxes while requiring little in municipal or school services.
The Lieutenant Governor needs to address the fact that Vermont and the country do not have a revenue problem but an out-of-control spending frenzy. Zuckerman’s bashing of Governor Phil Scott for doing nothing for years is unfounded. The Governor has consistently demanded that the Legislature, municipalities, and school districts bring spending under control.
The Legislature got a wake-up call on November 5th. With Zuckerman and many of his cohorts out on the street looking for work, the Governor might have a Legislature that has common sense and will listen to what voters are enraged about.
As far as David Zuckerman’s quest to be the next Bernie Sanders, forget it. The Senator is a “one-off,” and thank goodness for that. Vermont does not need any more self-righteous politicians dividing Vermont into classes, wealthy and poor. We need leaders who will bring us together to recognize what is threatening Vermont, and it is not the Zuckerman’s and Sander’s gospel: the wealthy have it, and we want it.
Vermont is fortunate to have second homeowners and a few so-called wealthy residents. The Zuckermans’ vilification of them has been unfortunate, but at least he is gone. However, he may be in your neighborhood looking to see who is banning books.
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Categories: Commentary
“Vermont is fortunate to have second homeowners and a few so-called wealthy residents.” lol
Oh thank you 1% for pulling the ladder up behind you, I’m so grateful. How many of you got there without stealing the tax dollars of us poors? I’ve been out of the loop, but why are all the MAGA’s billionaire bootlickers now? Are we going to be subjected to more billionaire propaganda here?
You’re a ‘tool’ Chris, a real Useful Idiot…
Sounds like I touched a nerve, bootlicker.
Tom was not disparaging you but telling you what those who are organizing the subversion of our state think of the citizenry, and those who hold the position that you’ve stated.
Both can be right, the numbers are not mutually exclusive, the rich can pay a major share of the tax AND the middle class can be strapped with their own tax burden, despite not paying the majority.
Meanwhile has anybody noticed, they keep spending way more of our money, despite which group is in office? That’s been going on for decades. But, if they have us fighting….we don’t notice we are being fleeced.
There is a new tax on transfer of property, it’s huge. So, they are taxing the rich in VT.
What they won’t tax is more revealing. Will the tax porn? Not even on the table.
Will they tax weed? Not too much they don’t want to ruin sales……so they understand.
We don’t elect people in Vermont, despite what many believe, we are controlled and played like a cheap fiddle with the propaganda, planned division and planned agendas, done by 10 people prior to our legislative sessions.
Oh, Bernie is not a one off, we are the training and proving grounds for more, way too many. Think community organizers…., NGO’s, non-profits, lobbyists, these are the JV training grounds for politicians, we are one of the more dominant marxist training grounds in the nation, if not the world.
So yeah, he’s suggesting you are being used, by those who have a agenda that is not in your personal interest and certainly not our state. Below is a video for reference, where the terms are used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g
The video quality if very poor, but the information is pure gold. Enjoy.
Zuckerman and the rest of the communists in Vermont’s legislature want nothing less than the Totalitarian Society:
“Everything in the State, Nothing outside the State, Nothing against the State.”
The vast majority of the Left’s electorate are stupid, indoctrinated people. They deserve each other…
Chris may not want to address the reality of who is carrying the burden. There are those that provide and those that consume. With 77 million pricing 3 percent of the tax burden the liberal narrative wrongly states they are unfairly taxed . Do they think they are air ferns ? Disproportionate consumption with contribution. Perhaps if they added more to the tax roll they would be more caring where these resources were spent.
I’d love to address your accusation but I can’t figure out what you’re trying to say other than I made you mad. Are you trying to say that there are people on welfare that don’t contribute? If you think so, wait until I tell you what a subsidy is.
Please help me understand why anyone would listen to this clown. or why would you
think anything he does or says is relevant for Vermont.
Wake up people, his only interest is for himself
I will admit it right up front…I have never supported Zuckerman and Bernie fever always mystified me. I think people just got caught up in the Bernie fad without really looking past his eccentric, mitten wearing, grandfather persona and examining his true intent. I’m not sure many of his supporter’s really understand socialism and bread lines. Anyway…back to Zuckerman, I always thought of him as a Shumlin wanna be…maybe not in political ideology but certainly ego and the desire for higher political status and the power it brings. From day one I never really cared for him….he has a “Snidley Whiplash” aura about him (I always felt the same about Shumlin and he proved to be the embodiment of the evil banker looking to steal Sweet Nell’s home only Sweet Nell was an elderly man with a property that Shumlin wanted) but I digress. I did the dance of joy when Shumlin exited and will do the same now that Zuckerman is leaving…I will cautiously wait, however, since I expect some last minute shenanigans from Snidley. I have to wonder though where the women of the State House will get their feminine products. And while I doubt that anyone took him up on his inappropriate attempt at intimidation, I mean… kind offer, I would put money on the fact that I won’t be the only woman in Vermont doing the dance of joy as he packs up his office. Only my opinion of course.
Dont relax too much. There are several female versions of Shummy and Zuck waiting to move up the chain of the democrat and progressive parties…
Rich Lachapelle: Sad but true. The quest for power and control knows no gender.
Remember, The people who control the money system will pick the winner and looser. These political hacks are the front for more spending in the debt credit money system. How well have you done in the last four years with inflation on all goods and services????? Time to stop living in the cave monkey land and admit there is a much bigger problem out there. We will know by June of 2025 how this will play out.
Re: “We will know by June of 2025 how this will play out.”
“Sooner than that…. it’s been arranged.”
Re: “The Senator (Bernie Sanders) is a “one-off,” and thank goodness for that. Vermont does not need any more self-righteous politicians dividing Vermont into classes, wealthy and poor.”
The problem is with ‘self-righteous’ voters electing politicians to do their bidding. Because when these politicians are elected, they feel compelled to actually do our bidding. When, for many of us at least, we voted for them to do just the opposite, … to do as little as possible, … to get out of our way and stop taking our money.
So don’t confuse Trump and his DOGE marshals with the typical self-righteous politicians. They understand that they weren’t elected to do anything EXCEPT to set the stage for politicians to do less. And yes, that, in itself, is a ‘huge’ undertaking. In a world of political corruption to the extent it exists today, doing less is one of the most difficult, if not *the* most difficult, tasks there is.
One thing is certain. The battle will be epic. But it remains to be seen which side prevails.
Was it ever fully disclosed what was discussed with the CCP at the State House in February 2019? The last one still holding a seat is Governor Windsock. Zuckerman is less likely a Bernie-Bro – more likely a Trudeau-Bro or a Gavin Newsome wannabe. The slicker (slippery) appearance and Californiacation policies lead me to believe the latter.
If it walks lie a commie and talks like a commie and acts like a commie, it’s a commie.
“A leopard can’t change its spots, and a skunk can’t change its smell”. D.B. Wilmer
Zuckerman will say whatever he thinks is popular with the liberal base