With a few exceptions, there’s no sales tax in New Hampshire, so states like Massachusetts pretend for a weekend to try and recover some of the commerce lost to the Granite State. But Vermont doesn’t have one (Maine either), and here’s why?
According to the Democrats interviewed by the Burlington Free Press, they would have to propose one, and none of them have. Why not?
“If we don’t collect taxes, then we have to cut services. It’s always difficult to give up revenue in the state.” – Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington.
“Any lost revenue is a cut in services for Vermonters and needs to be replaced,” – Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, D-Brattleboro.
A dip in sales tax revenue would mean less money in the education fund, Cummings said. To compensate, Vermont would have to raise property taxes.
Kornheiser added research she’s seen suggests purported benefits of sales tax holidays, such as support for local commerce, in reality aren’t particularly helpful.
A sales tax holiday “shifts spending patterns but doesn’t increase purchasing,” she recalled reading.
It does shift spending patterns – from the hands of the Democrat legislature to the people who earned the money. God Help Us!
And no one is suggesting that if they took less from Vermonters that they might invest it in products and services with more value to them than to people hoarding political power.
What interests taxpayers is secondary to the Left’s party agenda. The ridiculous obscene Heat Standard Bill is a great example of that. Vermonters didn’t want their energy to cost more or be less reliable, and neither did the governor. The legislature overrode his veto, and Vermonters got what they voted for. Democrat policy without regard to public input.
And there was public input; they just chose to ignore it.
There was one honest thing in that interview. When asked if anyone would propose a sales tax holiday, the answer was no. No,
“Given the present make-up of the Legislature, probably not,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t support creating a sales tax holiday in Vermont and her committee likely wouldn’t either.
The present make-up of the legislature is veto-proof Democrat majorities which means that if Vermonters want a break from rising taxes, any taxes, they will need to show up and vote for candidates who have at least an inkling of whose money they are spending and why they deserve to keep as much of it as possible.
Author is a long-time New Hampshire resident, blogger, and a member of the Board of directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the Managing Editor and co-owner of GraniteGrok.com, a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.
Categories: Commentary, State Government
Compare Florida ( no sales tax ) to Vermont and see which economy is stronger and where people are going.
Florida has a sales tax. https://floridarevenue.com/forms_library/current/gt800013.pdf
People are also starting to leave Florida because of insurance costs( if they can even get it)), and other exorbitant cost of living expenses.
Perhaps the legislators should ask themselves why NH can get by without a sales or income tax. Just like with your personal finances, it is not so much the amount of income you have but how intelligent and responsible you are with how it is spent.
No problem Vermont….skip the tax holiday…..we’ll just keep on crossing the line into New Hampshire & buying tax-free. You do realize you border the “Live Free or Die” State, correct?
You just keep on dumping all those taxpayer bucks into those ENDLESS social programs you so love – such as forcing Vermonters to pay for “free” school meals for millionaire’s children and eventually, you’ll have fewer & fewer Vermonters to shake down, as we’ll all just PERMANENTLY RELOCATE to N.H.
Enjoy, thugs & he/she’s! Enjoy.
“The present make-up of the legislature is veto-proof Democrat majorities which means that if Vermonters want a break from rising taxes, any taxes, they will need to show up and vote for candidates who have at least an inkling of whose money they are spending and why they deserve to keep as much of it as possible.”
Bring on the candidates to create the golden trifecta that NH has!
You were on the right track until you didn’t mention who they needed to vote for. If you are a democrat or especially a progressive democrat, you must vote with the party line or be punished by leadership. Voters need to vote into office, some conservative republicans to get this under control. If people are too stupid or stubborn to understand this, just keep voting for the eventual, complete destruction of Vermont and any wealth that you have accumulated because you went to work to support yourself and your family. These current, so-called leaders do not care how you want to live your life, they want you to pay for all the people who refuse, not can’t take care of themselves as long as the state benefits are better than working.
Re: ” if Vermonters want a break from rising taxes, any taxes, they will need to show up and vote for candidates who have at least an inkling of whose money they are spending and why they deserve to keep as much of it as possible.”
Sorry folks. Vermonters aren’t about to vote against their employers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Vermont’s non-farm employment increased just 7 tenths of 1 percent (.7%) in July. At least that’s heading in the right direction. Right?
But wait a minute. How do they do that? In what sectors did these increases occur?
You guessed it. Vermont’s Government subsector had, by far, its largest monthly increase in history last July, to 58,500 employees – the subsector’s highest employment numbers ever.
Only two other sectors out of the eleven monitored by BOL showed increases. But they were paltry compared to Government employment increases. With the exception of the early Covid shut down period in early 2020, without July’s increase in Government jobs, Vermont’s non-farm employment numbers would have experienced its worst monthly decline ever.
How does the Government keep the electorate under control? It hires them.
An aside for those who still might be considering this circumstance.
First, consider that there are somewhere between 75,000 and 80,000 K-12 students in Vermont’s public school system.
Now, according to Agency of Education data, there are approximately 23,000 teachers and paraeducators on the AOE employee list. When we’re told that VT has a 10 to 1 student teacher ratio, that’s in a typical class. But, obviously, all of these teachers aren’t teaching in all classes at the same time. The employed teacher ratio is, then, really between 3 and 4 students per employed teacher.
And if you dig a little further into AOE employment statistics, you find that when counting everyone on the AOE employment rolls, from Supervisory Union staff to bus drivers, there are approximately 75,000 AOE employees. That’s about one employee per student.
This alone should demonstrate to everyone why a $27,000 per student school budget is conceivable.
And it should also explain further, when one adds the 75,000 education employees to the 58,500 Vermont government employment rolls, how this voting block can dominate our politics.
After all, there are only 488,787 registered voters in VT. If these employees, and just one of their family members (267,000 voters out of 488,787), votes the company line…. well, you see what we get. A progressive supermajority in the legislature.
By any measure, it is a tyranny of the majority.
Postscript: And we haven’t yet added all of the healthcare workers to this list.