Editorial by Guy Page, Publisher
For one bright and shining moment, more precisely the 28 minutes between 2:30 and 2:58 PM Wednesday afternoon, it looked like Vermont property taxpayers might not get hosed after all.
But that hope died abruptly in an act of personal pettiness and arrogance by Vermont House Speaker Jill Krowinski.
At 2:30 PM Thursday, Education Secretary Zoie Saunders and a handful of other administration officials briefed the press on the Governor’s promised path forward to save us from the huge tax hike embedded in H887, which he vetoed.
They outlined a specific, doable five-point plan, presented in a meeting earlier that day to Krowinski and others, that would reduce school spending by $124 million.
Whew! Short-term crisis averted. Sure, it tapped out reserve funds and surpluses. But it bought a year’s time for a new Legislature to develop a longterm, structural fix. We hoped.
Then, at 2:59 PM, Krowinski rained on our little parade. Hard.
Krowinski blamed the governor for the coming train wreck of unaffordability, because – wait for it – Gov. Scott Didn’t Attend The Meeting In Person.
“He chose not to attend the meeting,” Krowinski said in the first paragraph of her press release. “….His absence undermines the collaborative spirit necessary to address the critical issues facing our state.”
Krowinski goes on to strain credulity by saying
- “the Governor still has not provided any feasible alternative plan.” (What – FIVE specific recommendations not good enough?)
- “The Governor proposed stripping kids of access to school meals.” (Wrong again, Madame Speaker. the plan would revert to the generous, federally funded school meals plan.)
- “Vermonters need tax relief, and our bill does this.” Emphatically NO IT DOESN’T. It reduces a lethal 20% tax increase to a merely crushing 13.8% tax increase by shifting the difference to two brand new taxes on Vermonters.
Krowinski then bookended her dismissal of our hopes for tax affordability with another peevish shot at chief executive who had the to not Attend Her Presence.
“The Governor has stated that he wanted to work together on this issue, but the fact that he did not show up to this meeting, it is impossible to see this as nothing more than election year politics rather than a true commitment to collaboration.”
Scorn ME, does he?! Ohh…He’ll pay dearly!
No, Madame Speaker. It is US who will pay. Not for his alleged effrontery, but for yours. You put your own self-serving sense of decorum over relieving the pain of tens of thousands of homeowners and renters who now must wonder whether they can afford to live in their homes, be they rented or owned.
In reality. Madame Speaker – it may be you who pays. Not financially or physically of course. But politically? Your supermajority exists at the sufferance of the voters. And after this latest stunt, for some voters, the August primary and the November election can’t come too soon.
But meanwhile, Krowinski will insist the House supermajority flex its muscles next Monday and override the governor’s veto of H.887, the last-minute school funding ‘reform’ bill that rewards the self-entitled educational establishment with zero spending cuts and placates glaring voters with a mere 13.8% property tax increase plus two new taxes.
Peter Hirschfeld, the Vermont Public reporter who always seems to ask the most important question, asked an administration official yesterday what harm the 13.8% property tax increase would do. Her answer: “Not being able to afford rent. Increasing the homeless population. Pushing more people into poverty. Causing more people to leave the state.”
What a shame. Could have been avoided. Still could be, if enough rank and file supermajoritarians say enough’s enough. But that leadership won’t be coming from Jill Krowinski. What good’s owning a supermajority if you can’t show it off?
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