by Monique Thurston
“I am cold … my arms … fingers … toes. Fire and ice … the cold that freeze-sucks my body is matched by the heat it creates in the belly of my psyche — the heat of anxiety. After all this, how am I going to pay my bills?
This anxiety attack hit hard when I, and many homeowners throughout Vermont, received our property tax bills last summer and we saw the increase in the homestead education tax. That bill might as well have stamped on it: “You cannot afford Vermont!” (34 towns turned down their school budget this past Town Meeting Day. I was lucky I am so poor for I received for last year a hefty payback. Still, I’m behind.)”
The above words were written by the iconic Vermont photographer Peter Miller in a VTDigger commentary in 2014.
Ten years have passed, and the legislature has made no attempt to control property taxes in order to address the excruciating pain expressed by Peter Miller and multitudes of others suffering in silence.
Ignoring the looming property tax bomb that has finally exploded, the legislature has instead been obsessed with controlling Vermont’s carbon emissions.
The first climate policy, the Vermont Energy Act of 2009, passed by the Vermont Legislature, established specific mandatory price setting requirements for renewable energy technologies which required utilities to pay solar developers five times more for their unreliable electricity than the utilities were paying at the time for reliable electricity from the grid operator ISO-NE.
In 2016 at a legislative breakfast in Vergennes I asked Senator Chris Bray, a lead sponsor of these policies, why such ratepayer punishing policies were necessary, he responded, “I’m just trying to be a good steward of the planet.” So much for being a good steward of his constituents!
In 2020 the super majority Democrat legislature forced the Global Warming Solutions Act into law over the veto of Governor Scott. This law made progressively greater emissions reductions mandatory, without regard to cost or the hardship they would create. The GWSA went so far as to allow anyone to sue the state if emissions targets were not achieved.
Four years later the legislature is poised to pass a law requiring all Vermont electricity to be 100% renewable by 2030.
Another bomb that is poised to drop on Vermonters at the beginning of the next legislature session in 2025 is the Clean Heat Standard, which requires fuel dealers to charge their customers more for their heating fuel in the future. How much more? The DPS estimated 70 cents per gallon. The goal is to replace all the conventional heating systems in the state with heat pumps and somebody has to pay for it.
The irony of all this is that the promoters of the “transition” to renewables and heat pumps don’t believe it will make a difference, either to the well-being of Vermonters or to the planet. Co-sponsor of the 100% renewable bill, Rep. Laura Sibilia put it this way on the House floor, “We have heard folks say that stopping all of Vermont’s emissions would do nothing to change the weather patterns that we are seeing with climate change. With apologies to my environmental friends, I mostly agree. If Vermont cannot stop climate change, then why bother bringing forward sweeping climate change legislation?”
Adding to the absurdity of Vermont’s “all cost – no benefit” rush to renewables is the fact that Vermonter’s already have the 4th lowest per capita carbon footprint in country! As a state, Vermont has the lowest emissions of any state in the country.
Fortunately for Vermonters, the Public Service Department, charged with protecting ratepayers from excessive or unnecessary costs, has sided with consumers against renewable energy policies from the beginning.
In his 2021 Report to the Legislature, current PUC Chair Ed McNamara pointed out that investments in conservation and efficiency saved money for each ton of carbon removed by reducing consumption of fossil fuel.
Unfortunately, the Democrats in the legislature have consistently ignored the PSD’s recommendations, including the most recent one concerning the “100% Renewable by 2030” bill. Citing consumer surveys that prioritized affordability and reliability ahead of renewables, the PSD proposed a plan that cost $150 million vs their $1 billion estimate based on the draft bill language – for the same emissions reductions.
The PSD’s proposal was rejected by the House Environment and Energy Committee, whose chair and co-chair, Amy Sheldon and Laura Sibilia sponsored the bill.
One must wonder why the legislature even asks the PSD to do exhaustive studies, modeling various scenarios, hiring expert consultants and spending millions of taxpayer dollars, when their advice is routinely ignored!
The Democrat controlled legislature does not mind spending your money, or their time, to “bring forward sweeping climate change legislation” that provides no benefits for Vermonter .
So here you have it Peter Miller, while you wrote in anguish in the Vermont Digger ten years ago that you froze and worried about how you will be able to pay your property taxes, the Legislature has been focused on CO2 , while admitting it is a useless exercise, instead of addressing the soaring cost of education and the regressive way we pay for it.
After less than a week of discussion, on April 24th, the Vermont House of Representatives gave its final approval to H887 which would raise property taxes 15% for homesteads and 18% for second homes, apartment buildings and businesses, while rejecting proposals aimed at containing costs.
The icing on the education cake is a proposal by House Ways and Means Chair Emily Kornheiser that school boards could adopt a school budget without voters’ approval.
Lest you think that the income sensitivity adjustment will solve the problem, Peter Miller despaired that the income sensitivity adjustment did not make his property taxes affordable in 2014. Were he alive today, he would find that while property taxes have risen dramatically, the income level at which a property tax qualified for an exemption has decreased from 141,000 in 2016 to 128,000 in 2023. While property taxes and home values have risen, incomes have not kept pace, and any benefit from the homestead exemption continues to be reduced by the legislature. They need your money more than you do it seems.
In 2016 Peter Miller wrote another painful commentary in VTDigger called, “ I am Vermont Broke”, where he described his last attempt at financial survival, a book project called, “The Vanishing Vermonter…An Endangered Species”.
It is time to repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act, to concentrate on cost effective and beneficial Conservation and Efficiency and to tackle the enormous monster that is the Education Property Tax.
The author is a retired physician living in Ferrisburgh.
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Categories: Commentary
Patriotism was once the last refuge of a scoundrel. These days it’s “good steward of the planet.”
This particular “good steward of the planet” has shown his allegiances- to the elitist donor and NGO groups that demand great profits come from their political campaign contributions. sen. bray is grouped with about 50 legislators that seem to believe their duty is to the donor/lobbyist and consistently ignore both the constituent and the Vermont Constitution. ms. rep. sibilia certainly holds her own in the hubris department as well. The path from Climate Change™ legislation to fantastic profits for the same Climate Change™ NGO’s is well established here on VDC, but very few other places. democrat and progressive demographics insure that only the desired Climate Change™ rhetoric is spewed forth on Vermont’s airwaves and internet, providing their propaganda to the ill-informed and low-information voter. Things might just change in 2025, when these same Climate Change™ NGO’s begin the first round of lawsuits against the State of Vermont for non-compliance with the GWSA- and the return on investment for VPIRG, CLF, Sierra Club and others begin their tort actions. Unfortunately for all of us, it will be 5 years too late for the low-information voter to have cared.
dog and pony show/// all sides are working against you/// they will tax the old people out of this state or kill as many as they can with the covid kill shot/// you have a sick twisted cult running this state////
I wrote to my senator to find out how many non-homestead taxpayers are Vermont residents. I’m still searching for that info, but the info below is equally as disturbing:
“…Senior Fiscal Analyst, was able to run a count of non-homestead parcels, just over 346,000 parcels out of about 686,000 total parcels. Your constituent is correct that non-homestead is not simply second homes. Homestead property is owner-occupied as a primary residence. Non-homestead is all property not declared as a homestead, which includes second homes AND many other types of property including commercial, industrial, open land, long-term rentals, etc.”
346,000 parcels or 50.4% of total parcels are paying non-homestead rates!! What percent of the 50.4% are VT residents?
Thank you so much Monique. This is critical history and it has just gotten worse with an out of control supermajority. We must repeal the GWSA and get a handle on education spending if we want to get VT back on the right track.
China has 243 GW of new coal power plants under construction or permitted. Vermont’s statewide average electricity usage is 0.6 GW. The Vermont Super Majority’s virtual signaling is less than useless.
So right. China pollutes and profits, while Vermonters overkill on the questionable emergency du jour and suffer. I do not think Vermonters are stupid, but the DEMOCRATS they elect undoubtedly are.
With our currency getting close to crumbling, and the large amounts of freshly printed (see fiat currency) dollars that flow from Wash/DC to Montpelier which is a third of the State of Vt. budget, Ask yourself this, what happens when the money stops from DC? Think about it. Nationally were 35 trillion in debt and adding a trillion every 100 days. The rats in Montpelier will run, left behind will be the poor Vt. State retiree’s who rely on a check and everyone else. The Clean Heat Standard will be the populace burning their dining room set for heat!
Better get Howard Dean primed for the challenge…… IM SURE he’s up to it!
Its too bad that Ignorance isn’t Painful!
Instead of doling out taxpayers money as incentives to wind farm and solar field promoters, they should have been helping vulnerable towns to build flood controls.
Like all true believing cult members, they follow their leaders like Bray, and will voluntarily drink the cool aid while destroying all around them. They wear the cult issued blinders, ignoring scientists with different viewpoints; the work accomplished by environmentalists and conservationists; as well as facts like the sun’s role in warming and cooling as it cycles from solar maximum to minimum. They focus on a single molecule, carbon. Humans are composed of carbon, an inconvenient truth for the all or nothing extremists who would not hesitate to sacrifice their mothers in their zeal to feed their egos. We used to wonder why why “primitive” people threw their infants and children into deep wells to help it rain and make crops grow. Some things in the dark human psyche don’t change.
I came to a republican run state in the early 70’s. Dairy farms, open fields, 6 grades-3 teachers-one cook(lunch), and volunteers. Low taxes/cheap land. Nobody seemed to care if I built a missile silo as long as my neighbors gave their permission and no one could see it. And no billboards. Now a ride on the roads and all that beautiful VT scenery is now covered in fields of solar panels. You idiots gave up cheap clean nuclear power for these inefficient eye sores. WHY?
How bad does it have to get before Vermont votes these climate change warriors out of power? I only pray the property tax bills coming this summer jolt the voters awake and into paying attention. We have to break up the super majority.
I spent 32 years in the Vt legislature and left it by my choice 2 years ago. In the 1990s the legislature had a fair amount of Local born and raised hard working people who were in the legislature for the Right reason. I am a republican and very proud of that, it’s what made Vt what it is. Now the Liberals run the show and it is discussing what goes on up there. The people in charge now come from away and have NO connection with Vt values and principles. Everything is out of control and they don’t see it, nor do they get it. Anything goes. It’s a sham and that Voters dont take the time to understand that only They can fix it. Thanks for reading my rant…..
Thank you for your comment Robert . Here are the words of Peter Miller in his second article in the Digger called ” I am Vermont broke “, his words echoes yours :” We have a Legislature controlled for too long by Democrats. Too many in the Senate and House have moved to Vermont from other states and have not adapted or have a trust fund or the income to spend four months in Montpelier passing bills. They are levying more taxes and fees that the average Vermonter can’t afford.”
Having been a lifelong worker and taxpayer in the state of Vermont (not spelled Ukraine, WEF, and so on and so forth), it’s gets tiring and disconcerting that our taxes are serving other entities wishes and desires and not serving the citizens of Vermont’s needs.
It’s getting tiring that the representation allocates themselves more pay, more benefits, and gold-plated seat cushions in the lounge while a senior citizen can’t push a loaded food buggy across the campus sidewalks without jamming and dinging the wheels in the sidewalks themselves. One would suppose this would include the sidewalks in Montpelier, for they are Horrid as well. Add in the fact that there are not enough benches throughout town for said senior citizens so they can rest on their journeys about. A lot of strategically located benches have been removed.
It’s time state and local representation start considering the needs of their senior citizens’, and the youngsters just getting their beginnings and stop peddling to special interests.
The problem is our government does not exist as it was structured anymore, we can see elected officials still holding office, so we think it is still functioning as it was intended. We still go through the motions as if we controlled our own destiny, but our decision-making defaults to an unelected class of NGO’s and their synthetic political subdivision partners, who supposedly advocate on our behalf.
For this, we voluntarily pay them an annual fee and then, repay their design & legal services, with grant money they helped us obtain, all for projects we probably wouldn’t have done without their influence.
We keep feeding this beast that consumes what little productivity we have left to sustain our existence, supporting and participating with organizations that produce nothing much other than sustaining their own existence.
Yet we treat them as if they were part of our legitimate government,
In reality they are advocating for narratives that monopolizes almost all our agendas. This is why I say our first priority is to, decouple from these organizations that now steer our ship of state.
Municipal legislators don’t stand a chance of making independent decisions on behalf of the people they serve, because first they feel, they must run everything by their regional planning commission and then the Vermont league of Cities & Towns.
Local legislators are conditioned to ask for permission from these two organization, in order to get their multiple-choice marching orders.
These are the first two political subdivisions we need to decouple from. No matter how many new people we elect to go to Montpelier, we will not be in control of our own destiny until we stop participating with the likes of regional planning and municipal leagues.
Structure is important, these two organizations do not belong in our structure of governance, but sadly, it seems they have become our government.