Undressing for the Taxman

So a new glitch has appeared in the Act 60/68 apparatus that was so carefully designed and precisely calibrated to raise revenues and distribute "fairness" across the state.  This thing has more holes, and requires more patches, than the latest upgrade from Microsoft.   We are long past the time when the state should scrap this turkey and start over.

The latest problem is that the prebate mechanism, which is a clunker anyway, exposes some taxpayers' finances to anyone curious or motivated enough to do the work.  So some Vermonters are now vulnerable to financial nuisances and predators and even nosy neighbors thanks to the genius of Act 60/68. This development is the logical outcome of the intrusive state and some people saw it coming.  The most urgent warnings on this matter were issued by Rick Hube, a legislator from Londonderry.  Hube has been making the privacy argument, specifically, for months and the larger argument against Act 60/68 for years.  Those invested in the status quo -- by politics, ideology, or economic self-interest -- have either ignored or belittled his warnings.  The Herald continues to do so.  In its story about the privacy glitch, it refers to the organization Hube help found as "the so-called Revolt and Repeal movement." 

Well, that is the organization's name.  Nothing "so-called" about it.  The use of that phrase is just the Herald's way of getting in an unchallenged sneer at an organization it finds ideologically distasteful and which it no doubt resents for being right about so many things the Herald has been so wrong about.

"So-called," indeed.  We await the day when the Herald runs stories about the Legislature's "so-called" attempt at property tax reform.