Running On Empty

"Revenue projections went south," Shumlin said. "There is no money. That's the bad news."
    Herald

The good news ... no expansion of  the Catamount health care program.  No money to spend makes it hard on a legislator.  But Montpelier manages to look very busy while getting nothing (much) done.  There was a proposal floating around to end the tax break on capital gains and either spend the money or use it to reduce marginal rates on the top income tax brackets, depending on who you were talking to.  Good idea or bad, doesn't make any difference.  It's going nowhere.

Likewise the Governor's proposal to sell off the state lottery in order to raise some ready cash.

Nothing, but nothing has been done – or will be, this session – to reform the education funding system.  But the Senate has come up with a plan for a safety inspection of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that is so thorough and comprehensive that, if implemented, it will result in the closing of the plant.  This, in a way, is the perfect metaphor for the whole Montpelier operation.  Death by well-intentioned regulation.

Affordable housing (about which, more tomorrow), campaign finance reform, and some other odds-and-ends will keep Montpelier busy and feeling important until the end of the session.  And, then, there is the issue that everyone in the state cares passionately about – puppy mills.  You can read about that one in this  foot-stomping editorial in, of all places, the Herald.

Puppy mills!

One inevitably recalls the comment of New York State Surrogate Court Judge Gideon Tucker in 1866:

“No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”

Precisely.

Comments

[Jon Harrison]

Boy, that Herald editorial is something. I wonder what Dave Moats had for breakfast this morning.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I once worked for the Herald. No offense to my old co-workers, but generally the Herald's editorial line is, well, a bit left of center. How refreshing to read something like this for a change! Is the Vermont media elite finally waking up to the damage our state government can and does cause?

[Tom Licata]

Below is a letter-to-the-editor that ran in the Burlington Free Press this past January 15th.

Having just watched the Governor’s "State of the State" address and the Democrats' response, the coming gridlock in this legislative session will not have the deleterious effect that it may appear to be bringing. This is because most of the damage has already been done in prior sessions.
Over time, tax revenues are determined by economic and productivity growth. Most of Vermont's Legislators, while our Governor holds his finger in the dike to temper their tantrums - are like children - in that they will continue to go on kicking and screaming, refusing to accept this reality. Government fiscal responsibility requires not only compassion and a sense of fairness, but also an understanding of personal responsibility and an acceptance of the human sprit's thirst for freedom. But, this is anathema to the collectivists’ sprit. Without freedom’s thirst, this government will continue to produce its demoralized dependents.

Environmentalism is important, but not when it's used as a guise to stifle economic growth in a veiled attempt at promoting a cultural ideology that results in the repression of the hopes, aspirations and opportunities of far too many Vermonters. Roughly 0% private-sector job growth in almost a decade isn't the kind of well our citizenry or youth can drink from. The lobbyists and special-interest groups have certainly accomplished their mind-meld on Vermont’s culture.

The alternative to economic and productivity growth - which is what we’re currently witnessing - is the diminution of our standard-of-living. This will continue for quite some time, thereupon, a new day will dawn when the voters will have had enough. "Freedom and Unity" ...enough of the latter, more of the former. November can't come soon enough.

Tom Licata, Burlington