For The Weekend

Alarms and Diversions
by
P.G. Behr

It appears that many Vermonters are having second thoughts on the budget passed by our Legislature over Governor Douglas’ veto.   First, the state auditor, Thomas Salmon, a Democrat, strongly criticized the unsustainable course our state is on, with expenses far outpacing income. 

More recently, an op-ed piece in the July 12 Burlington Free Press by Geoffrey B. Shields, president, dean and professor of law at Vermont Law School, strongly criticizes the tax burden imposed on Vermonters by our Legislature.  He notes that Vermont ranks among the five states in the nation with the highest tax burden. 

Dean Shields notes that:

•    the burden is particularly high for financially successful individuals and the elderly;
•    Vermont’s estate tax is higher than the federal rate;
•    the average Vermonter pays three times as much in state and local taxes as does the average resident of New Hampshire;
•    in fact, Vermont’s tax structure is currently designed to repel those who can have the most positive financial impact on the economy of the state!

He concludes by stating “Nine out of ten businesses started over the last decade are on the New Hampshire side, not the Vermont side of the (Connecticut) river,” and that Vermont has an unsustainable tax structure, which discourages productive individuals and businesses from staying here. 

Another prominent lawyer, Jon R. Eggleston, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee before the change to the estate tax was enacted as part of the budget, and wrote in The Caledonian Record before the vote to override Governor Douglas’ veto, as follows:  “…the Legislature…never saw fit to put a face on the tax.  Had it done so, the public hue and cry would have been one of outrage.  Why?  The new Vermont estate tax is pointed directly at the Vermont farmer and the small businessman…who, without a doubt, form the backbone of the state of Vermont.”  He says of the tax “It will accelerate the departure from the State of Vermont those individuals who in many instances were and oftentimes remain the movers and shakers (job creators) in this State.”

These are damning conclusions, indeed.  It will be interesting to see if Vermont citizens wake up to the position our House of Representatives (aka Shap “Snow White” Smith and the 100 dwarfs) has put us all in.

* * *

A travel brochure touted The Road to Mandalay, but all the destinations were misspelled.  Marjorie said “I hate changed names.”  She was speaking of Myanmar, which used to be Burma; Yangon, which used to be Rangoon, and the Ayeyarwady, which used to be the Irrawaddy river. 

It reminded us of our sojourns of yore, when we visited those (at that time) remote shores with our friends Rudyard Kipling and W. Somerset Maugham.  I don’t recall the exact circumstances of our meeting them - time and scotch whiskey will do those things to one’s memory.  They were good company, and since it was rare to see a pretty woman in the outer reaches of the Far East, Marjorie got their attention.  Being an English major, she was an apt critic of their prose, no doubt greatly improving it. 

I remember vividly the night Rudyard wrote his famous poem, which begins “On the road to Mandalay, where the flyin’ fishes play.”  We were sailing on a junk we had rented from Hertz, and Somerset had joined us for an evening on the China Sea.  Rudyard was struggling for the next line to his poem, and we were trying our best to help by keeping his glass full.  Suddenly, as dawn broke across the sea, he shouted “And the dawn comes up like thunder, out of China, ‘cross the bay.”  (He pronounced it “Chiner.”)

Later, when we were back in Singapore at the bar at Raffles hotel, where Somerset was revered for inventing (and consuming) the Singapore Sling, we reflected on Rudyard’s way with words, little realizing that Somerset would be almost as famous.  Somerset was very well traveled, and enjoyed the French cooking in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), other attractions in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Peking (now Beijing), to name a few places which have not improved with name changes.  When Somerset was carting his book bag around the Far East, Singapore was ultra-British, exemplified by WWII residents who observed afternoon tea in the clubhouse, as the Japanese advanced across the cricket field. 

But despite my exposure to these literary giants, I pursued my mundane career as an engineer, saving my meager efforts for this newspaper.  “All is well that endes well,” as John Heywood (1497-1580) said, before Shakespeare did, both apparently having stolen the words from the Romans (Gesta Romanorum, Tale LXVII, which said “Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit.  [If the end be well, all will be well.]”)

(P.G. "Pete" Behr is a regular columnist for the Vermont Standard where this essay first appeared.)

 

Comments

[RFC]

Perhaps Mr. Behr also knew the young lady who, when asked if she enjoyed Kipling, replied, "I don't know. I've never kippled."

[Dennis Lukas]

Those of us that have quietly left Vermont due to the high taxes are keeping a eye on what will happen to all those green people that oppose business when they no longer can pay their property tax. Vermont has passed the tipping point.