Baby Talk

Our balanced budget was built on the principle that in difficult economic times everyone must be part of the solution. We asked Vermonters making over $250,000 to contribute more while at the same time providing a tax cut for those making under $250,000. We cut budgets for the people who rely on state services and asked state workers to increase their contributions.

That is Martha Heath, appearing in the Rutland Herald and sanctimoniously patronizing the voters.  Ms. Heath chairs the Appropriations Committee of the Vermont House of Representatives so one would hope that she could write and, therefore, think like a grownup.  Plainly, she can't.

The legislature does not "ask" citizens to "contribute" their money so that Montpelier may continue to fund ... oh, you name it.  Amtrak subsidies.  Land trusts.  Teachers' pensions.  Ms. Heath and her colleagues write laws that impose taxes and there is nothing discretionary about paying those taxes. 

Most adults understand this hard truth and are able, somehow, to live with it and even speak or write about it in plain language.  Ms. Heath, however, has served in the legislature since 1993 so she has an excuse.  Prolonged exposure to Montpelier makes one slightly delusional.  You begin to think that taking someone's money through force of law is, somehow, "asking" that person to make a "contribution."

And it gets worse.  You start believing all sorts of implausible things.  You can even believe that Vermonters won't soon be "asked" to increase the "contributions" they make to government in the form of property taxes; something Ms. Heath implies in her essay.

If she can believe that, then she can believe anything.  And probably does.  The Red Queen famously told Alice that she could believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. 

Ms. Heath would no doubt see that and raise her six.

Comments

[Richard]

Ms. Heath's attitude is the Californian way. Look to California to get a glimpse of Vermont's future.

[Lance Hagen]

Maybe we should add a line item on the Vermont Income Tax form, in the 'contribution' section, right after item 29C (VT Campaign Fund). It could be called the 'Martha Heath Helping Hand Fund'.

Gotta love how the legislature is trying to dig themselves out of the budgetary hole they placed the state in last year.

[GreggB]

The road goes on forever and the party never ends...

[Vermont Woodchuck]

Martha, I can't seem to find the Vermont Voluntary Tax Contribution line on my NC tax form.

It was that "voluntary" veto of the budget that caused my "involuntary" tax saving move. So I won't be "volunteering" any surplus funds for the birdies, chipmunks and land grabs, much less the underfunded pension liabilities.

[Daniel Foty]

"You Have Two Cows" - Contemporary Vermont Version:

"You have two cows, two goats, two pigs, 10 chickens, five sheep, two draft horses, and a trust fund. You farm organically and bring your produce to the weekend farmers market in your bio diesel pick-up. Now that the value of your trust fund has dropped by fifty percent, you are growing a bit concerned. D*mn capitalist bankers. If they had only done their job you could have kept farming."

Close enough....

[Chris Campion]

I'd like to ask Ms. Heath to become part of the solution and get out of positions that destroy the economic climate of the state. It's like setting a house on fire and then asking everyone to "contribute" to helping her douse it.

We wouldn't be in this mess were it not for the "help" of the patriarchs/matriarchs in the legislature. While the legislature spent time last session congratulating themselves on overriding a fiscally unsustainable budget, they failed, yet again, to take steps to fix the mess that decades of lunacy have put us in.

Perhaps those of us who work two jobs to keep their heads above water in the workers paradise won't find Ms. Heath's comments useful, nor even acceptable. I refuse to listen to the advice of the unschooled in basic economics or finance - and I don't care how many times they've been elected. That's the main reason why they're completely deaf to the voices condemning their actions - they keep getting re-elected for doing whatever it is that they do, so we get more of the same from them.

We should stop asking ourselves why legislative behavior does not change when there are no negative consequences for their decisions. It's time to re-introduce them to the air the rest of us breathe outside of the golden dome.

[txgordo]

Excellent comments! BTW, it's 80 degrees and sunny here in 'hip' Austin, TX.

[timv]

Martha Heath and the rest of the collection of dimwits in Montpelier are the result of VOTERS VOTING.
As long as voters want "free" stuff
and remain blissfully ignorant of government, this ride towards the cliff will continue.

[Cairn Cross]

Hey Geoff. Dan Foty stole my quote, although I did not use the asterisk. All I want is some attribution. Meanwhile GreggB if you are quoting Robert Earl Keen how come you ended up in Massachusetts?

[GreggB]

Hi George. I'll be in TX asap. Don't know when it will be possible, I'm sure I still have a few years left in MA. Glad you got the reference.

[Daniel Foty]

Sorry about that, Cairn. I was rummaging for something else earlier today and happened to stumble across that with no link to where it came from. Consider yourself attributed here, I guess. :-)

Well, as Pablo Picasso once said, "Good artists borrow; great artists steal."

Actually, that quote would probably be useful over in that "Creative Class Miasma" thread of Greg's....

[GreggB]

Sorry Cairn. My reading comprehension is slipping must be the suburbs dulling my brain. Hope you and George are both well.

[howard in sc]

I first met Martha when I had just moved to Westford and she came around electioneering. I asked her what party she was a member of and she, thinking I had moved from afar and not knowing I had lived in Vt for over 30 years previously, told me that "we don't really have 'parties' here". I just let her rant and never voted for her. I met her again about 12 years later and reminded her about this and she just huffed.

[Cairn Cross]

Geez Gregg B, be careful which Cross you reference

[Sheldon Katz]

The kind of misdirection, if not outright mendacity, used by Ms. Heath and others of her ilk (including Mssrs. Welch, Sanders, and Leahy) demonstrates the depravity of their ideas and policies. If their ideas and policies were even arguably beneficial, they would debate them honestly and in plain English and admit their shortcomings (while maintaining that the benefits of their social engineering are worth impoverishing us all).

If these tyrants were ever to take a truth serum, they would be out of office. I guess they won't be taking the serum and we will all continue to live in Wonderland.

[G. Cross]

Hey Greg, you may have your Crosses confused. Cairn is the son and unabashed capitalist. (Some also suggest the smart one, in spite of the male side of the gene pool.) George is the father and unabashed liberal, socialist, etc, etc. Ya, I don't get it either. Must be the result of one of those spills off a big ski jump! Or, maybe it was those years in the banking business. Both tend to do a job on the head.

[Glenn Eno]

There's no place like home, There's no place like home, There's no place like home. When will this nightmare end?

November, 2010 is when-

We must must break government's addiction to our money.

[Wendy Wilton]

While the legislature tells the public that they are soaking the rich to make up for lost revenues, the fact is they are giving away the farm in the Ed Fund through generous state payments to wealthy people who can manage "down" their incomes to qualify. Any good CPA or smart trustfunder/retiree knows how to use the system for property tax breaks, especially through income sensitivity, so the rest of us are paying their property taxes! This is the fastest growing expense in the Ed Fund--from $91 million in 2005 to $140 million in 2010. If we have a severe revenue or budget problem, wouldn't it make sense to target your fastest growing expenses for the solution?
Meantime, a legislative commitee that has been meeting for 3 months regarding education funding heard from Treasurer Spaulding that the teachers' pension should be moved to the Ed Fun, which makes sense. I discussed the possiblity of reforming the income sensitivity criteria with some members of the commitee in order to provide the savings needed in the Ed Fund to accomodate the annual required contribution for the pension and I was rebuked. What am I missing?
Abuses of the income sensitivity program are rampant and it should be cleaned up to save the state some $ and provide equity in tax policy.