REVENUE NEUTRAL, OR NOT? 

Because of the Bush tax cut, because Vermont’s income tax has traditionally been computed as a percentage of the federal tax, because our friends in the legislature did not want to pass on the tax cut to you, and because they did not want to reduce their revenue, they passed a decoupling measure which was to be "revenue neutral."

In fact, it is not revenue neutral to you or to them; it is a tax increase. According to a release to tax preparers from the Department of Taxes "the marginal rates for the middle three income brackets have changed." The fact is that the marginal rates of the 3 middle brackets (out of 5) increased by 4% to 14%. Both the media and your representative represented this change to be "revenue neutral." Both were wrong.

Then the Vermont Department of Taxes in communicating the new tax information to tax preparers played it down by stating that the "the effect of the changes for most taxpayers is minimal..."

The October revenue report showed the state with a $10 million surplus and stronger than expected income tax receipts. Same with November. Gee, I wonder why. The Vermont wage withholding tables were modified effective 7/1/02 to reflect the higher tax rates and they contained the tax increase represented in the tables below.

The following are tables representing what will happen depending on what your income from wages or salary is.

  Taxable                Single                          Married        
  Income          2001    2002    Change          2001    2002    Change

  $10,000         $360    $360    0.0%            $360    $360    0.0%
  $20,000         $720    $720    0.0%            $720    $720    0.0%
  $30,000         $1,172  $1,154 -1.6%            $1,080  $1,080  0.0%
  $40,000         $1,844  $1,874  1.6%            $1,440  $1,440  0.0%
  $50,000         $2,516  $2,594  3.1%            $1,950  $1,919 -1.6%
  $60,000         $3,188  $3,314  3.9%            $2,622  $2,639  0.6%
  $70,000         $3,892  $4,064  4.4%            $3,294  $3,359  2.0%
  $80,000         $4,636  $4,914  6.0%            $3,966  $4,079  2.9%
  $90,000         $5,380  $5,764  7.1%            $4,638  $4,799  3.5%
  $100,000        $6,124  $6,614  8.0%            $5,310  $5,519  3.9%
  $110,000        $6,868  $7,464  8.7%            $5,987  $6,202  3.6%
  $120,000        $7,612  $8,314  9.2%            $6,731  $7,052  4.8%
  $140,000        $9,139  $10,014 9.6%            $8,219  $8,752  6.5%
  $160,000        $10,867 $11,714 7.8%            $9,707  $10,452 7.7%
  $180,000        $12,595 $13,607 8.0%            $11,357 $12,192 7.4%
  $200,000        $14,323 $15,407 7.6%            $13,085 $13,992 6.9%
  $220,000        $16,051 $17,207 7.2%            $14,813 $15,792 6.6%
  $240,000        $17,779 $19,007 6.9%            $16,541 $17,592 6.4%
  $260,000        $19,507 $20,807 6.7%            $18,269 $19,392 6.1%
  $280,000        $21,235 $22,607 6.5%            $19,997 $21,192 6.0%
  $300,000        $22,986 $24,407 6.2%            $21,748 $22,992 5.7%

How did this happen? We do not really know. But we suspect that the Tax Department and the legislature used income data from 1999, tax filings in 2000, when developing their new tax tables. Because that data included lots of capital gain income from the last year of the dot com bonanza, the new tables became skewed, skewering you. 

THE SPEAKERS’ RACE 

How close is it? According to Speaker Walter Freed, R-Dorset, he will continue to be speaker. "I wish the election were today because I think that I have the votes today. However, I do think that things seem to be moving in my direction and I hope for more votes tomorrow." 

CONTINUED, IT’S A NEW DAY 

Jim Douglas still appears to be the governor-to-be. He spent Wednesday this week at the White House with the other governor-elects meeting with eleven cabinet members and the President. It was a get to know you and we are here to help session. It was particularly helpful as both Bush and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson were governors and better understand the needs of the current crop of governors-to-be, according to Douglas.

Associated Press writer Ross Sneyd acknowledged the change with his question about incoming Secretary of Human Services Charlie Smith. Smith has been with the Key Bank and its predecessors in Burlington for more than a decade. "Having a banker running things is a bit different around here. Should the employees in the Agency of Human Services fear a banker?"

Smith is no novice in either banking or politics. His father was the long time president of the Burlington Savings Bank, his Uncle Frank Davis was Treasurer of Vermont from 1969-75, and his brother Peter was a state senator, Vermont’s lieutenant governor and congressman. Closing your eyes, the two brothers sound exactly alike.

Smith said, "Banking is a service business and I have those skills. The Agency of Human Services is in the service business. I bring relationship skills, also part of the Agency’s mission. We are in a tougher fiscal environment than before. I will be looking for a change in the service part of the agency and I will be looking for interdepartmental repetitions. For me, this is a call to service. I would not have done it for anybody other than Jim Douglas. He is the right leader for this time."

And then Candace Page of the Burlington Free Press said, "But Jim,..." In the almost two hundred Howard Dean press conferences we attended, we do not recall anyone ever addressing Dean by his first name. Cool or what? 

THEATRE 

The press conference held in the governor’s ceremonial office in the state house was packed. There were staff, lobbyists, legislators, both candidates for speaker, incoming cabinet members, press, political party officials, families and friends. Each announced appointment was greeted with applause, seemingly started in the corner occupied by staff, a new feature of the weekly press conference. And again, expected Lieutenant Governor Dubie was by Douglas’s side. Often Racine and Dean hardly seemed on speaking terms, and Racine almost was never near Dean’s press conferences. 

PROGESSIVE WINS DEMOCRAT NOMINATION 

Ah, the Democrats belittled the Republicans when their party’s committee recommended that only party members be allowed to run for the nomination. Now the shoe is on the other foot as Burlington’s Mayor-for-life Peter Clavelle won the Democrat nomination for mayor 94 to 89. How does it feel? 

A BRIDGE TOO FAR 

The bike bridge in Colchester is a done deal. The expected governor Jim Douglas firmly opposed it, saying that he was very disappointed with this irresponsible spending decision given the poor condition of the roads and bridges throughout the state. Let your school bus roll into the brook; the Chittenden County yuppies still rule, at least for nineteen more days. And of course Governor Howard Dean who cut his political teeth developing Burlington’s bike path supports it. And Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee Dick Mazza lives in Colchester.

Douglas added at his press conference, "I want to insure that people who serve on state boards understand our fiscal constraints. Some terms are soon expiring and I will insure that the new appointees understand."

Incoming Secretary of Transportation Pat McDonald mumbled when asked about the bridge, "I work for Howard Dean until January 8th." 

IT IS TOO MUCH 

A state employee wonders if she will make it in the new Douglas administration. In preparation for the chance that she will not, she checks with the personnel office about taking the COBRA option when she leaves. COBRA is the employee’s right to sign up for the same insurance the state offers for a year or two at his/her own expense. She was horrified to learn that her annual cost would exceed $17,000 for her and her family.

Perhaps the state hires someone for an entry position for only $25,000. The cost is much greater to you and me. Not only are there the federal and state required contributions to social security, unemployment insurance, etc., there is the contribution for insurance and retirement. Perhaps these costs would exceed her pay. And this is for state employees. Many teachers have better insurance programs than those the state provides. 

NOT IN THE REAL WORLD 

Into this environment comes the South Burlington teachers’ negotiation. They have been offered a 3.75 percent annual increase for three years, well above the rate of inflation, the top rate well over $70,000 in the third year. And this is for a 187 day work year, as compared to most taxpayers who have closer to a 250 day work year. These are just wages, then you must add the cost of health insurance (they currently pay 5 percent of the cost) and retirement.

Even this is not good enough for them. They are demanding a 16.74 percent increase with a starting rate of $35,497 and a top rate of $74,848. Whatever is granted of course will be used by every other neighboring or like minded school district’s teachers to bring them up to what South Burlington has. Soon taxpayers will be living a subsistence life. 

REVISIONIST HISTORIAN 

She’s back, Chinese born Jean Ankeney, Senator from Chittenden County. A few months back she deplored that the United States, in her words, had attacked Afghanistan a decade ago and was back on the attack once again.

Now she writes in a letter to the editor of the Free Press, that Saddam Hussein is not the "murderous dictator" that Bush claims he is. Show me the dead, she writes! Well she could check out the 3,000-year-old Marsh Shiite Culture of Southern Iraq except it is no longer there thanks to Saddam. Or she could check out the Kurdish culture of Kirkuk but Saddam gassed them all.

What more evidence is she looking for? 

BAD NEWS BEARS 

The Dean legacy continues. US Airways is cutting forty Vermont jobs, Wyeth of Georgia is cutting more workers but they decline to say how many, and Qualitad Sales Corporation of Rutland closes its plastics plant in Rutland putting thirty-two souls on the streets for Christmas. They are consolidating their operations in Kentucky. Why not here? 

WHO DONE IT? 

If you are at a loss for a last minute bit of Christmas shopping, you might pick up "The Governor's Man," a mystery by Tom Davis. Davis is the son of the famous Governor Deane Davis who served Vermont from 1969-73. He also spent many years in the employ of Leahy, Vermont governors, and the Clinton Department of Labor.

The Governor’s Man is an easy reading page-turner written about our "governor" and in our surroundings. Other than a brief visit to a drug and alcohol rehab facility in New Hampshire, the reader never leaves Vermont. From the first page when the governor’s man finds the body of an attractive woman in the governor’s car until the end, it holds your attention.

Davis also bemoans the changes in Vermont in his lifetime. Consider these passages for example:

"Greenleaf (head of the Law and the Land) is one of the new breed of Vermont environmentalists who, having discovered beautiful Vermont, aren't interested in seeing the state progress economically. Zero growth, put a fence around the state, pull up the drawbridge, to hell with the natives... Law and the Land did not publicly admit that this was the objective, but most people knew that a no-growth mentality was behind many of the positions they advocated...

And later Davis writes, "I don't want some 'sun-tanner' putting together rules about how people could use land that only lawyers whom other ‘sun-tanners’ could afford to hire, might figure out."

He offers up some advice for Doug Racine, though just a bit late to help. "Get rid of the yuppie consultants from Washington. Stop relying on polls...talk to the people from the heart, what he really thinks, not the way the polls or the focus groups point. Politics is retail business in this state...take the two or three things he really cares about and run on them."

He does misstep regarding our beloved media. Davis writes that an anonymous phone caller reported that the deceased woman was seen entering the building where the governor kept an apartment the night before her death.

"Television new had broken the story, print media picked it up, and the question of the day among pundits and talk-show hosts was how would the Governor explain this strange liaison."

However much we much criticize Vermont’s media, none of them would have gone with the story on such a rumor. 

WE'RE FALLING 

We used to be ranked in twentieth place by PoliticsVT.com on the list of powerful dudes in Vermont. They have a new list out with all the Douglas big wigs at the top and we have slipped to thirtieth. Still too high. Maybe they will get it right next time. Go to http://www.politicsvt.com for the complete list. 

A WHOLE LOTT OF TROUBLE 

We are no fans of Senator Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, minority leader in the Senate. We wrote in our post election edition on November 7th, "We only hope that the Senate Republicans show Trent Lott, the creator of all this mess, the door and greet one like Senator Bill Frist, who engineered this comeback, as leader." It has always been uncomfortable to watch Lott. To us, he comes off as an arrogant, out of touch, dangerous fellow.

His words seemed to us heartfelt: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it." They are unpleasant to read, but to watch Lott, there could be no doubt about his conviction.

Yet when the Associated Press story first ran in the Burlington Free Press on December 6th about Thurmond’s birthday party. It is not even noted that Lott was there. Only Bob Dole was quoted.

Last year on Fox News Sunday, not some obscure birthday party, Senator Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, "There are white niggers. I have seen a lot of white niggers in my time." There was no uproar. There should have been. We should have all felt a moral outrage.

Or take President Bill Clinton. According to the National Review, "just six weeks ago Bill Clinton praised J. William Fulbright, a racist, segregationist Senator, for urging Americans to be 'utopian in our values and vision.' In 1993, Clinton awarded Fulbright a Presidential Medal of Freedom and gushed: 'The American political system produced this remarkable man, and my state did, and I'm real proud of it.'" Recall it was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who was forced to call in the troops to escort eight black children into the Little Rock Central High School over the protests of Democrat Governor Orville Faubus.

The Rutland Herald/Times Argus launched editorials about the Republican Party, the first called the Party of Lincoln. They opined how Goldwater had opposed the Civil Rights Act. So did many Democrats. In fact the Democrats in Congress had been the main deterrent to Civil Rights legislation passage, not the Republicans. It was only because of the Republicans that much of the Civil Rights legislation passed.

They wrote another entitled Double Standard, criticizing once again the Republicans. "There are those in the South who may view integration, the end of lynching and the political empowerment of blacks as problems, and Lott is apparently either one of them or sympathetic to them. That the Republican Party is led by extremists of that sort is a...problem." There is a double standard all right, Republicans are always bad and Democrats are always good.

This verbiage is not befitting the Pulitzer Prize paper. They way overstepped. They should be ashamed of themselves. Still, we continue to hope that Lott’s fellow Republicans show him the door, now more than ever. 

DWINELL FOR MAYOR 

An enterprising reporter for Channel 22 called. She said that she had heard that a "prominent Republican" was going to jump into the Burlington mayor's race. And, hold onto your seats, the rumor was that James Dwinell was that person. "Is it true, can I confirm that you are running?" she gushed?

Is there some non-resident exemption? That Dwinell lives in Randolph seemed not to be a deterrent to the young reporter. 

HE AIN’T DEAD YET 

Friday, December 13th, the Times Argus wrote in its editorial entitled Gore’s Decision, "Until the primaries begin to establish some candidates as potential challengers to a popular incumbent, the voters will be confronted with an instructive and much more varied array of personal philosophies, strategies and personalities. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, is already in the mix..." 

HEADLINE WRITERS 

Both the Times Argus and the Burlington Free Press ran Associated Press articles regarding the United States commitment to deploy its Star Wars defense, the missile defense system. Both quoted the "two-page statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry."

The Times Argus headline was, "Russia expresses regret at U.S. decision to begin deployment." The Free Press headline was, "Russia: U.S. defense could reignite arms race."

The Free Press’s headline ignores history. It was Stars Wars which in part brought down the Soviet Union years back when they found that they could no longer compete with the United States because their economy could not produce the financial resources. 

THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM 

"Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, scourge of liberals everywhere, may be hopelessly partisan, but he's never claimed to be anything else. He has an agenda, and he's honest about it. The New York Times is no less wildly partisan and has no less of an agenda, yet it presents itself as the tame word of God. And therein lies the real problem." -- Norah Vincent, LA Times 

BUSINESS IDEA 

»» Marc Laurencelle, Brownington: I really enjoy getting The DPR it offers valuable information not available elsewhere. I wish every Vermonter read it.

I would like to comment on an article in the 12-06-02 DPR titled "Where's Snowsville." In the article there was a reference to selling a beautiful fieldstone wall along route 12 to a developer in Southern Vermont. I would like to know how one goes about selling a fieldstone wall. Isn't that in fact a long pile of rocks? I might be in the wrong business and should be selling rocks to developers! 

THEY LIKE US 

»» Lew Burridge, Ripton: Great Work! Keep it up. 

HIS MAJESTY 

"Thus far, the reputed idiot Bush has graduated from Yale and Harvard, made a stack of cash in the oil industry, become the first consecutive-term governor of Texas, defeated a dual-term VP for the presidency, and led his party to [November 5th's] extraordinary triumphs. Let his opponents keep calling him stupid; if they do, within five years Bush will be King of England, the Pope, and world Formula One motor racing champion." -- Tim Blair, Australian journalist 

LORDY, LORDY 

During their sixteenth visit to Iowa, campaign aide Kate O’Connor, Governor Howard Dean's right hand woman and long time Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs said, "I know the people in Iowa better than I know people in Vermont." -- Sally West Johnson, Times Argus, December 12, 2002 

SOCIALIST EXPERIMENT FAILS 

"The imminent bankruptcy of United Airlines may be the final blow to an idea that once entranced both liberals and conservatives. . . . UAL seems to be the latest case of (employee ownership) failure. Workers there have owned a majority of the stock since 1994 - half of that owned by the pilots. Yet UAL has the highest salaries for pilots of any domestic airline - receiving as much as $306,000 per year. This is $43,000 more than at the next highest-paid airline, Delta, and twice what pilots at Southwest Airlines make. No wonder the company is losing money." -- Columnist Bruce Bartlett 

AIN'T IT THE TRUTH 

"In truth, the fuel that runs the Democratic Party is spending. The party exists mainly to take money out of some peoples' pockets and put it into others. There is no problem imaginable that Democrats cannot find a new government programs to deal with." -- Bruce Bartlett

Full commentary: http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett120402.asp 

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