How much does Gov. Peter Shumlin hate on the Vermont House’s tax bill?
So much so that he’d rather kill himself than sign it.
No, seriously. That’s how he put it Wednesday when asked at his weekly press conference by Vermont Public Radio’s Kirk Carapezza, “Exactly how much do you not like it?”
“Exactly very much,” Shumlin responded.
“Can you give us an analogy?” Carapezza pressed, surely looking for that perfect soundbite for this evening’s local All Things Considered newscast.
“Sure,” Shumlin said, pausing for a moment. “If you told me that I had to jump from a window, I would go for the highest building that I could possibly find to jump to make sure that I wasn’t here to see that tax package become law.”
As we noted in this week’s Fair Game, Shumlin’s, um, strong distaste for the House’s proposed $23 million tax increase stems from his longstanding desire to avoid raising so-called “broad-based” taxes.
Shumlin elaborated on that distaste during Wednesday’s Statehouse press conference, saying, “I do not believe we should raise income taxes on hardworking Vermonters, sales taxes on hardworking Vermonters and meals taxes on hardworking Vermonters. And the irony is, we don’t need to! This is entirely unnecessary in my judgment.”
He also pushed back on the notion that the House’s tax plan is more progressive than his own, though theirs includes an income tax increase on high-income Vermonters, while his mostly hits low-income taxpayers.
“As I’ve mentioned before, Vermont already has a very progressive income tax,” he said. “You know, we ask right now a very small portion of taxpayers — I’d be happy to show you the chart — to pay… a huge chunk of Vermont’s income tax.”
But if you keep gouging the rich, he argued, you’ll end up with fewer and fewer wealthy people to tax.
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The House bill would affect Shummy directly, he is a very wealthy man and he doesn’t want to see his income tax go up but it is ok to tax the rich in N.J. Shummy is always looking out for Shummy, ya know!!!
Same talking point works for Shumlin too:
“As you know, I firmly believe that Peter Shumlin isn’t the right governor for Vermont because he’s not growing jobs, he’s not growing economic opportunities. Property taxes are rising and the middle class is getting kicked in the teeth.”
“Puny humans. Shumlin SMASH!”
This scenario is beginning to look like “Good Cop/Bad Cop.”
Shumlin can continue to play to the 1% while he leaves the heavy lifting (those devilish details) to the lieutenants.
Your headline is in exceptionally bad taste.
It was your Governor who said publicly that he’d rather take his own life than sign the tax bill. Don’t blame 7D for reporting what he said.
“”Sure,” Shumlin said, pausing for a moment. “If you told me that I had to jump from a window, I would go for the highest building that I could possibly find to jump to make sure that I wasn’t here to see that tax package become law.””