The Fact Checker: Does Vermont Have the Highest Tax Rate in the Country?

1. Who are you?
   The new Number Two.
   Who is Number One?
   You are Number Six.

2. That’s is ridiculous for a “fact checker” blog. Seriously guys, you can’t be that clueless and yet somehow “income tax” got substituted for “tax.” Really?
   VT is 6th in INCOME TAX, then you have to take into account sales tax and property tax. And a quick search of the internet shows many different charts of tax burden that puts VT anywhere from 2nd to 12th. I have yet to come across one that ranks it at 20th (the Tax Foundation’s tax burden puts VT at 8th.)
   And lets not forget for business’ there is an inventory tax, which is why if you ever go to Sears to buy a fridge you have to wait several days to get it in, it’s coming from their NH warehouse to avoid the VT tax.
   This chart http://www.tax-rates.org/taxta… has VT as the second highest behind Oregon for income tax rates, not 6th. Vermont also has the 2nd highest tax revenue per capita behind only Alaska which is skewed due to oil/gas taxes from corporations.
   So saying VT has the HIGHEST tax rate maybe in accurate it is in the top 6 by just about any criteria one want’s to use….hardly anything that would qualify as “udder bull.” I think your scale is broken, it should be reading mostly true.

3. First, second, sixth most tax burdened state, whatever. The FACT is Vermont is indeed not just taxed as an average state, WE are taxed well above average and are ALWAYS in the top ten tax burdened states. The real shame is what we as a state have to show for it. Top 10 in K-12 education? NO. Top 10 in job and business opportunities? NO. Top 10 in road and bridge quality? NO. Top 10 in public assistance, welfare, free hand outs? YES, YES, YES!!! Maybe I’ll finally join the other educated, hardworking business owners to help keep Vermont as one of the top 10 states that people like me leave!

4. Thank you Fact Checker.
   Mr. Brock is guilty of one other thing. Any effort to characterize
   Vermont as having one tax “rate” or “burden” is inherently false.
   As you noted, the marginal rates don’t really tell the story for a variety of
   reasons. Therefore, analysts will always look to the effective rates instead
   (amount actually paid as a percent of income). And these rates will vary
   enormously based on your income class (from 1% up to 6%).
   For this reason, we should avoid using measures that ignore the complexity of
   the system. The Tax Foundation’s per capita measure is not irrelevant but it
   ignores the distribution of the so-called burden. This is also true for property
   taxes because Vermont is the only state that has income sensitivity so average or per
   capita comparisons are not apples to apples.

5. actually, the Tax Foundation did rank Vermont 20th for state income tax (per capita)
   http://taxfoundation.org/state…
   however, for the reasons I cited in the other post, this is of little use because the tax liability as a percentage of income varies tremendously across income classes in states like Vermont with progressive graduated income tax systems; indeed, Vermont’s income tax system is really quite equitable for low- and moderate-income families, especially for low-income working families because of the state’s refundable Earned Income Tax Credit

6. Beyond the oversimplified (failed?) attempt at defining Vermont’s taxes is the bottom section labeled “Score” which contains the important point of the story – and the reason for the ‘Fact Checker’ graphic at the top. Regardless of the way the article gets there – the data is from 2009. That is prior to Peter Shumlin’s first administration and therefore ‘udder bull’ as it has no relationship whatsoever to Peter Shumlin and his administration. However it is, kind of ironically, an attack ad on Jim Douglas who was Governor until Shumlin was voted into office during the 2010 election…

7. ” Sen. Randy Brock’s claim that Vermont has the highest tax rate in the country during Shumlin’s first term is not true.”
   Brock’s claim was never that Shumlin took a low tax rate and made it high, simply that during the past 2 years it HAS HAD the highest rate. Again, while that is debatable depending on how you want to calculate it, it’s pretty clear VT is in the top 5-6 highest taxed states AND it has been during Shumlin’s tenure. The statement is mostly correct…..not terribly specific and may not tell the whole story but still mostly correct.

8. Your chart is income tax, the same foundation ranks VT’s tax BURDEN at 8.
   You are correct, the income tax for lower to lower middle class family’s is reasonable. It’s the rest that is the burden. The school funding system is terrible, The cigarette tax (usually affects the low to middle class) is one of the highest in the nation, add on the fuel tax in a rural state, the sales tax, the alcohol tax, the increase in every fee from driver’s license and registration (WTF!!) to a “internet usage tax” makes VT financially difficult to live in for lower income and low middle income families regardless of the tiered tax system.

9. Ma, Shummy was President of the senate for what much of the last 20 years and voted on tax and spending bills. Therefore, there is a relationship between Shumlin and taxes. Simply because he didn’t sign one last year (he never vetoed one either) doesn’t mean there isn’t a relationship.

10. You can play the numbers any way you like, but when we lived in va 3 years ago our total tax bill was just over 50% of our current vt tax bill. Same number of vehicles, similar property value. Actually I had 2 additional vehicles registered.

11. Thanks – When did Republicans decide that lying to win is OK? I know it has always been there and happens on all sides – but it seems endmic now in what has become the extreme right wing party. Too bad for us all.

Comments are closed.