ADVISORY PETITION TO THE VERMONT GENERAL ASSEMBLY
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF VERMONT, AGREE THAT PROPERTY TAXES ARE UNFAIR, TOO HIGH AND TOO COMPLICATED. WE SUPPORT THE REVOLT & REPEAL CONCEPT OF REPEALING THE STATEWIDE PROPERTY TAX ON JULY 1, 2009.
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| # | Name | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 701 | Gary D. House | |
| 702 | Anonymous | |
| 703 | Stewart & Audrey Barr | Let's start from scratch!!!!! |
| 704 | Michael Lavery | People are voting YES to all the school related cost increases because their taxes won't go up if they get prebates or rebates. SOMEONE has to make up for the taxes they don't pay. If you saw the letter I received from Ira Trombley, my rep. from Grand Isle, you can understand why the average taxpayer does not understand the way this "system" works. He doesn't either. |
| 705 | Phillip C. Brown | If the taxes do not come down I will have to leave Vermont. it has gotten out of hand and the average and below wage person cannot afford to own a piece of property..It has gotten so bad that rent is getting to high all because of taxes. The state tax rate is killing the average joe..this state has becaome a state run by the out of staters and what will happen to Vermont when this second and third home people decide to find another cheaper playground..for that all this is to them. |
| 706 | Traci B. Schwartz | Fund the schools locally! Maybe towns will learn to live with what they have available and not expect other towns to pay their bills. |
| 707 | denise byers | The people cannot take any more taxes nor do we want to pay them, we want our goverments to be responsible members of society and to lIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS which are NOT much seeing how we have poor incomes in this State! We are A Service State of meager means! The prices of property will continue to decline, which has started, as they are no longer on the increase... and thus the income from taxes will go down all on thier own. |
| 708 | Anonymous | It's too costly, is major factor in taking local control of schools in Montpelier. Too much waste in implementing money from towns to government and back again. Not to mention the cost of unfair distribution/formula of payouts from Montpelier back to the town for offset of property taxes based on income sensitivity........WHY???? How was the previous formula for subsiding schools so far off when the money was distributed based on the school systems needs for receiving additional funding thru Federal & State governement? Not only is the current School Property funding unfair, it is costing MORE to send this money back & forth that could be used for the students/schools. |
| 709 | Anonymous | |
| 710 | Chris Schuh | Truly the unconstitutional tax against property, of which ownership of ones property is a constitutionally protected right, AND rights protected cannot be taxed, so if this tax power does truly exist, can tax the shirt on and now right off, your back or any other item in ones' possession. This is not what freedom and liberty are, this is more akin to slavery and facism. The citizens representatives have a fiduciarty duty to only uphold constiutional law and not stray from that duty or are no longer impowered to act and must be removed for same acts willfully against the federal and state Constitutions. Thanks for all your great efforts. I supporter from next door. |
| 711 | Shawn Tayloe | |
| 712 | Roger | Get rid of this stupid tax and return us to the old system! |
| 713 | Henry Amsden | |
| 714 | Henry Amsden | |
| 715 | Dennis Bowen | |
| 716 | Anonymous | It is time for the people to get rid of the morons sent to Montpelier. They do not care. |
| 717 | Kent Hall | Why are our taxes so high? Why were my taxes on a 4 bedroom house in another state left than 25% of the amount of taxes I pay on a 3 bedroom house in Vermont? Why is Vermont known as anti-business (in other words, anti-employer, anti-corporate tax payer) and why are other states actively courting business? |
| 718 | James Stack | |
| 719 | Robin G Becker | |
| 720 | Kevin DellaBianca | |
| 721 | David Knight | |
| 722 | Joseph W. O'Donnell | As part of this effort, I would push for the state consolidating into one state wide system with three or four districts. Simply put, state wide educational equality (the genesis of Acts 68 and 60) and continued local control and budgeting is an oxymoron. One state wide system ensures equality, allows the duplicative beaurocracy that exists in our current supervisory system to be eliminated and sets up one or two teacher negotiations with the NEA rather than the current process that favors the NEA negotiaqors at the expense of the local tax payer. |
| 723 | Cindy and Steve Myrick | Make life affordable for life-long Vermonters, not affordable to those who made millions elsewhere and brought it with them and are buying "their way" into Vermont and displacing the rest of us. Where can we go that's affordable? Why do we have to leave our ancestral lands? |
| 724 | Alan T. Citron | |
| 725 | thomas k standish | |
| 726 | Robert M. Cross MD | |
| 727 | Robert M. Cross MD | |
| 728 | Kenneth Spicer | Property and school taxes need to go back to local control. The quality of education has declined and cost have increased since the inception of this taxing formula. As a on owner of a real estate company we have seen a decline in sales as a direct result of higher taxes in areas throughout the state with many perspective second home buyers now opting for New Hampshire and upsate NY. For the sake of our kids, our quality of life and the prosperity of all Vermonter's this has to end; 2009 may be too late for some of us. |
| 729 | Lisa M | We are being treated unfairly for owning two properties in Vermont. We pay more taxes for a small camp away from home and stress or running a small VT business than we pay at our primary home with three children in the school system. We may just have to sell to some rich out of stater. I guess we are becoming the playground for the rich. |
| 730 | Nancy Young | Act 60 has proven to the taxpayers it is not a benefit, The education funding needs to be revamped and in line with reason. H256? A joke at best. Where are our elected officials and who are they working for> |
| 731 | Cindy Myick | Property taxes are outrageously high. I want to live off the land but at this pace, how can I? To keep up with the pace of property tax burden, I don't think it is possible to live off the land AND come up with property taxes, never mind making bank loan payments. This really seems to be a scheme to drive people off their lands to enable a take over by those coming in with money made elsewhere. Stop participating in that scheme. Thank you. |
| 732 | Alan T. Citron | |
| 733 | Merle Van Gieson | The present Education funding laws in Vermont are absurd and appear to be unconstitutional. How can anyone say the equal protection clauses in the Vermont and United States Constitutions are satisfied under the present system? Abutting property owners could have EQUAL VALUED PROPERTY but are made to pay a disproportionate share of the tax burden if one of the properties is classified non-residential and the other homestead. Countless dollars have been spent in the administration of the system in preparing Grand Lists and Tax Books. The appeal process is complicated in instances where an Appellant is entitled to a rollback in taxes under 32 V.S.A. Sect. 4404(c) when a municipality has conducted a town wide reappraisal. It is insane to have multiple tax rates and all the property values under the present system: Fair Market value, Listed Value, Homestead value, Housesite value, Non-Residental value and then add in all the values for those enrolled in the Use Value Appraisal Program. Incidently, the UVAP has gone full circle and is back to a simplified program that farmers can understand, so please don't tamper with this program anymore. It is past time to bring education funding full circle. Bring it back to a rational, simplfied system. Sincerely, Merle Van Gieson |
| 734 | Dale Gilman | |
| 735 | Anonymous | People who lack the money to pay property tax should be allowed to pay with chickens, other farm animals, or manual labor ? Mediaval surfs were allowed to do this,why cant' us modern surfs have the same right. Everybody seems to miss the issue when it comes to property tax. The state is prohibiting home ownership. You can never make the last payment and you will be kicked out in the street if you don’t keep them up. This is clearly not ownership. Property tax is flagrantly unconstitutional and makes local governments into criminal syndicates collecting extortion. THE AMERICAN DREAM IS A LIE! Homesteaders should organize into groups that file criminal extortion charges against their county commissioners, tax collector and property appraiser. This needs to become a nation wide movement with thousands of charges being filed against these local extortion rings all across the country. |
| 736 | Mary Brothers | Why wait till July 2009. We need to get this in place before then. |
| 737 | michelle pingree | something has to give, the taxes in my GOLD TOWN are rediculous and with a reappraisal in our future, this town is doomed! A message to the legislature, wake up and see how this is killing us vermonters, get your grubby hands out of the cash barrell and smarten up. |
| 738 | Leonard Gibbs | |
| 739 | alice peterson | The property tax is completely out of control. By % it is higher than major cities offering real services. I have never understood how it can be constitutional to tax non residents at a higher rate. The whole thing is outrageous. |
| 740 | Anonymous | I don't understand why child population is down, but school costs are still skyrocketing, why my town subsidizes other towns, or why I have to pay higher taxes than locals, given I am a vacation owner and use all of the infrastructure less than full time residents. To me there are 2 main problems- 1. shuffling funds creates no responsibility for cost cuts, creates a free-rider problem, and undermines property valuations built over generations of a different system, and 2. the idea of one rate for insiders and one rate for outsiders smacks of taxation without representation, something our forefathers killed to abolish |
| 741 | Craig F. Nolan | Our current method of funding education is more like extortion than taxation. |
| 742 | Barbara Nolan | |
| 743 | Larry Ackerman | |
| 744 | Jeff Dufresne | We (you) are dealing with the criminally insane and morally bankrupt. (Yes I feel better!) Seriously taxes in Vermont and Montpelier are beyond out of control. Vermont ranks number 1 in tax burden for the ENTIRE 50 states! By the ruling parties actions; they WILL NOT be unseated! Truly this is shameful. There are extremely few well paying jobs in the entire state and even less in Montpelier (most of the high paying jobs went to Mass & India). The young people are leaving; duh! What choice do they have? I personally find leaving the only option left (Texas bound!) With the new property assessment my taxes could go to $8200/ year for 1500 square feet and a 1/3 of an acre, does this seem insane to anyone else? My only real fear is that this could hinder the sale of my MANSION...LOL. Has anyone looked around Montpelier and noticed that it is becoming a shanty town? Run down because people cannot afford upkeep; neither can Montpelier…seen the streets in this town? The city couldn’t fix all that needs fixing if they raised ALL our property taxes to a million dollars a year. How about the intangible cost of living here? Car hammered to death on cow path streets, 25,000 mile per year commute to the remaining well paying job, higher gas prices, higher grocery costs, higher housing costs, list is endless. Check it for yourself by googling “cost of living calculator” then use it. Well just a rant because the issues are not fixable. The only way anything will change is if Montpelier and Vermont end up completely and utterly financially bankrupt, which I hope to read about in Texas. Good luck…your going to need it! |
| 745 | Meredith Deibold | The average Josephine can't afford to live here anymore. And then you hear the legislators wondering why the younger folks are leaving the state. LOCAL control please! |
| 746 | Erich Zeichner | High property taxes have resulted in a situation where we have the right to own property in name only, we pay rent to the State and are vassals of the State. In other words, we've gone back to being landed serfs within a modern context. This in addition to all of the other forms of poorly conceived & ill-used taxation which contribute to an overall condition of economic servitude & jeapardy. For many people the economic burden puts them in jeapardy of losing their lands & homes, diminishing quality of life, & is the straw that threatens to break their backs, keeping them forever on the hamster wheel to no-where. If you manage to build a decent dwelling on your own land, an owner builder is then punished for his hard work and efforts to improve his quality of life with punishing taxes which make it difficult for him to sustain what he has created. Homeschoolers who do not benefit from the public school system receive no tax relief in lieu of expenses while educating their children privately. People on limited incomes cannot even afford to have a windfall because it will be taken away from them eventually in taxes. Town Listors are given incredible power over people's lives through the pocketbook, & the mechanism for contesting their decisions is prohibitive for the average person. What can be done to change this situation? Where are the legislators & people in government who are sensitive to these issues and are there for the right reasons? Is there any hope for economic freedom & justice in beautiful Vermont, & a government that protects these rights instead of violates them? |
| 747 | Zeichner | In Northfield we have a $10,000,000 a year school system & growing.......in Northfield. Where is the economic constituency to support such an economic burden? We are living beyond our means clear & simple, and the only people who benefit are those employed within the system, and perhaps some who think that their livelihoods are dependent on having someplace to drop their kids at while they go to their job, but even for them it is a catch 22. Scale it back, scale it down, drive a chevy if you can't afford a cadillac, live responsably, don't extort monies from the public to support irresponsible public spending. A culture of have's & have not's & unhealthy economic dependencies has evolved in Vermont, which began with bad policies and has been continually reinforced with more bad policies. Freedom begins with the right mentality and with economic freedom....let's cut through the encumbrances to our freedom and find ways to shake the tree. |
| 748 | Randall Preston | HS-122 a joke My taxes are due in Nov. that gives the town 5 months to collect intrest rates off my money also I pay my taxes through my Mortgage compnay that charges fees for any adjustment made on my payments, Why should I have to pay!!!! What about renters rebate how come the state does not send renters rebates to the home owner? |
| 749 | Mason Storm | |
| 750 | Lynda Unwin | We have gotten to the point where we exist solely to support our governent. Democracy? With no end in site to the rising costs of driving to work and heating our homes, we just can't take anymore.Do they care? |