To the Editor,
I just got my property tax bill. And, like you, I'm being tagged with yet another increase - 15% by my calculation. That's a lot for one year. But when you stack it on top of the tax increases we have experienced over the previous three years, it is painful. We continue to hear that the increase is largely the product of school-related costs. That is not a revelation. But, while the driving force of these increases may reside outside the local tax component, we should not opt for a state of helplessness by merely opening our checkbooks again.
There is little our state and local officials can do to affect these consistent tax increases. But, if we do nothing, that failure to act makes it certain that nothing will change except of course, the upward movement of the number on our tax bills.
In the recent past, I have recommended a number of available options that could, at a minimum, demonstrate public outrage over these tax increases and influence governmental decision makers. Allow me to offer my latest. In 1978, California put before voters Proposition 13, a citizens' initiative (actually, the face of a major tax revolt) to address both high inflation and soaring property values and associated taxes. In short, Prop 13 sought to set the statewide property tax at 1%, subject to a couple of variables contained in the proposition. It passed with 65% approval. Let me be clear, this was a tax revolt and it succeeded. As a California resident at the time, I experienced this vote firsthand as well as the tax relief it created.
I don't know whether this is possible in Vermont. But, at a minimum, therein lies a template that could be studied and adapted in accordance with Vermont law. Prop 13 was spurred by taxpayer protests, vetted as an idea, grew into a movement and culminated in a supportive vote. There's guidance in that journey and Vermont leaders, at all levels, should follow it.
Sal Spinosa
Waitsfield
