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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


5.15.2009

 

Veto session June 2

Mark your calendars, kids. Gov. Jim Douglas will veto the budget bill and is calling the Legislature back June 2.

"If my only choice is between allowing your fiscal 2010 budget to become
law or a veto, I must choose veto," Douglas' letter says. "I cannot abandon
Vermonters' long-term economic security for short-lived political accord."

Douglas acknowledged in the letter that the Legislature may be able to override his veto.

"If this budget becomes law over my veto _ and despite my repeated attempts to
forge a compromise that puts the public interest over special interests _ I am
prepared to accept that outcome. But understand that what you reap is what
you sow; the adverse effects of your tax and spending choices will ripple
through the Vermont economy for years to come and those consequences will be
your sole responsibility."

Douglas told legislators he will give them a new budget proposal Tuesday that will "balance the Legislature's desire for higher taxes with the need for ongoing financial responsibility. That said, I do not expect my ideas will satisfy your demands."

- Terri Hallenbeck

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Comments:
Congratulations Gov. Douglas...you make me proud! The reckless budget by the legislature benefits only their supporters..not the average Joe. They will spin this to their adnavantage but we know the truth Jim
 
Excuse me, the Governor recommended increasing our property taxes by $63 million. I think when the "average Joe" learns of this they will see which budget is reckless.
 
Governor Douglas began the legislative session by attempting to shift $63 million to the education fund, where average Joe Vermonters would have paid for it out of their property taxes. Thank goodness the legislature resisted. What they offer in their budget is an income tax cut for the average Joe (anyone earning under $250K). Their approach makes significant budget cuts without overburdening the property tax. Those are good things.

The Governor has used the excuse of our national financial crisis (brought on by the very de-regulation he has pushed here in Vermont) to gut state services in a completely irrational and arbitrary way. We have only begun to feel the effects of the damage he and his administration have done. It is too bad that he finds it necessary to make this a political showdown. I hope he loses ... again.
 
Susan Bartlett says she's happy to live with the consequences of their budget. Let the Dems/Progs vote to override and take full responsibility for the tax hikes and spending increases. In Nov. 2010 they'll find out whether the voices they listened to during their budget-writing were simply loud but vocal minority special interests, or if they represented the true wishes of most Vermonters.
 
No new taxes on Vermonters!
 
The 12-page letter Douglas released about budget problems is quite well written and well reasoned. The Free Press ought to run the whole thing.

Hang onto your wallets, Vermonters. The real tax hikes will come in the FY2011 and FY2012 budgets.

The only other choice is to cut social services, but the Dems have shown would never do that, even for someone who has been on welfare for five years and refuses to comply with the work requirements. For FY2010, social services spending is going up $150 million, almost as much as VT got in stimulus money.
 
"No new taxes on Vermonters!"

Then you should be opposed to Gov Douglas' budget proposals - they all cut the state budget BUT, and that is a BIG BUT, he increases taxes/fees to vermonters and vt businesses.

His plan actually increases property taxes thoughout VT.
 
Anonymous said...
No new taxes on Vermonters!

Then I can only presume you oppose the governor's budget as well since his proposal would have raised taxes far higher then the responsible budget the legislature passed.
 
Anonymous said...
The 12-page letter Douglas released about budget problems is quite well written and well reasoned. The Free Press ought to run the whole thing.

Hang onto your wallets, Vermonters. The real tax hikes will come in the FY2011 and FY2012 budgets.

The only other choice is to cut social services, but the Dems have shown would never do that, even for someone who has been on welfare for five years and refuses to comply with the work requirements. For FY2010, social services spending is going up $150 million, almost as much as VT got in stimulus money.

My god I hope it is well written, he's running the state. If he couldn't write a decent letter explaining his position it would be flat out scary.

If you don't think the legisalture cut sevices you have no clue about what they passed. If you said they didn't cut as deeply as you would like that's one thing but your statement is just wrong.

There are cuts and taxes but they are relatively staright forward. Compare that to the governor's which is a shell game of fees and a huge increase on the dreaded property tax.

If you don't like taxes and you are honest, not a political biased individual you should dislike the governors proposal more.
 
Right on - I can't beleive the naivete of people who support Douglas thinking that his budget lowers or at least does not raise taxes.

Douglas has been playing this shell game since he was first elected in 2002.

His budgets all move state costs on to local budgets - that way he can say that he did not raise taxes.

Oh by the way, if you looked at how much fees have gone up since he became Governor - you would be shocked - way above inflation.
 
Yup, the Governor is complaining that the Dems tax hike will increase the state income tax on a family earning over $500,000 by $3,000 (according to the data in that 12 page letter)while the state worker earning $30,000 a year losses his job in the Gov's plan. Yup, by gawd, that Governor is a genius.
 
"His plan actually increases property taxes thoughout VT."

False. What his plan does is end the false propping up of our bloated education budgets by subsidies from the General Fund.


I welcome the shift of ALL education costs to the Education Fund, because that's called truth-in-budgeting. Then, when Vermonters' are faced with outrageous property tax bills to support the bloated education budgets, they'll finally do the right thing: dramatically downsize those ridiculous budgets.

We have 90,000 students and thousands of school administrators making huge salaries. That's shameful. A property tax revolt is just what we need to right-size our education spending.

Veto the budget, Mr. Douglas.
 
Property taxes have never been the sole source for education funding in this state, at least not in a hundred years, or more. Furthrermore it is called the Education Fund, not the Education Property Tax. The Fund from the beginning was funded via several different tax streams by design. Shifting costs from on tax stream to another is a tax increase. The Governor's plan would have dramatically increased education property taxes.
 
Veto the budget and get a real conversation going about the long term future.
 
The Gov is right: If the Legislature feels so strongly about their version of the budget, then in theory they have adequate votes to override his veto. And yes, should that transpire the Legislature will have to accept full responsibility for the what that budget brings - both good and bad.

To those of you that keep saying "oh my oh my, they have cut so much already" . . . what the heck are we going to do next year when the challenge is 2, 3, or 4 times larger than what we faced this year? What will we do when we can no longer rely on federal dollars to fund our increased spending habits (6%+ this year alone)??
 
We have to stop expecting the government to do everything for us. We have got to start helping ourselves.
 
The legislature raised the human services budget by $175,000 (6.5%) and they all complained they had "cut services to the bone"- How much would the budget increase if they chopped the bone off?
 
Gov. Douglas promised to release a budget on Tuesday. The question is, will it be a real budget, or just a political game? Will there be specifics, or did he spend all of his time cutting ribbons?
 
If the legislature overrides the Governor's veto why do we need this Governor anymore? His veto on gay marriage was over turned and it is very likely his budget veto will be over turned. Has the Governor become irrelevant?
 
They have the votes for an over ride.
 
Is Floyd Nease running for Lt Gov?
 
Floyd who?
 
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