Replies

If you read the article in the link I provided you'll see that some programs were cut, taxes were not raised, the legislature didn't pass any cigarette taxes....the state was short on funds but Dean insisted on a balanced budget - and got it. Perfect, no. But he doesn't seem like a pork-barrel guy, that's for sure

He is a tax increaser though. He has said that he will repeal Bush's tax cuts.

Also he was a head of a state of 1 million people and governing something 280 times bigger is a whole different ball game.

Here's why their was a 'tax increase'; it really wasn't - you'll see why.

MONTPELIER — Vermont will need to raise its income tax rate to ensure state coffers don’t lose millions when the Bush tax cut is enacted, Gov. Howard Dean said Thursday.

Initial estimates based on the tax bill passed by the U.S. House is that Vermont could lose $181 million in state tax dollars over the next four years.

“It is a significant amount of money,” Dean said after a meeting on the issue with House Speaker Walter Freed, R-Dorset. “This is not the kind of thing we can take lightly.”

The governor said he and the speaker agreed to ask the Legislature to give the state Emergency Board the authority to raise the state tax rate later this year once it becomes clear what Congress is going to do on tax cuts.

Dean said the aim was to ensure that Vermont’s income taxes generated what they would have raised if there were no federal tax cut.

“This is totally revenue neutral,” he said.

Vermont’s tax system is one of three in the nation in which taxpayers use their federal tax bill to calculate their state taxes. A Vermont taxpayer who owes the federal government $1,000 pays the state 24 percent of that total, which would be $240.

It is a simple system but is affected by every change that happens at the federal level. What Dean wants to do is adjust the state rate so the taxpayer who would have paid $240 before the federal tax cut still pays $240 after the federal tax cut.