Tired of Taxes, Vermont Ski Resort Town Considers Joining New Hampshire [See ya Dean..]

TBO.COM ^

[Sub-Driver]

Tired of Taxes, Vermont Ski Resort Town Considers Joining New Hampshire The Associated Press

KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - Officials in the popular ski resort area of Killington want the town to secede from Vermont and join neighboring New Hampshire in a dispute over taxes. They say the town's restaurants, inns and other businesses send $10 million a year to the state capital in sales, room and meal taxes, but the state returns just $1 million in state aid to Killington.

Even more galling to the town is a statewide property tax imposed in 1997 to fund schools. The town of 1,092 won a Superior Court order that called the state's method of assessing local properties "arbitrary and capricious," but the state Supreme Court reversed that decision.

"It kind of reminds us of Colonial days," Town Manager David Lewis said Thursday. "The Colonies were being faced with the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, the Sugar Act. England wasn't giving them any rights. They were treating the Colonies as just a revenue source."

New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.

Killington's Select Board wants to put the secession idea before voters on Town Meeting Day in March.

Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said Killington has little chance of secession "absent an armed insurrection type of thing. ... A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature."

New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said he would be flattered if Vermont wanted to join New Hampshire - but he's not making any promises.

In Killington, not everyone likes the idea.

"I love having a Vermont address. I'm proud of it. It's a cool place to live," said resident Steven Kelly.

[Bikers4Bush]

Nothing like being legally robbed.

[BillyBonebrake]

It might be a cool place to live, but 9% sales tax is totally uncool, dude...

[Support Free Republic]

Hey, I don't mean to be nosey...

... but I'd really like some bacon,
or some help for FR.

[kitkat]

***A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature." ***

WRONG! The government exists at the pleasure of the people.

[mylife]

New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.

Yes but they have some Hellish Property Tax.

[Professional Engineer]

I love this picture.

[looscnnn]

He could always move to another location in Vermont and still have a cool Vermont address.

[looscnnn]

Probably can't be worse than what they have now.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said Killington has little chance of secession "absent an armed insurrection type of thing. ... A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature."

She reminds me of RIchard II addressing Wat Tyler. "Villains ye are, villains ye remain!"

[PianoMan]

I was appalled at that quote too. Well what do you expect from a secretary of state?:)

[Itzlzha]

Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said Killington has little chance of secession "absent an armed insurrection type of thing. ... A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature."

Wow, obviously another graduate of the "Public Screwel" system...

Hey, Deborah Markowitz...ever hear of "Government OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People"?

Seems you take your "People" for granted, or else you have a Soviet-style Gulag planned...given the Socialist nature of areas of Vt., that is entirely within the realm of possibility!

"Comrade, the State orders you to SKI!"

[Theodore R.]

The Texas sales tax (state and local combined) reaches some 8.5 percent in some localities.

[Theodore R.]

Wasn't it primarily liberal "Yuppies" and such trendy types who left NY for VT in the 1970s and 1980s and turned VT socialist? I don't think it was the native Vermonters.

[expatpat]

Yeah -- at least one of them moved there from Fifth Avenue. However, I've heard he's planning to leave and move to DC.

[PortugeeJoe]

New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.

Yes but they have some Hellish Property Tax.

Add up NH's 'Hellish Proprty Tax' plus our sales tax (0%), plus our state income tax (0%), and it's a whole lot less than anywhere else in the northeast.

My family is solidly middle class (~75K per year) and we have a large house on an acre of land near the MA border. if we moved 12 miles south into MA, our total tax bill would go up by $2,000-$2,500. I would expect that moving to Maine or Vermont would show a similar increase. (Maybe slightly smaller, but not too much.)

[Living Free in NH]

New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.

Yes but they have some Hellish Property Tax.

It's not too bad. My home is about $250,000 and the annual tax is $3700. Most states have a sales tax with a lower property tax, but unlike the sales tax, the $3700 property tax is deductable on my federal return. That brings it down to about $2500.

And let's not forget, the taxes are "for the children."

[cruiserman]

IMO property tax is the most evil, since you will never own your property.

[mylife]

I stand corrected....Maybe I'll look into that job with BAE in Nashua ;^)