Mountain Times
8/6/16
Dear Editor,
Bruce Lisman knows how Vermont works and it begins with more taxes. Even the carbon tax idea will put more home heating oil customers into the mix. It is a terrible idea. Now we learn that the Vermont General Fund will drop another $28 million this year. They even want to take more money out of the Education Fund for pre-school daycare. Which brings me to what I want to say.
In spite of losing 20,000 students in our education system over the past 10-12 years, the funding for our schools has increased more than $600 million to $1.4 billion. Along with students disappearing, one has to assume that they did not die. Their parents just left the state for lack of income which leads to less tax revenue.
The Education Fund needs an overhaul as spending just does not stop and property taxes keep on rising. Vermont cannot continue to raise taxes on every thing that moves. We read that in some school districts the cost per student is reaching to $15,000 to $17,000. A lot of this comes from increasing costs to teach our young people. It never stops.
Bruce Lisman has been behind The Campaign for Vermont for years. He was Chairman of the UVM school board in 2000 and turned it around. The CFV has campaigned against the costs in the Education Fund and it has also fought to get a handle on property taxes not to mention municipal tax increases. It seems that the Vermont legislature did not hear Vermonters when they asked for changes in the Education Funding laws in 2015. Everyone who works in government gets a raise every year while ordinary Vermonters have no hope of such increases.
It is important for people in Vermont to realize that having insiders, those who have been in government for years, are not a good template for change. Lisman knows how to change this and with the help of Tom Pelham and others he will cut the spending faster than other insiders. Also, the state pension funds are so far underwater to the tune of $2 billion. Where are Vermonters going to get the money to pay the promises that government officials gave to all government workers? Vermont is in a big, bad: MESS
Edwin J. Fowler, Killington, Vt
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