Legislative response to the governor's budget proposal

The Chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, Senator Susan Bartlett and Representative Martha Heath made the following statement today in response to the Governor s budget proposal:
We are pleased that the Administration finally put its proposal on the table but it is disappointing to see primarily recycled ideas.
After a cursory review of the proposal we have several significant concerns. First, the proposal would result in a monumental property tax increase. We are seriously concerned that their proposal to shift the teacher s retirement to the Education Fund would result in shifting the entire teacher s retirement liability, roughly $100 million, onto the property taxpayers. We do not believe that Vermonters can afford a property tax increase of this proportion.
We believe in these difficult economic times, middle and lower income Vermonters need relief, which is why we proposed a tax cut for those making under $250,000. While Governor Douglas claims to be cutting taxes for middle income Vermonters, he is in fact not reducing taxes for any household making under $75,000. What s more, by reducing income sensitivity from $90,000 to $75,000, Governor Douglas is burdening an average $1,100 property tax increase on 13,000 middle income families. In fact, the actual impact on individual Vermont families could be as high as $8,000. It is disappointing that while Governor Douglas wants to cut taxes for the wealthiest Vermonters, he remains unwilling to join us in giving hard working, middle and lower income Vermonters the relief they need.
Overall, the Governor s proposal amounts to little more than shifting responsibility to someone else. The Governor s budget proposal shifts costs to working Vermonters, property taxpayers, health care providers, Vermonters with private health insurance, municipal governments and the state colleges. It appears that since the Governor can t solve the budget crisis himself, he is forcing Vermonters to do it for him.