On the front lawn of the Statehouse Wednesday, hundreds of activists converged for a sun-soaked rally to demand a state budget that “puts people first.”

But nary a May Day protester could be found within the Senate chamber that morning as legislators debated perhaps the most consequential bill this year concerning economic fairness.

There, by a vote of 24 to 5, the Senate approved $10 million in new taxes, the majority of which would be paid by wealthy Vermonters. 

The plan raises $7.4 million of that by capping the mortgage interest deduction at $12,000 and setting a minimum tax of three percent for those earning more than $125,000 a year. It raises much of the rest by taxing bottled water and satellite TV.

More important than what was in the Senate’s version of the tax bill was what wasn’t.

Despite Gov. Peter Shumlin’s repeated calls to pay for new spending by slashing $17 million from the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Senate didn’t touch the thing. It was so loathed by lawmakers as a regressive scheme to put low-income, working Vermonters on the hook that Shumlin’s proposal was barely mentioned during hours of floor debate.

Instead, the Senate largely approved a far more progressive plan drafted by Senate Finance Committee chairman Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden). 

But neither Ashe’s capital-P Progressive bona fides nor his efforts to spare the EITC shielded his plan from criticism from the left.

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

3 replies on “As It Passes Tax Bill, Senate Debates How Progressive is Progressive Enough”

  2. “”People who have gained the most are going to be asked to do the least when it comes to balancing the budget and taking care of our neighbors, and I just think that’s wrong,” Pollina said in a stem-winder of a speech.”
    When will this live-of-family-money, Karl Marx-wannabe, publicity hog leave us alone? There is absolutely no crisis in VT that requires the state to tax the s*** out of everybody who works for a living and everybody who’s moderately successful. Reduce the size of government! Live within your means! NH has twice the population and a smaller government and nobody’s dying in the streets in NH. Message to Pollina: you like big government? Donate as much of your family money to it as you like. Stop spending mine.

  3. The myth is that there are all these wealthy people ready to be milked. The towns too have a sense of entitlement to what it’s citizen constituents own. No, Anthony, what I earn should be mine.

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