Killington votes to secede from Vermont!

[Atman]

KILLINGTON, Vt. - Voting with a thunderous "aye," residents endorsed a plan Tuesday for this ski resort town to secede from Vermont and become a part of New Hampshire instead.

The overwhelming voice vote opened the next chapter in what could be a long and costly push to join New Hampshire, 25 miles to the east.

<snip>

The main source of discontent is Vermont's new system of financing education, adopted in 1997 on orders from the state Supreme Court. It dramatically increased property taxes in wealthy communities like Killington.

Secession activists say Killington's restaurants, inns and other businesses send $20 million a year to Montpelier in sales, room and meal taxes, while the state returns just $1 million in municipal and education aid to the town of roughly 1,000 residents.

"The state is treating us like a cash-cow," said David Lewis, town manager

-----

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=1&u=/ap/killington_secession

[ManneredChild]

1. Why not just pay the higher taxes

It's for schools and other social needs. Sounds like Vermont is taxing the rich like they should be taxed.

[Tuttle]

33. I agree

Bush is such a failure: I guess he let these 'lucky ducks' not get his huge windfall tax-cut.

That'll teach them to vote for the winner.

Uhmmm, did New Hampshire vote for the chimp, ManneredChild?

Tut-tut

[Renew Deal]

2. Dean will finally get military experience.

Leading the VT national guard to squash the rebellion. Dean is a modern day Abe Lincoln.

[Zhade]

5. Pretty hard for Dean to do this, since he IS NO LONGER THE GOVERNOR.

I mean, hell, some people hate Dean, but this comment is ridiculous.

[Renew Deal]

13. It's a joke.

And I don't hate Dean.

[Zhade]

23. D'oh! My apologies. I get mixed-up sometimes.

It's often hard to discern sarcasm in a message board post. :)

[ManneredChild]

8. How do you figure that?

He allowed a Rethug to be elected gov of Vermont. I thought Vermont was far left but it looks like I was wrong.

[mac2]

15. We can't trust any election unless it is paper ballot with public

local counting, etc. It might have been stolen just like MN, CA, GA,TX,FL, etc.

[ManneredChild]

21. Wow I missed those stolen elections (except FL)

Any idea where I could link and read about those elections. Can I assume the documentation is on-line?

[mac2]

28. Go to Black Box voting, Verified Voting.com

It's been all over these sites. It's been in the news also.

[ManneredChild]

29. I looked up Vermont's voting machines

They are all paper ballot. If the rethug cheated it was by other means than BB.

[mac2]

32. The vote can be stolen unless counted locally and in public.

Media can lie about the results. Vermont was not one of the states referred to when talking about wide spread voting fraud.

Federal laws regulate taxes that might not come BACK to your state.

[mac2]

20. Dean military experience? How?

[goobergunch]

3. They need Vermont's permission to do this. (n/t)

[Zed]

4. But wait...

Isn't New Hampshire's property tax high too, to make up for the lack of sales tax?

[maxanne]

48. NH's property tax

is probably higher. We have no state income tax or sales tax. Our property taxes are amongst the highest in the nation.

The Killingtonites will have the same problem here - paying enormous property taxes because of our regressive approach to taxation and funding education.

Clearly they haven't thought this through. Why anyone would trade Jeffords, Leahy, and Saunders in for Gregg, Sununu, and Bass is a complete mystery. The NH House has been controlled by the Republicans since the Civil War.

But - hey we do have liquor stores on the highways, and the cheapest cigarettes in New England.

[w4rma]

6. Jeeze. What a bunch of whiners. (n/t)

[ManneredChild]

10. I don't get it either

High taxes are good for the needy and others that are not as lucky to make good money. We need to help support these people even if it cuts hard into our own income.

[aquart]

19. Welcome to DU.

Awww, a guy with fifty million has to give up ten. Maybe twenty? My heart bleeds for his poverty and deprivation. I'm sure he'll just die if he has to order the cheap caviar.

You, of course, will never lose your job or have a catastrophic illness. That only happens to the undeserving. Who aren't patriotic.

Enjoy your stay.

[ManneredChild]

27. Did you mistake my post for another?

I'm in support of higher taxes for the rich. What brought your response to mine? Confusion or did you really mean to respond to me?

[SoCalDem]

7. They would rather be New Hampshire's cash cow??

:)

[pinto]

9. as an ex New Englander I'd say it sounds like "town meeting time"...

winters can be long and Town Meeting gives everyone a chance not to do something rash to the wife or the partner or the dog.....cessession sounds like as good a town meeting topic as any.

[mac2]

17. Vermont always wanted to secede....

[zanana]

34. Every couple of years, they come up with a plan...

to either secede from Vermont or become a small country! It does get them alot of publicity, every time!

[mac2]

36. It's fun to be a rebel?

[MaineDem]

26. Ours is Saturday

The best free entertainment in town! :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Because they don't want to help pay for the education of

Vermont's children? And that's a good thing? Perhaps they belong in New Hampshire. Isn't that where the Libertarians plan to colonize? Their motto: "We don't leave any child behind because we eat them, being the self-sufficient, hardy souls we are."

[Lindsay]

12. I guess the Killington branch of the

"I got mine, screw you" Party is out in force.

[mac2]

14. They're against paying for education?

New Hampshire have a cheaper/bad education system?

Killington ski resort and park is state owned is it not? They owe their living to it...the people of Vermont.

The business people should have to contribute to the park if that is the case. Their property increased because of business and desirability of the community. Greed.

Should other ski resort towns, ski resorts located on park lands, do the same?

[aquart]

22. With global warming, their high incomes may be moot real soon.

In which case, their real complaint is that Vermont sends so little back to Killington, which may find itself in dire financial need if all they get is rain instead of snow.

[mac2]

31. Or have the rich pay their share of taxes...

so they can't afford to drive up home prices in their town. Many rich own two or three vacation properties...skiing, water, island, etc.

AND...you're right, they profit off no pollution control that could ruin the climate.

They are also the reason workers can't afford taxes in the first place because of their low wages.

"Vote Democratic if you want to live like a Republican." Harry Truman.

[MaineDem]

24. No, it's not state owned

Killington is part of American Ski Company. They own a lot of resorts including Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine, Attitash in NH and a bunch in the west...Steamboat and at least one in Park City, Utah.

A money-losing company I should add.

[mac2]

35. They run the resort but don't own the land.

The ski resort is located in the state owned park. Many private enterprises operate in state and federal parks that have leases, contracts,etc. to do so. Like the concessions in Yosemite.

Killington ski resort was on public land years ago. Now..it might have been "privitized". The tax payers pay for the roads, police, medical response, etc.

The owners make the profit not the town, state, federal tax payers.

[ManneredChild]

30. Their taxes are by town not business

Someone living in the town on a fixed income or unemployed will pay the higher tax just becaus ethey live in the same town with the higher tax.

I guess that is ok if Vermont and its residents supports that way of paying by town. It could be a problem for a retired Vermonter living in the house handed down through generations and the town built up around it thereby rasing his taxes for the same old shack.

[mac2]

37. Our seniors are suffering from bad public policies.

[chasqui]

49. Oh, the state could do so much to make their lives hell.

All they need to do is take one out of the Chicago City Hall playbook.

[SeattleDem]

16. then I vote that the red/Gore states secede from the US

If this logic is to be followed, then in general, the states that voted for Gore in 2000 should secede from the U.S.

Citizens of states like New York and California pay far more in federal taxes than they get back, while the blue Bush states are welfare recipients, taking more of the federal pie than they contribute.

Let's secede and see how the blue states survive without us!

[mac2]

18. How exciting!!! I even wrote Frist and told him so when he

complained about high federal taxes in Tennessee. They had no state taxes but got lots of federal money (more than paid out) to pave roads, universities,TVA management,etc.

I asked his state to live on it's own tax dollar and stop whining.

[xchrom]

25. you're not playing fair

frist doesn't know what to do with facts.
now a kitty cat -- that's different.

[napsi]

38. This is where I part with other democrats.

I support the democratic party when it comes to environmental regulation, gay marriage, equal pay for women, AA, even the idea wealthy should pay more taxes. However, when I see people here just arbitrarily suggest that "rich" people should pay more just because......then I get steamed. It seems in the short time I have been here I find many people who just flat out hate anyone who has more than they do? That's not the democratic party. That's not the party that my parents voted for or taught me to respect.

Penalizing wealth is a damn bad idea......the road leads to places none of us want to go. Just my humble opinion. The democrat party is full of wealthy people. Are we willing to just thumb our nose at them and say.......see ya? I hope not.

[ManneredChild]

39. That's not quite true that people here hate the rich

Kerry's wife is filthy rich and most of the people speaking out in Hollywood are filthy rich so it would be a mistake to assume they are hated here because they are fully supported here by most people.

[Tuttle]

41. and 'where' is 'here'

are you talking about VA, VT, the US, DU or Free Republic?

Wow, 28 posts today! Now THAT'S typing!

Tut-tut

[ManneredChild]

46. Try asking the poster that mentioned "here"

"when I see people here just arbitrarily suggest that "rich" people should pay more just because..."

That is the one you need to ask.

[Atlant]

40. Rich assholes are the same everywhere.

Killington: Land of thousands of ski condos where people are
impoverished by having to pay their property taxes.

Atlant

[ManneredChild]

42. Every longtime resident of Killington owns a condo?

I'm guessing that is not true. I'd bet there are some native Vermonters living on their few dozen acres they have handed down through generations that are paying a few thousand dollars they don't have to spare.

[Tuttle]

44. Then those will be the ones carrying rifles and wearing gasmasks

while Ken Lay's progeny doesn't bother showing up for VTANG exercises.

Tut-tut

[ManneredChild]

47. I don't follow your words

Was that supposed to be relevant to Killington?

[Tuttle]

50. it is like this

The rich don't provide fodder for pre-emptive strikes - this is why they should pay taxes. If they would be willing to allow there own children to ACTUALLY be 'all that they can be' then maybe the issue of tax fairness would get de-fused.

Currently, what assistance do the rich provide in the war on terror (other than the most visible 'reason why they hate us')?

Hell, they even get paid to buy Hummers!

Tut-tut

[Atlant]

52. Why do I suspect that VT has a "homestead" exemption for this situation?

I suspect that ski condos are taxed on a different basis than
long-standing family farms.

And I bet it is the ski condo folks and not the family farm folks
that are raising the ruckus. Curiously, it's the exact same pheno-
menon happening at Mt. Snow. Think it's the farmers there too?

Atlant

[bicentennial_baby]

53. You are correct sir

You got it!

[Forkboy]

43. I'm just glad they're not wasting thier time doing something silly

:eyes:

[renegade000]

45. heh

i wonder if we in NVA can use this as precendence for suceeding from Southern Virginia.

[jamesinca]

51. Poor whining greedy people

Support education, it is not my job to, I want to go to NH. I think CA should use their logic and pull out of the U.S. After all we are one of the states that gives more than we receive from our tax money. CA is supporting the tax welfare south. CA the liberal state is supporting the southern republican states. I believe it is IN, that gets a dollar in services for every dollar in taxes it pays. Everyone of the red states is on the federal payroll. They get more services than they pay for.

Somebody should read the Constitution to this David Lewis person. "We the people, in order to form a a more perfect Union... promote the general welfare..." It is his job as a citizen to help out. I am sure that they are not taking the $19 million hit. They are passing it on to consumers in the form of higher rates. If he goes to NH, will his quality of education drop at local schools, will the services provided decrease? Will he cry because of such a drop in the quality of life, or neglect by the state?

[bushisanidiot]

54. If Individual towns are allowed to just join other states by taking a

simple vote, then why hasn't this been happening all over the u.s.?? This seems weird..