BRATTLEBORO-At a time of high turnover at the Legislature, including three retirements in Windham County, Emilie Kornheiser 's experience and seniority are important to us locally and to the state as a whole. However, she is facing a challenge in the Democratic primary.
In the most recent biennium, Emilie served as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which works on tax policy. She displayed bold progressive vision focused on solving some of Vermont's most intractable problems.
During the most recent session, her committee offered H.829, a bill to raise funds to build housing in Vermont, using a tax on the 1% of Vermonters with annual personal income over $500,000.
Other bills that did not pass in the Senate this spring would have raised the corporate income tax to expand Vermont Medicaid coverage for young adults, those who are pregnant, and older Vermonters, and to fund a temporary increase in staff for the state courts, which have been badly backlogged since the pandemic. I hope these bills are reintroduced.
Health insurers in Vermont propose another year of double-digit premium increases, making state support for health care coverage more critical. We hear from Vermont Public that the state has almost 550 people - a historic high - in pretrial detention due to court backlogs. This is not fair to defendants or to their victims.
According to the Public Assets Institute's report, State of Working Vermont 2023, the share of income going to the top 1% of Vermont taxpayers has risen, from 9% to 16%, since the 1970s.
While the overall rate of taxation has not changed over the past 30 years, the burden of taxation has shifted from higher earners to the middle class. As a percentage of income, counting all state and local taxes, Vermonters with incomes between $83,000 and $240,000 pay the highest rates (10.5% to 10.6%). Those with incomes over $240,000, comprising 5% of taxpayers, pay less; Vermonters making over $500,000 - 1% of us - pay at a rate of 10.1%.
The Ways and Means Committee is responsible for setting the education property tax rate for the state. Due to a perfect storm of factors, this year will see a rate increase much greater than anyone wants it to be.
The bill setting the rate this year includes a requirement that legislators dedicate themselves over the next year and a half to redesigning Vermont's school funding system.
This effort will benefit from Emilie's experience, vision, and courage; she will be well placed to represent the interests of Windham County and Brattleboro.
We need to return Emilie to Montpelier, where she can continue the struggle on our behalf.
Rebecca Bartlett
Brattleboro
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