Tax Policy

  • Tax only unearned-income, (investment income) not salary/wages.
  • Phase out property tax completely, moving to a land-value-tax, (taxes only the value of the unimproved land, vs buildings etc). This will create a progressive incentive toward sustainable economic development and remove the ever-increasing property-tax burdens that we currently place on those who create the most value.
  • Economic Development: Over one billion dollars in potential tax revenue are siphoned off from Vermont yearly, by large corporations that are extracting Vermont's resources. We should explore collecting tax revenue on these resource extractions, in order to free Vermont's people and businesses from paying taxes on their earned income. This could be accomplished in a manner similar to Alaska and Norway have accomplished the 'Citizen's Dividend.'
  • What should be the amount of these taxes? It should be the fair market value of that which has been used, spoilt, consumed. For example, a polluter's tax would be the cleanup costs, the cost of restoring the environment to the state in which it was, before the pollution took place. 
    Shifting tax to site and resource values will immediately accomplish the following:
  1. Groundwater: $671 million: Coca-cola, Nestle, Perrier, etc.
  2. Minerals: $96.8 million (2005) mostly Omya of Switzerland
  3. Surface water: $7.6 million
  4. Wireless Spectrum: $375 million to media companies
  5. Forests: TBD
  6. Hydropower: 550MW of hydropower owned by TransCanada. 
  • Preliminary estimate of total revenue: $1.2 Billion per year
  • Vermont should repeal all taxes on business that are based on value added, productivity, Capital etc. These taxes should be replaced with a simple tax on unimproved site values, raw materials extraction, pollution, the private usage of any Common assets. 
  • Vermont should tax the importation of fossil fuels at the borders and funnel those funds toward the development of in-state renewable generation.  
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