With Vermont individuals, local, and state governments reeling under the costs of cleaning up after tropical storm Irene, Lt. Governor Phil Scott says that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.
Scott was asked by a caller on a WGDR/WGDH radio talk show about the “billionaires” the caller said are living in Vermont and why they aren’t helping more to repair flood damage. Scott said he doesn’t know who the billionaires are, but he does want to look at how Vermont taxes the wealthiest residents.
“Many of the people with a lot of assets don’t necessarily, I don’t believe, pay their fair share,” Scott said. “They maybe don’t have a lot of income, but they have an incredible amount of assets. You have to be careful when you try and tap into that, because of course our farming community, who is very important to us, especially here in Vermont, they have a lot of assets. We don’t want to cripple those that just happen to have land as an asset. But more of the liquid assets, the cash in the bank, when many are just living off the interest, is something that I don’t know how to repair (sic), but I think it’s fair to say that they should pay more.”
Asked about accomplishing the goal by increasing taxes on unearned income, Scott said, “I think it’s something that should be looked at, absolutely.”
Scott cautioned, however, that states are in competition with each other and Vermont needs to keep in mind the effect of its tax policies on wealthy individuals’ decisions to live here.
Governor Peter Shumlin’s press secretary, Sue Allen, said that Shumlin believes that the wealthy are taxed high enough in Vermont compared with other states. He would support a federal tax increase on the wealthy, but not a change in Vermont.