Reply #223: Dean did raise taxes as governor [View All]

[Nicholas_J]

Just not income taxes. In fact lets look at what tax experst say about what happened in Vermont to tax regressivity in the Dean years:

Vermont’s Tax Code: No Breaks for the Poor and Middle Class
When all Vermont taxes are totaled up, the study found that:

The richest Vermont taxpayers—with average incomes of $686,000—pay 9.7% of their income in Vermont state and local taxes before accounting for the tax savings from federal itemized deductions. After the federal offset, they pay only 7.1%.

Middle-income taxpayers in Vermont—those earning between $27,000 and $44,000—pay 9.8% of their income in Vermont state and local taxes before the federal deduction offset and 9.5% after the offset—much more than what the rich pay.


# Vermont families earning less than $16,000—the poorest fifth of Vermont non-elderly taxpayers—pay 10% of their income in Vermont state and local taxes, one and half times the share the wealthiest Vermonters pay.

“Vermont’s income tax is not progressive enough to offset the regressivity of its sales and excise taxes,” McIntyre said. “Taxes ought to be based on people’s ability to pay them, which means that the share of income paid in taxes should rise as income grows, not fall as is the case in Vermont.”


http://www.itepnet.org/wp2000/vt%20pr.pdf.

And lets just have a look at Vermont's entire economic profile during thw 90's, the Dean decade:

Vermont at a Glance

Many families in Vermont saw moderate improvements in their standard of living over the 1990s as the wages of median-wage workers grew. However, low-wage workers saw their wages decline over the 1990s, and median income stagnated. The poverty rate and income inequality in Vermont grew over the 1990s (see link below for table).

Median family income for four-person families
Middle-income families in Vermont have not fared particularly well during the current economic expansion. The incomes of families in the middle of the income distribution stagnated over the 1990s. Median family income for four-person families was $53,691 in 1998, compared to its 1989 level of $53,103 (in 1998 dollars).

Income inequality
Income inequality in Vermont grew over the 1990s. In the late 1990s, the income of the wealthiest 20% of families was 8.4 times that of the poorest 20% of families. By comparison, in the late 1980s, the wealthiest 20% of families had 7.4 times the income of the poorest 20%.

Poverty rate
The poverty rate in Vermont grew during the 1990s, from 8.1% in 1987-88 to 9.6% in 1997-98. However, the poverty rate in Vermont in the late 1990s remained below the national rate (13.0% in 1997-98).


Jobs paying poverty-level wages
Many jobs in Vermont pay poverty-level wages. In 1999, 25.5% of jobs in Vermont paid below the wage needed to lift a family of four above the poverty line with full-time, full-year work. The share of jobs that pay poverty-level wages grew over the 1990s, but Vermont still has a smaller share of poverty-wage jobs than does nation as a whole

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/datazone_states_usmap_vt

Lets look again at Dean ideas as to who should bear trhe burden of his budget balancing act:

By the same token, though, he also supported raising taxes — as long as it wasn’t the income tax — when school funding crises and other issues arose that required it.

Throughout, he held a tight rein on state spending, repeatedly clashing with the Democrats who controlled the Legislature for most of his years as governor.

Dean trimmed spending or held down increases in areas held dear by the liberals. More than once, Dean went to battle over whether individual welfare benefits should rise under automatic cost of living adjustments. Liberals were particularly incensed when he tried that tactic on a program serving the blind, disabled and elderly, which he did several times.

http://premium1.fosters.com/2003/news/may_03/may_19/news/reg_vt0519a.asp

Even the governor’s closest allies in the Senate ignored him. Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham, recommended restoring $440,000 to one of the pharmaceutical assistance programs and the Senate voted 22-7 to go along with her.

“I’ve become convinced that we have a philosophical difference between the governor, the Republican House and this Senate,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham.

“The governor and the Republican House want to balance this budget on the backs of our most vulnerable Vermonters. The Senate wants to balance this budget on the backs of the pharmaceutical companies who are charging too much for drugs.”

http://timesargus.com/Legislature/Story/46513.html

Dean did not cut government spending as Governor as the Vermont budget went from 890 million dollars in the year he took office to 3.5 billion by the year he left, but again, Dean contininually requested cuts to Social programs that assisted the poor, ths disabled and the elderly, while at the same time supporting construction projects that were desired by the businesses that he supported, and supported his continual re-election At the same time he was recommending cuts to health care expenditures, he was pushing for a milti-million dollar bridge constrction project to benefit one company, Husky Injection Molding:

From the August 30, 1996 print edition
Husky picks Vermont site for plastics machine plant
Michael Farrell
Almost five months to the day after local officials held a rally at a Colonie hotel to lure Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. of Bolton, Ontario, to the area, the company has decided to build its new plant in Vermont...

Dean apparently was convincing. According to some published reports, the governor offered Husky an economic development package valued at more than $10 million.

Most of that will come as a new bridge across Arrowhead Lake, connecting the site with Route 7, which will cost about $6 million. The bridge is expected to be completed by 2003.

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/1996/09/02/story8.html?page=2

Lets tell the truth about Dean's budget balancing act. It was not Deans initial program that got the state out oof the deficit it was in when Dean became governor upon Richard Snelling death, but a program that Snelling put in place, developed by liberal Vermont Democrats, that raised income taxes progressively, and sucessfully eliminted that deficit. Once the deficit had been eliminated, Dean allowed the progressive tax to expire, and from then on, Deans only method to balance budget was simply to cut, cut, cut social programs, refuse to raise taxes, and keep supporting programs that served the interests of big business:

Progressives call for higher taxes for rich
January 25, 2002

By JACK HOFFMAN

Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER — Vermont Progressives renewed their call Thursday for higher taxes on the wealthy in order to avoid some of the budget cuts that Gov. Howard Dean outlined earlier this week...

In 1991, then-Gov. Richard Snelling, a Republican, and the Democratic Legislature imposed surcharges on upper-income Vermonters to dig the state out of a huge budget deficit. Those surcharges were temporary, and they were lifted after the shortfall was repaid.

The Progressives said their proposal was designed to mirror the surcharges adopted during that last budget crisis, but they have not proposed an expiration date for the new surcharges.

Dean reiterated his opposition to raising the income tax shortly after the Progressives unveiled their tax plan. Dean contends Vermont’s marginal income tax rate — that is, the top rate paid by those in the highest income brackets — already is too high.


http://timesargus.com/Legislature/Story/41293.html


Which programs did Dean want to cut in orde to balance that Budget?

Who did he say were paying too much in taxes?


There is a profound difference between fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism.

Deans ideas were widely supported by Vermont Republicans. Dean is also the only candidate who ran during this campaign who recieved direct support from Republicans, including fund raising efforts:

Some Republicans back Dean
By TRACY SCHMALER Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER - Democratic Gov. Howard Dean got a boost from the other side Thursday when a group of prominent Republicans turned out to support his re-election bid.

Led by South Burlington attorney William Gilbert, a core group of 11 Republicans said they believed Dean has proven his ability to lead the state in a fiscally responsible direction and for that reason, and his nine years of experience, he is their choice over GOP candidate Ruth Dwyer

Even Dean acknowledged that his fiscal policy was the common ground he shared with the nine men and two women at the table, most of whom admitted to voting for Dean in the last election.

The group, known as "Republicans for Dean" represents the first organized GOP endorsement for Dean in any of his five campaigns


http://www.rutlandherald.com/election2000/repbackdean.html

Now lets see who William Gilbert is, and what his relation to Business and Dean is:

Dean had own secret energy group
Candidate criticizes Cheney task force for secrecy
Sunday, December 28, 2003 Posted: 9:12 PM EST (0212 GMT)



Dean talks with union members during a visit last week to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean has demanded release of secret deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.

But as Vermont governor, Dean had an energy task force that met in secret and angered state lawmakers....

One co-chairman of Dean's task force, William Gilbert, was a Republican Vermont lawyer who had done work for state utilities. At the time, Gilbert also served on the board of Vermont Gas Systems, a subsidiary of Hydro Quebec...

... It also freed the state's utilities from their deal with a giant Canadian power company, Hydro Quebec, that had left them near bankruptcy but passed as much as 90 percent of those costs to consumers. Utility shareholders also suffered some losses...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/28/elec04.prez.dean.energy.ap/

Who was it who picked up the tab for the near bankruptcy that Dean's Hydro Quebec deal caused?

Who worked for Hydrao-Quebec's subsidiary?

Who supported Deans run for Governor while this was going on?

Who benefits from Howard Deans fiscal conservatism?

Who does not?