Please Email Tom McLinden for invitation. tom@mclinden.net
Rob Roper, President of the Ethan Allen Institute, will present his action plan to push back against a proposed plan to expand the sales tax to cover all goods and services. We will leave the meeting with a to-do list for immediate action. He believes we need to take a stand immediately against this ill-advised idea, and let the legislature know that Vermonters on both sides of the isle are opposed. Here is what he has to say:
The Proposed Expansion of VT Sales Tax to Essential Goods and Services
The Vermont Tax Structure Commission recommended to the legislature that it should expand Vermont's 6% sales and use tax, which is currently limited to non-essential goods and a handful of services, to cover all goods and services except healthcare, and to lower the overall rate to 3.6%.
Essential goods that would now be subject to the new 3.6% tax include food, clothing, and home energy. Over two hundred services would be subject to the new tax would include childcare, college and other tuition, legal aid, carpentry, plumbing, hair and beauty services, home maintenance, etc. The Commission's recommendation is not a revenue neutral one but calls for a $20 million net revenue increase, above and beyond added costs for bureaucracy and new or expanded income redistribution programs.
In addition to making Vermont a less affordable place to live for us all, the new logistical burden that would be placed on service businesses, many of which are small and struggling, to collect, account for, and remit the taxes would be an especially cruel blow as they try to recover from the economic devastation caused by Covid. Not to mention putting them at a severe competitive disadvantage with rivals across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire and the other forty-six states that don't cast nearly as broad a sales tax net.
This will be a joint presentation of the Stowe Republicans, the Lamoille County Republicans, and the VT Conservative Network. Other County Republican Committees are welcome to join.