Rick Martin is suffering from a bad case of buyer’s remorse.
When he purchased a vacant general store on Route 100 in Plymouth in 2022, he envisioned a thriving local establishment that would provide a needed service to his small community, jobs for local residents, and profits that he could plow into the animal rescue organizations that are his passion.
He named the store after his beloved late rescue dog, Chloe, and he said recently that the market has been a hit.
He’s now contending with an unexpected expense, however, that threatens his business plan.
“If I had known in August of 2022 when I bought this store that they were going to increase my tax burden by this much, I wouldn’t have bought this store,” Martin said.
The education property tax bill for Chloe’s Market this year exceeds $9,000. Property taxes on Martin’s home, meanwhile, which is also in Plymouth, have jumped from $2,000 when he bought it in 2006 to more than $6,000 now.
“They just keep heaping these taxes on us,” Martin told Vermont Public. “But they don’t understand the state’s going to go bankrupt eventually. There’s only so far you can go before you drive every single resident out of the state.”
This election season, Vermont Public has heard from hundreds of residents on what issues matter most to them. Taxes quickly emerged as one of the most salient topics.
Over the past two years alone, the property taxes that Vermonters, businesses and second homeowners pay to support public education have risen by more than $260 million. And homeowners like Bill Murray, who lives in Windham County, say they can’t understand how elected officials allowed it to happen.
“I guess I’m really concerned that nobody caught this, or if they did catch it sooner than it was made public that they didn’t own up and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a problem here,’” Murray said.
Murray said local representatives have explained to him and other constituents that it’s decisions by local school boards, and the local voters who approved them, that are driving the sharp increase in property taxes this year. But Murray said he wants elected officials in Montpelier to take ownership of the problem.
“I would just like somebody to take responsibility and say, ‘We missed this,’ and make sure that it doesn’t happen again, because our taxes went up roughly between 17% to 20%,” he said.
It’s the spike in property taxes that concerns voters the most. But those aren’t the only new costs Vermonters are being asked to absorb. A payroll tax enacted by the Legislature in 2023, for instance, will deduct more than $80 million from workers’ paychecks this fiscal year, in order to fund child care subsidies. A new sales tax on computer software services will cost businesses another $16 million. And a 3% surcharge on short-term rentals will collect an additional $14.7 million in revenue from taxpayers.
Murray said individual tax increases in isolation might not seem like a big deal.
“But when you add them all up, it makes a huge difference to people,” he said.
For Essex resident Linda Waite-Simpson, the tax burden in this state has altered the future she once imagined here.
Even though my family is here and I will miss them terribly, I just don’t think I’m going to be able to afford to stay here.Former Democratic Essex Rep. Linda Waite-Simpson
“I am just coming to the conclusion that if I stay here after I retire, I am going to be bankrupt within five years,” she said.
Waite-Simpson, a former Democratic representative who served in Montpelier from 2009 until 2015, said she and her family chose to move to Vermont from New York about 25 years ago.
“You know — good healthy place to raise a family, and good schools and all of that, so we moved here, even knowing that cost of living was higher than it might be otherwise,” she said.
But the latest increase in her property tax bill, Waite-Simpson said, has pushed that cost of living beyond what she can bear.
“So this year my property tax bill was over 10% of my gross income. That’s just the property tax. And then you start adding all the other taxes, and it’s just like, there’s not enough left,” she said. “To me it seems like a silly calculus to try and stay in Vermont. Even though my family is here and I will miss them terribly, I just don’t think I’m going to be able to afford to stay here.”
According to U.S. Census data from 2021, Vermont had the seventh-highest per capita tax revenue in the nation for state and local taxes. Since then, acts of the Vermont Legislature have cumulatively increased tax obligations in the state by nearly $360 million, according to data from the Vermont Department of Taxes.
Those increases arrive as Vermont saw the highest year-over-year increase in housing prices in the nation, and double-digit increases in health insurance premiums.
Waite-Simpson said she doesn’t necessarily doubt the potential benefits of the programs and services that tax dollars fund. But when she talked to her local representatives about the financial duress she’s experiencing as a result of rising taxes, “the only thing they could tell me was, ‘Get a roommate.’”
“I think my jaw hit the ground when one of them said that to me. It was just not the kind of solution I wanted to hear,” Waite-Simpson said. “What about my basic needs, you know? It’s like I don’t feel like anybody is even looking at my basic needs.”
Vermont Public asked candidates for local and statewide office what they plan to do to address rising property taxes. Esther Charlestin, the Democratic candidate for governor, said she wants to explore ways to more efficiently deploy resources, as well as a wealth tax to take the pressure off middle-income residents.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott said the state needs to grow the workforce, bring in more students or, failing that, consolidate schools.
Dave Lajoie, a retired public school teacher who lives in Brownington, said he welcomes whatever measures elected officials can take to address the 10% increase in his property tax bill this year.
“Right now, good God, if we had extra expenses, it would have to make some hard choices, for sure,” Lajoie said.
But Lajoie isn’t anticipating any meaningful relief in the short term. He said his town has been represented by Republicans and Democrats alike over the years. And while many Republican candidates for House and Senate are running against the recent tax increases that were enacted over Scott’s objections, Lajoie said he isn’t entirely convinced that sending more fiscal conservatives to Montpelier will solve the problem.
“All the Republicans are going around saying, ‘Well, we got to break up the supermajority, that’s what’s holding things back and there’s not enough balance in there.’ And that’s probably true,” Lajoie said. “But they don’t have ideas. They just have a slogan.”
Lynn Parker, who grew up in Woodstock and now lives in Sharon, said she didn’t appreciate just how significant her tax bill was in Vermont until she moved to Florida in 2006.
After living back in the state I was born in, grew up in and loved, I’m now ready to leave due to unfair taxation.Sharon resident Lynn Parker
She moved back to Vermont about 10 years ago to be closer to family.
“When I realized what the difference was between Vermont and Florida, it was just astounding,” Parker said. “I just simply don’t know why. I don’t think we get that many more benefits.”
Vermont is one of few states that fully taxes most military pensions (the state does offer a limited exemption of up to $10,000 on retirement income for income-eligible individuals). It’s something that Parker, who receives a surviving spousal military benefit, finds especially galling.
“And after living back in the state I was born in, grew up in and loved, I’m now ready to leave due to unfair taxation,” she said.
Vermonters will get to decide who controls the future of tax policy in the state when they head to the polls on Nov. 5.
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