Statehouse Journal: February 13th to February 16th
Winter returns - Perhaps
A few chilly days in Montpelier. But is is February after all. That flash of gold in the background of the photo is the Capitol dome, I'm on the walking path on my way to the co-op to pick up some lunch.
How does that work?
I mean, you meet in Montpelier Tuesday thru Friday, but you live in Colchester and your constituents are in Colchester.
It's really up to each Legislator. My first session I commuted most of the week and only spent one night at the Capital Plaza. The State reimburses milage, but also pay for the hotel if I use it.
I found that a lot of getting things done requires meeting with other people, and the time driving back and forth was eating into my days. The second session I spent two nights each week at a hotel in Berlin.
Last biennium I found a studio apartment. so then and now, I drive down Tuesday, park the truck, walk to the Capitol each day and don't start the truck again until Friday.
Moving things along
Several important pieces of legislation are finally moving. Lest you think all we talk about in Montpelier is how to tax people, keep in mind that I'm on the Ways & Means committee, so that's really a lot of my work.
Education Finance - H.850 came out of Appropriations, was passed on the House floor with a voice vote and is now in the Senate. They should get it to the Governor this coming week, unless there are problems. More on that below:
Flavored Tobacco - S.18 seems stuck in my committee. There are things going on in the background, I'm sure. There's talk of amendments, but nothing concrete yet. It's not on the committee agenda for this week, but that can change.
Tax Abatement and Tax Sales - H.629 is a bill I haven't mentioned before. We spent quite a bit of time on it last week and will continue to do so this week. The stated purpose of the bill is "to make changes to the processes for municipal tax abatement and tax sales." The details are below.
A Wealth Tax - H.828 is back on our calendar. That's the wealth tax bill that hit's Vermonters who earn more than $500,000 a year with a surcharge of 3% on their AGI. It's a one paragraph bill that is projected to bring in about $71 million. The other Wealth Tax (H.827), which set up a tax on unrealized gains is nowhere in sight.
Vermont Communication Taxes - H.657 is a bill to address the taxes the State receives from the communications industry. Much of that structure is from the days of landlines. So H.657 modernizes the taxes and hopes to reverse the dwindling revenues from that sector of the economy. There has been a lot of back and forth on this bill as all the stakeholders have been weighing in. The most recent version is here.
Education Funding
Last week I went into a lot of detail on this, so this week I'll skip all that. There have been, and will continue to be, changes.
Quite a bit of it is explained in two videos. The first is by the Democratic leadership of the Ways & Means and the Education committees. The second is by a Republican member of the Ways & Means committee.
Democratic Caucus: On Tuesdays each political party runs off to hold a public caucus to hear about bills that will come up during the week. Here's a recording of Rep. Emilie Kornheiser of my committee and Rep. Peter Conlon of the Education Committee explaining the bill we just voted out of committee. The bill is a first step in dealing with the projected education property tax increase.
Floor Presentation: When the bill came to the floor for a vote, Rep. Scott Beck presented the bill to the House. Here's the video of the House proceedings when the bill was brought to the House floor. The bill presentation is first. If you're a parliamentary geek there's some interesting back and forth when we get close to the vote, but it's late in the recording.
What it means for now.
Everything is subject to change. H.850 has to work its way through the Senate. There is also a possibility that some towns will change their budgets and hold more than one school budget vote. That will create a mess, but it may mean reduced spending and therefor reduced tax rates. We'll see.
Tax Abatement and Tax Sales
I didn't know what a Tax Abatement was until I ran for office. I could guess what a tax sale is.
Tax Abatement is reducing your tax obligation. A tax sale can happen when you don't pay your property taxes. In that case, the town can sell your property and take the taxes out of the purchase price.
H.629 is a primarily concerned with tax sales but there is a portion that deal with Abatement. Here's a quick explanation of Abatement:
Abatement
If your house burns down half way through the tax year you can go to the Town Clerk and request an Abatement, or reduction of taxes for the part of the year that your house was no longer worth what it was worth when your taxes were calculated. This makes sense. Property taxes are on the value of your property. If that value drops you should not have to pay as much. There is a process involved. You have to go before the Colchester Board of Abatement and explain why your taxes should be reduced. The reason cannot be trivial.
Tax Sale
What happens when you don't pay your property taxes? Again, there is a process.
You get notified that you didn't pay your taxes
There is a penalty and interest tacked onto your tax bill. The longer you wait, the more you pay.
The town tax collector may try to reach you and to find out what the problem is.
If it goes on long enough (how long is up to the Town) you may receive notice that your property is going to be sold in a public auction.
If there's a public auction, the starting prices is what you owe in taxes plus 12% interest and any additional costs to the town for your delinquency. So your $300,000 house may be offered at $2000 to cover what you owe,
The highest bidder wins, the winning bidder pays the town for the house, gets the house, but . . .
There is a one-year redemption period during which the previous owner, the one that owed the taxes, can come up with the amount owed and get the house back. But ...
The person who is getting the house back has to pay 12% interest on the purchase price and other fees. The 12% is actually 1% a month.
If, after a year, the house is not reclaimed, the buyer get's the house, the town get's the purchase price of the house and the taxes are considered paid.
There's some complexities in there, but that's basically it. Usually, after a tax sale, the previous owners finds the money, pays the taxes, and the person who bought the house get's their money back plus the interest. Some people see this as a good way to get a good interest rate. But there is risk.
How all this is done exactly is up to each town. H.629 is standardizing the process, so it is consistent and fair throughout the state.
Coming up
"Cross Over" date is March 15th. A little over a month from now. That's the date that bills from the House need to cross overf to the Senate in order to get considered this session. If they don't make it through the Senate by the end of the session, the bill dies. Every biennium we start over.
The closer we get to Cross Over the more pressure to get things done.