Hoffer Schools Dubie Again

Doug Hoffer continues to demonstrate why he will bring greater credibility to the office of Auditor than it currently has under Tom Salmon.

With a watchful eye cast on the governor’s race, Doug is once again calling out Brian Dubie for telling the voters what might best be characterized as a whopper:  

“Vermonters have the highest property taxes in the country.”

As Doug points out, Mr. Dubie has misused Census data on state level property tax and conveniently ignored the fact that Vermont is the only state where education costs have been shifted to a statewide property tax, making the comparison Mr. Dubie is drawing completely without validity.   In fact, says Hoffer:

The figures do not account for the amount of property taxes paid by non-residents, which is an important consideration in a state ranked #2 in the percentage of vacation homes.  In 2007, the Joint Fiscal Office estimated that Vermont exported approximately $244 million in property taxes paid for second homes and commercial properties by non-residents.  If this is subtracted from the Census figure, Vermont drops down to 16th – quite a different story than “the highest in the country.”

Smarten up, Mr. Dubie, you’ve got the ultimate fact-checker hot on your trail.

(See below the jump for Doug’s complete comments.)

There he goes again.  A recent VPR story quoted Brian Dubie as saying “Vermonters have the highest property taxes in the country.”[1]  As with his comments about Vermont’s income taxes,[2] this statement is less than meets the eye.

First, Mr. Dubie is undoubtedly referring to Census data for state level property taxes.[3]  As has been reported many times (and as Mr. Dubie well knows), Vermont is the only state in the country that has shifted education costs to a statewide property tax.  As a result, statewide comparisons for this particular measure are meaningless.

When we look at state and local per capita property taxes Vermont ranks seventh behind NJ, WY, CT, NH, NY, and RI.[4]  But there is a fundamental problem with these figures.

The figures do not account for the amount of property taxes paid by non-residents, which is an important consideration in a state ranked #2 in the percentage of vacation homes.  In 2007, the Joint Fiscal Office estimated that Vermont exported approximately $244 million in property taxes paid for second homes and commercial properties by non-residents.  If this is subtracted from the Census figure, Vermont drops down to 16th – quite a different story than “the highest in the country.”

Important policy debates should be based on relevant facts, not figures intended to mislead.

Note: The Census Bureau acknowledges that state tax rankings can be misleading.[5]

1]    Wednesday 9.8.10[2    See my response at Seven Days (http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/09/visions-of-an-auditor-to-come-hoffer-challenges-dubies-numbers.html) and vtdigger.com (http://vtdigger.org/2010/09/01/more-time-sir-um-probably-not/) .

3][4      Author’s calculations from Census data at http://www.census.gov/govs/est…

[5]    “The ranking tables should be interpreted with caution; analysis based on rankings or per capita statistics can be misleading and misinterpreted because of subtle yet important differences in state government organization and economic structure. For example, using total taxes or per capita taxes as a measure of tax burden on the citizens of that state can be misleading because different states use different approaches to taxation, comparing only the total taxes collected by each state is not enough to understand the economic impact of those states’ taxes – one must also understand how those taxes are collected. Comparing taxes across states can be difficult. The Census Bureau’s statistics on tax revenue reflect taxes a state collects from activity within the state, not necessarily from its people within a state. Alaska, for instance, does not have general sales taxes or individual income taxes, but it does collect severance taxes from companies that extract oil and natural gas. Like Alaska, Florida does not collect individual income taxes, instead Florida relies heavily on a general sales tax, which, because of its tourist industry, is partially supported by visitors from outside Florida. In that sense, both Alaska and Florida collect “exported taxes” – taxes from people or organizations that may reside outside of their state.”http://www2.census.gov/govs/statetax/2009stcmethodology.pdf#page=3

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

21 thoughts on “Hoffer Schools Dubie Again

  1. “And how did you arrive at those figures?”

    Thank you, Mr. Hoffer … you’re providing invaluable input into how we interpret what is told to us.

  2. …in a limited election season, I hope Mr. Hoffer spends as much time focusing on his opponent as he does on Brian Dubie (not that Sen. Shumlin doesn’t appreciate the help, I’m sure – and there’s clearly value in Hoffer taking these opportunities to show off his smarts and abilities, but still… eyes on the prize, and all)

  3. …using the same sources as Dubie does in his “plan” for tax burdens, his beloved New Hampshire comes in as #1 property tax state as percent of income and #4 per capita (VT is #2 and #8, respectively).

    Of course, using Census data and other sources provides slightly different rankings as Hoffer demonstrates.  Point is, it’s really smoke and mirrors by Dubious.

  4. Dubie doesn’t understand that New Hampshirites get killed with property taxes and fees to make up for the no income or sales taxes.  Try registering your car in NH.  You have to register it in both the town and the state.  It can cost hundreds of dollars, or a thousand or more for newer vehicles.  I would like to see what Dubie says when he gets hit with a residence tax — a tax for just living in the town.   There is also a business profits tax nailed onto small businesses.  I forget now what percentage that it is, but it is there.  Dubie conveniently forgets to mention these hidden taxes that NH has.  

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