World 04_11_18

Guest Opinion
Bill Doyle’s “Lasting Impressions”
The purpose of Bill Doyle’s book, “Lasting Impressions,”
is to leave a lasting impression about Vermonters’ inherent
strength and independence. This is reflected in the Town
Meeting surveys that were conducted every year since 1969.
The survey was designed to gather opinions from thousands
of Vermont residents, covering fourteen counties. One important
feature of the book is to identify important issues that
have been introduced in the survey. The goal was that comments
gathered from all parts of Vermont could be considered
in the General Assembly. These comments and opinions have
influenced the shaping of Vermont’s governing decisions and
are exemplified in the indomitable people that live in this
exceptional state.
In addition, the book speaks to the historic influence of
Vermont’s Constitution, written in 1777, which was the first
state constitution to outlaw slavery. Notably, Vermont’s
remarkable contribution to the Civil War can be traced to its
strong opposition to slavery.
The important issues of today and our historical independence
and respect for the individual, have been guided by our
Constitution. Vermonters can be very proud of their history,
which is characterized by the beauty, integrity, and strength
found in our Green Mountains.
“Lasting Impressions” is available at Bear Pond Books in
Momtpelier and Next Chapter Books in Barre.
Now Playing in Burlington
The Death of Stalin: HHHH
Most everyone knows that the Soviet Union was a
nightmarish place to live.
I’m not sure people know exactly why, though.
I don’t have enough room here to list all the atrocities, but
the forced collectivization of agriculture was one of the
worst.
In 1929, the Soviet Politburo announced the mass collectivization
of agriculture. Successful capitalist peasants – labeled
Kulaks – were not invited to join. The Kulaks were marched
off to work camps or killed.
For the remaining peasants, collectivization was nearly as
bad. With the best farmers gone, the large State farms were
run by city bureaucrats. The bureaucrats knew a lot about Das
Kapital but nothing about das wheat.
Inevitably, grain production plummeted. Farmers were still
expected to ship the same amount of food to the city party
leaders, though, and the USSR continued to export grain to
fund its industrialization projects.
The farmers themselves received a smaller share of a
shrinking bounty. The communists’ perverse experiment led
to a man-made famine that killed 5 to 7 million peasants.
The hardest thing for us to believe about this horror story is
that the architects of this mass murder were regular human
beings like us. Soviet leaders were just people – with feelings
and families and fears. And funny bones.
“The Death of Stalin” is a delightful, charming, audacious
comedy about a few funny weeks in Soviet Russia.
It is 1953 and fearsome dictator Joseph Stalin just had a
massive stroke. Nobody knows for sure how sick he is
because all of the best doctors have been sent to the Gulag.
But the leading members of the Politburo have already begun
to jockey for position in the new government. And every
human weakness and frailty is on display.
Ruthless Beria is letting political prisoners free with hopes
• • •
Investing in Our Future
• • •
By Scudder Parker
Education of our young people is one of the most important
obligations of our democracy. And a funding system that
enables school district voters throughout the state to make
thoughtful budget decisions is key to fulfilling that obligation
in Vermont.
After the Vermont Supreme Court’s Brigham decision in
1997, the Legislature made a structural school funding
change. The result was the current system, which is not a
“formula” that attempts to equalize a flawed and inherently
unfair local school property tax as the various efforts in the
seventies and eighties were.
Instead, it is a fundamentally fair, sustainable, and workable
statewide system that supports local school districts to
equitably invest in the education of our children. Vermont’s
school funding system is widely viewed as the most equitable
in the nation.
But it’s not without its problems. The biggest complaints
about the current system are that it relies too much on property
taxes and that it’s too complex for voters to understand.
These are fair criticisms, and it’s worth the Legislature making
an effort to correct them.
While the House’s recently passed “reform” bill (H.911)
makes some progress on lowering property taxes, it unfortunately
also takes a step backward by making the system more
complex for school districts. We rely on school boards and
school district voters to make spending decisions every year,
so we should be making the system easier—not harder—for
them to understand the tax consequences of their decisions.
The House bill lowers property taxes by establishing a
progressive state income-tax surcharge that raises about $60
million dedicated to the Education Fund. With this influx of
funding, the state can lower school property taxes across the
state.
Governor Scott wants to lower education property taxes,
too, but not by offsetting them with income taxes. He wants
to push communities to cut school spending.
But this year Vermont communities have already done
everything we could want them to do to control costs. They
passed budgets with a lower overall growth rate than the “target
rate” set by the governor. Yet he’s putting even more pressure
on school districts to push their spending down.
With a nod to the governor’s idea that Vermont schools
should spend less on our children’s education, the House bill
would make property taxes even more painful for districts that
want to increase their spending per pupil. H.911 seems to be
based on the assumption that the funding system doesn’t have
cost controls already in place.
The fact is that the existing system requires that residents
in school districts with higher spending per pupil pay higher
homestead tax rates. Currently, if a town spends more per
pupil, its homestead tax rate increases proportionally. If a
town increases its per-pupil spending 10 percent, residents of
that town will pay 10 percent higher homestead taxes.
Nevertheless, the House bill pushes up property taxes even
more for districts that decide to spend more per pupil and
removes the proportional relationship between spending and
taxes. H.911 creates a big change in the wrong direction.
We should keep moving forward instead of stepping back.
The Vermont Senate, where the bill is now, can correct the
problems with H.911 and solve some real problems with the
funding system at the same time. We need to ensure that the
school funding system is stable, fair, equitable, understandable,
and supportive of local funding decisions so that a high
quality education really can be made available to all young
people.
I recall from my time in the legislature in the 1980s that
when inequity increases, it undermines trust, educational
quality, and basic fairness. We could make Vermont’s school
funding system simpler and even more equitable by phasing
out the homestead property tax and moving to an incomebased
school tax for all Vermont residents while maintaining
the current cost control by having increased per-pupil spending
in a town result in higher income-based tax rates in that
town.
Vermonters want to invest in our children’s future and an
equitable funding system is key to ensuring that investment
benefits all of the state’s children.
Scudder Parker is a former Vermont State Senator and
former chair of the Senate Finance Committee. He lives in
Middlesex.
of currying favor with the people (even though he’s the one
who put them in prison to begin with).
Halfwit Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) has been named interim
leader. One minute he’s drunk with his new power and
ordering people around; the next minute he looks like a deer
in headlights because he’s overwhelmed by the job.
Poor Molotov (Michael Palin) is too traumatized by the
madness of the Stalin era to move on. It’s darkly funny to hear
Molotov earnestly condemn his wife as a traitor even though
he has no clue why Stalin arrested her.
There is definitely no hero to this story. But the closest
thing we’ve got is Steve Buscemi’s Nikita Khrushchev. He’s
the only one who fully understands what is going on. This is
not a battle of communist vs. capitalist or good vs. evil.
Politics is about building a coalition by any means necessary.
It’s fun to watch a perpetually frazzled Khrushchev convince,
cajole and bully all the idiots in the Kremlin.
Writer/director Armando Ianucci (HBO’s “Veep”) has
made the most inspired comedy of the year. It combines the
witty wordplay of early Woody Allen with the anarchic slapstick
of The Marx Brothers.
Mark Twain theorized that “humor is tragedy plus time.”
“The Death of Stalin” proves it once and for all. I love this
movie. See it if you can.
Vermont
Professional tax &
financial serVices LLC
• Personal & Business
Tax PreParaTion
• small Business
ConsulTing
gerard m. galvin, Jd CPa
802-839-6929
max@vtprotax.com
The
ANNUAL
MEETING
of the
Middlesex Center
Cemetery Assn., Inc.
will be held at the
Middlesex Town Hall
Friday, April 27, 2018
at 6:00 p.m.
Debra Smith - Clerk Protem
Berlin Elementary School
Kindergarten 2018-2019
If your child turns 5 before September 1st,
2018 they are eligible for Kindergarten.
Please come to the school between
April 23rd - April 27th to pick up a
registration packet! There will NOT be a
Kindergarten Screening this year
for incoming students to the
2018-2019 school year.
Barre Town Middle and
Elementary School
Kindergarten Screening
and Registration
for the 2018-2019 school year
Will your child be 5 years old by August 31st and is
NOT currently enrolled in our PreK program?
If you answered yes, please call
Betsy Pearce, BTMES Registrar, at
476-6617 x6306 to schedule your screening
appointment and request a registration packet
no later than Monday, April 23.
We look forward to meeting you and your child!
Screening Dates:
Thursday, April 26th and Friday, April 27th
Construction Update
Montpelier Transportation Projects
Project Location: State Street, Main Street, and VT 12 – Elm Street
- Work to include milling, paving, manhole and drainage structure adjustments
and extensive sidewalk improvements. VT 12-Northfi eld Street
- new water, sewer, storm water improvements, sidewalks and a stabilized
road base.
Northfield Street - Week of April 9, 2018
DuBois will continue working on installing the temporary water main
between Derby Drive and Independence Green. DuBois will also begin
placing construction signs and implementing erosion control measures.
Traffic: Two-way traffi c will be maintained for the majority of the work
with only occasion one-way traffi c. Delays will be minimal.
Downtown/Elm Street - 2018
Pike will resume work on the downtown/Elm Street project in early May.
Elm Street -
Crews will continue to address punch list items on Elm Street and resume
lawn clean-up and repair. This work will occur during daytime work hours.
Downtown -
As part of this paving project, the rail crossing on Taylor Street is scheduled
to be replaced in May. Crews are expecting to close the rail crossing
to vehicle traffi c for 5 days to replace the crossing.
During the closure period, the State employees’ parking area on Taylor
Street will be accessible from Memorial Drive and the People’s United
Bank and Capitol Plaza parking lots on Taylor Street will be accessible
from State Street. A temporary pedestrian path will be provided from the
State Employees’ parking lot to the nearby offi ces. This work is expected
to occur between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm.
Work this year will also include Main Street resurfacing from the rail crossing
near Shaw’s to Memorial Drive. Various sidewalk panels will also be
replaced within this section of the project. All work within this section of
the project is expected to be completed at night.
Punch list items will continue to be addressed throughout the summer.
The City of Montpelier and VTrans are reviewing the project to identify any
issues which developed over the winter.
Communication –
Weekly construction updates will be emailed every Thursday with an
overview of the following week’s work plan.
Updates will be posted on www.roadworkupdates.com, Montpelier’s Front
Porch Forum, the City of Montpelier’s Facebook pages and Twitter Feed,
Montpelier Alive’s Facebook page and Makeover Montpelier’s Facebook
page. Information will also be included in the VT Agency of Transportation’s
“On the Road” report in the Times Argus.
Contact Francine Perkins, project outreach coordinator, at (802) 479-6994
with questions or comments.
April 11, 2018 The WORLD page 13