This commentary is by Elizabeth Brown, who is a state director at the Fiscal Alliance Foundation. Despite six years of skyrocketing state spending, with increases at twice the rate of inflation, for many the answer to Vermont’s affordability crisis continues to be more revenue, higher taxes an d an expansion of government programs. With the third-highest total tax burden in the nation, why should taxpayers believe spending even more will make Vermont more affordable? New revenue proposals have been focused on a new income-tax surcharge, a new tax on investment proceeds and a higher property tax rate on certain non-homestead residential properties. Income tax proposals would elevate our highest marginal tax bracket to the top in the nation.  Vermont already has among the most progressive systems in the country. By proposing more taxes on higher-income earners in Vermont, you are also putting more tax burdens on our small business owners. Vermont is already losing private-sector businesses and jobs at one of the highest rates in the country.  While we are talking about expanding taxes, let’s not forget that 50 towns have now implemented the 1% local option tax, with 25% of those proceeds going back to the state. An extra bonus for shopping locally.  Another popular proposal, a bill also debated this past legislative biennium, is a state-funded primary care system that paves the way for universal healthcare paid for with another payroll tax, in addition to our first-in-the-nation childcare tax. Vermont has been pursuing a single-payer healthcare system for decades. We decided back in 2014 that single-payer was not affordable, and ultimately pursuing that put us on a disastrous path. It has been overregulation driving out competition that has created the healthcare mess we are in. A single-payer primary care system does not solve the real issue: a shortage of primary care doctors, especially in more rural parts of our state. It’s time to examine proposals based on their impact on affordability, taxpayers, economic opportunity and the long-term fiscal health of the state, not just hitting emotional high points with voters.  READ MORE Simply put, Vermont has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, and it is time to understand where all the money is going and who will be left to foot the bill. Vermont is now the fastest-shrinking state in the country per capita, with one of the oldest populations and a workforce that contracted by roughly 10,000 workers last year. The warning signs are increasingly difficult to ignore: Workers are leaving the workforce, private-sector jobs are being lost at one of the highest rates in the country, and too many businesses are struggling to stay open. Vermonters deserve time-tested, practical solutions that recognize there is a limit to what taxpayers can afford. It is time to stop being a petri dish for policies brought to our state from outside influences that cost taxpayers real dollars. We’ve created our own inflationary pressures with ineffective government spending. The solution means looking at the cumulative costs of our existing policies that are driving up everyday expenses for Vermonters, where fees, regulations and taxes are death by a thousand cuts.  You can debate whether you like another state’s politics, but you cannot debate the fact that states that put a high tax burden on their citizens are on the losing end, and in Vermont’s case, substantially so. Maybe it is time that more Vermonters admit to themselves that they don’t like our politics, because it does not add up.  There is a reason we have the lowest economic growth and the fastest-shrinking population. Before we ask for more money or continue to shift around who pays, let’s ask the question: Why are we spending so much? And can we do better? Because the answer is a resounding yes. More taxes don’t solve problems, and in Vermont, they’re contributing to them. Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont cannot spend its way into affordability. ...read more read less