Not Everyone Welcomes Vermont's Cash Giveaway
Should someone who's giving away $46 million be getting this much grief?</br></br>For the past few weeks, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has been putting thousands of checks in the mail to help homeowners pay their property taxes. But his critics are complaining, charging him with everything from misrepresenting the source of the money to trying to buy votes.</br></br>Mr. Dean, in response, has accused one group of "mud slinging at its worst."</br></br>Is it any surprise that the culprit here is Act 60, the state's divisive education-funding law? The prebate program is just the latest battlefield in the continuing war over Act 60.</br></br>Like all elements of Act 60, the prebates are painfully complex. The law, passed in 1996, created Vermont's first statewide property tax, intended to provide more level funding for education across towns with widely varying property values and tax rates.