Left wing group holds meetings to raise taxes.
By Kevin Ryan

Burlington -- On Monday, July 24th, I attended the Burlington meeting of Vermonters for a Fair Economy and Environmental Protection (VFEEP), held at Spectrum Youth and Family Services on Elmwood Avenue. What this group has to do with youth and family services, I’m not sure, but there it was. VFEEP works for a number of goals, which includes proving that George Bush planned the terrorist attacks of 9/11. This meeting was for a different purpose: To ask the question, should Vermont raise income taxes? The reason for doing so, according to John Berkowitz, VFEEP’s director, is that wealthy Vermonters got too much of a tax cut when taxes were reduced a few years back.

The meeting was attended by a grand total of 9 people. The list was myself, VFEEP Director Berkowitz, Joanna Cole, a recent Democrat Candidate for Burlington City Council, accompanied by her girlfriend; Jonathan Kissam from the Progressive Party; Mark Redmond, Director of Spectrum; Rabbi Joshua Chazon from Ohavi Zedek Temple; Tom Licata from the Burlington GOP and Agnes Clift, a Republican Candidate for State Senate from Chittenden County. There was another woman who was called to attend because her picture was on a Bernie Sanders’ brochure, but I honestly didn’t catch her name.

The one hour meeting consisted of a forty-five minute walk through of the "Fair Taxation" packet, Which, broken down, asserts that the recent federal income tax cuts went mostly to the wealthiest taxpayers, that what was left over went to the war in Iraq and that Bush was cutting spending on social programs. The packet then suggests that increasing taxes on wealthy people would raise 14 million dollars to pay for additional programs for the poor. This might include increased income taxes on anyone making over about $110,000 (the packet used several different amounts) or passing a tax which taxes ownership of stocks and investments. Following that was a brief discussion. Berkowitz explained that Florida has a tax on stocks and other investments, so it’s been done before.

Berkowitz did mention that the Florida tax had been repealed, but wasn’t sure why, so I did research which revealed that the Florida Intangibles Tax Task Force concluded that the drawbacks of the tax "far outweighed its benefits" and recommended it be repealed. Florida repealed the tax, to be effective in 2007.

I tried to explain that tax cuts always result in the most savings for the rich, at least when the rates are cut, simply because they pay more in the first place. In my opinion, it’s very difficult to cut income taxes on poor people who don’t pay them. I would have gone on to explain that spending even five cents on Iraq has no bearing on whether government spends any money on anything else and that in fact, the Bush administration has increased social spending by as much as 43% in some areas. That was my plan, but the unnamed Sanders lady was shouting me down yelling "You're telling a fib! You're telling a fib!"

Berkowitz then informed me I had talked "for several minutes, and should give someone else a chance." I wear a watch to make sure I don’t run long speaking at meetings. I pointed out that I'd actually been speaking for less than ninety seconds, but Berkowitz didn’t seem interested in allowing me to even sum up my remarks.

Instead, Berkowitz decided to turn the floor to Tom Licata, who echoed my sentiment that the poor would be better helped by creating more economic opportunities, much to the group's surprise. Joanna Cole was the next to chime in, noting that "The meeting wasn't called to discuss whether taxation hurts or helps the poor." I asked her if she felt it appropriate for the group itself to decide what they would discuss, and her response was "We're here to discuss how to get back what the corporations get from exploiting the poor." I inquired as to how the corporations exploit the poor and she replied "You don't know?"

As it turns out, in Joanna Cole's world, corporations exploit the poor by "forcing them to work for minimum wages while CEO's make many times more money". I thought to ask her as to how they were forced, but the unknown lady interjected. "They have to make a living, that's how!", she said. I told her she was right, they do have to make a living, just as I did when I worked for minimum wage. I added that as I got more experience, that ended, and noted that as Spectrum’s Mark Redmond ran an entire social services organization, he was entitled to and probably worked for more than minimum wage. I asked him if that was correct, and he nodded in assent, "considerably more", he said.

After that, most people left, but I wound up coming to an understanding with John Berkowitz. He acknowledged that while we both share a genuine concern for the poor, we simply have very different approaches as to how to solve the problem. We shook hands as I left. Considering the size of the crowd, I’m not sure if what was said had any impact, but it did feel good watching the socialists in attendance fall to pieces trying to explain why they want to take more of other people’s money.

Kevin Ryan resides in Burlington