(Host) The head of the Vermont Libertarian Party says property tax reform is the biggest issue in this year’s legislative races.
The party has 10 candidates seeking election to the Vermont Legislature this fall.
Speaking last night on VPR’s Switchboard program, Party Chair Hardy Machia, who’s also a candidate for the Vermont House, said the best solution to rising property tax burdens is to cap future tax rate increases:
(Machia) “States like California have Proposition 13, where your property taxes are set to what they are when you buy your house and then they can go up 2 % a year after that. So you don’t get the wild fluctuations of 10 % or 15% and the next thing you have to do is control spending.”
(Host) Machia also says the Vermont Libertarian Party supports full school choice. He says students should be able to use their tax dollars to attend any public, private, religious or home school in Vermont.
Switchboard last night also focused on the top priorities of Vermont’s Green Party.
Gubernatorial candidate Jim Hogue says he would have opposed the deployment of Vermont National Guard troops to Iraq because he feels the Bush Administration misled the country about the war.
(Hogue) “I would have dug my heels in all the way and said I will not authorize the sending of the Vermont National Guard. It would have gone to court and I would have lost but the point is, I would have refused to send them.”
(Host) On the issue of Vermont’s energy future, Hogue says he has no problems with Vermont renewing its power contract with Hydro Quebec but he said he opposes efforts to renew the license of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.