PASSED
in the State House of Representatives
on March 23, 2016, by a vote of 98-46
. Purpose: The “Fee Bill” sets and establishes the fees charged for everything from getting a marriage license to setting up a business. .
Analysis: Those voting YES supported increasing the net fees paid in Vermont by $24 million – the highest increase on record. The 2015 fee increases, in comparison, amounted to $2.7 million. .
Those voting NO opposed not just the fee increases but the precedents set by raising fees to fund general revenue projects. The legal definition of a fee is that it is used to pay the costs of regulating or servicing the entity paying the fee, and no more. .
This fee bill raises $18 million from a “fee” increase (from $600 to $1500) to register mutual funds in the state, with the money generated going not to regulate or service the mutual fund industry, but to the general fund to close a budget gap. This is, by definition, a tax. And, we should not be using the fee bill to levy disguised taxes. .
Similarly, an objection was raised regarding the increase in the marriage license fee from $30 to $45 dollars, with the new revenue raised earmarked for a general fund domestic violence program. The program is not limited to married couples, and is not related to the process of getting married (ie, people who want to get married aren’t required to take a course on domestic violence). So, why is fee money being taken from aspiring newlyweds to pay for this program? .
As Recorded in the House Journal, Wednesday, March 23, 2016:“Shall the bill be read a third time? was decided in the affirmative. Yeas, 98. Nays, 46.” (Read the Journal, p. 625-627.) .
a thief is by any other name is politictions.democratswant to spend not save money.Let’s give away our country,let welfare pay for them selfs.bouch of thiefs in montpieler vt.
The Ethan Allen Institute is Vermont’s free-market public policy research and education organization. Founded in 1993, we are one of fifty-plus similar but independent state-level, public policy organizations around the country which exchange ideas and information through the State Policy Network. Read more...
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Ah, Socialism! Otherwise known as stealing from one thing to pay for another and using a BS word-game to do it. It’s a TAX stupid!
When one is doing business with someone and the price keeps going up I have to go somewhere else to do my buying, don’t they get it?
a thief is by any other name is politictions.democratswant to spend not save money.Let’s give away our country,let welfare pay for them selfs.bouch of thiefs in montpieler vt.