Burlington Property Taxes

I'm not usually a person to gripe about taxes.  Generally speaking, if I'm paying more in income taxes now than 1, 5, or more years ago, that's good, because it means I'm making more money. 

I have a concern about the property taxes in Burlington, VT.

I've been a resident and property owner in the city since 2001, and thus have property tax forms for the fiscal years ending in 2002-2021.  So I can tell you:

• For the fiscal year ending in 2002, the total rate was 1.3734%**.  
• For the fiscal year ending in 2021, the total rate was 2.9571%.

That's an average increase of just over 4.1% per year over 19 years.

• The median household income in Vermont in 2002 was $43,914. 
• The median household income in Vermont in 2019 was $60,076.

That's an average increase of just over 1.86% per year over 17 years.

This isn't sustainable long-term.

** This is an estimate.  There was a citywide reappraisal in 2004-5 that increased the appraised value of our property by 75% and lowered the tax rates, so I adjusted the tax rates prior to the reappraisal by this factor so that they are comparable to the rates post-reappraisal.

Trash in the time of COVID-19

The City of Burlington does not have trash collection as a service**, ***.  Citizens either contract with a private hauler or haul it themselves.  

I've been hauling trash to the Pine St drop-off for nearly 16 years.  Unfortunately, it's currently closed due to the pandemic, so today I hauled to the Milton drop-off.  This adds a good 40 minutes to the time to haul, and isn't easily combined with a post-haul trip to the grocery store.  So if the Pine St drop-off doesn't reopen, then consolidated collection starts to look better.

The Pine St drop-off is also the only facility in CSWD that weighs your trash, so I have 16 years of collected data on each haul.  For today's haul to Milton, I used our postal scale to measure its total weight of 48lbs spread across two 45-gallon bags and two 45-gallon trash cans.  CSWD is currently charging $10 for four 45-gallon containers, which is almost exactly what it would cost to haul 48lbs at $0.21/lb to Pine St.  So yay for that! but I still hope Pine St reopens within the next few months.

** Yet.  Burlington is considering consolidated collection.  While I support the general idea of reducing environmental impacts through consolidated collection, it is likely to be far more expensive for no added benefit:

• Cost.  We currently haul about 200lbs/yr of trash.  This means that, at the current prices, we are averaging about $40/yr on trash.  That's about the monthly cost for some private haulers.
• Other materials.  I'm glad to see that compost is covered under the proposed plan, but we also sort and haul batteries, books, scrap metal, used clothes and electronics.  If we will need to continue to haul these, that will negate savings we might have seen from not having to spend the time & gas to haul our own trash.

*** This gave rise to a now-amusing anecdote because when we moved to Burlington from out of state, we engaged the services of a buyer broker.  Because they lived in a condominium complex where the association negotiated with a trash hauler, he was unaware until we told him that the City didn't do trash collection.  

Excess Mortality

When I first read about some of the challenges determining whether a death was due to covid-19, I wondered if it would be better to simply look at total deaths on a particular day this year vs. prior years.  It turns out there are a number of people and organizations interested in in excess mortality:

• In Europe, EuroMOMO has charts and maps 
• In the US, the CDC has a chart of weekly excess deaths

However, it's challenging to find data you can use to do your own analysis.  The CDC has publicly available mortality data, but this only records the month, not the day of death. 

Our World in Data has a nice article explaining the importance of excess mortality, the challenges of acquiring data to examine it, and publications that are tracking it.

Idle thoughts on term limits, Vermont political constipation edition

Vermont sends 3 elected officials to U.S. Congress: 1 Representative, and 2 Senators.  Over the last 45 years, a total of 6 men have held these positions.

The Representatives:

• Jim Jeffords (1975-1989)
• Peter Plympton Smith (1989-1991)
• Bernie Sanders (1991-2007)
• Peter Welch (2007-)

The Senators:

• Robert Stafford (1971-1989)
• Jim Jeffords (1989-2007)
• Bernie Sanders (2007-)
• Pat Leahy (1975-)

By years in office during the last 45:

• Leahy: 45
• Jeffords: 32
• Sanders: 29
• Stafford: 14
• Welch: 13
• Plympton-Smith: 2

... so 3 men have provided the vast majority of the representation for the entire state of Vermont at the national level since 1975.  

Because it's nearly impossible to unseat an incumbent**, these are essentially lifetime appointments, and over the decades many potential candidates for these positions are left waiting for "their turn".  Welch, the current Rep, waited 18 years between runs for the U.S. House after losing in the 1988 primary to Poirier, and generations of potential U.S. congresspeople from VT are getting old and grey waiting for Leahy, Sanders, and Welch to retire.  

Term limits might be the laxative we need.

** the only time it's happened in the last 45 years was in the 1990 U.S. House election when Bernie ousted Plympton-Smith, after coming a close 2nd when he and Paul Poirier split the Dem/Independent vote in the 1988 election.

Gabriela Montero

We were fortunate to see Gabriela Montero in concert Thursday evening at the Flynn.  This was her first time in Burlington, which she kindly described as "pretty nice" despite the freezing temperatures outside and the undersized audience inside.  

The program "Westwards" featured two pieces by Prokofiev, a Rachmaninov, a Stravinsky, and a screening of Charlie Chaplin's silent film The Immigrant with Montero providing an improvised piano score.

The only Prokofiev I'm familiar with is "Peter and the Wolf", so needless to say I was surprised by the modern sound of his music, and I don't have sufficient musical theory/training to enjoy it.  

Rachmaninov is a different story, and his music is more welcoming and invites you in.  I enjoyed this section and the Stravinsky very much.

After the Stravinsky, Montero took a few minutes to talk about "Westwards" and the thematic and personal connections between these composers and Chaplin.    It was fun to see a silent film with piano accompaniment at the Flynn, though the Flynn opened at the beginning of the talkie era.

After the screening of The Immigrant, Montero once again took to the microphone to ask for a tune or theme from the audience, which she would then improvise upon.  She did this twice, and it was awe-inspiring to hear, and perfect for live performance.  I would have been delighted for the entire evening to have been her improvised compositions.