thinking like a legislator!

March 3rd, 2007 Opinion, Politics, economics

Senator Shumlin seems good hearted and sincere in his proposal to place a tax on heating oil to improve energy conservation. Now, I like to take things to their logical extreme when considering such propositions and in this case, it seems if you were to place enough of a tax on heating oil, then we could make all of Vermont’s buildings so energy efficient - we wouldn’t need to heat them! But then… the revenues from the heating oil would fall… and maybe we’d have to raise them a bit more to get the job done… which would again lower consumption… This is the same thinking (to call it such…) that Gov. Douglas used to fund the Catamount Health Plan by raising the cigarette tax. Raising taxes on cigarettes should lower consumption… which will lower revenues… but then with all our healthy non-smokers, who needs a health plan? Now, if this kind of “thinking” makes sense to you… get yourself up to Montpelier!

And thanks to Vermont Tiger for getting me worked up on this one!

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