Killington Tax Squabble With The State Of Vermont in 2006

In Killington Vermont in 2004, a squabble over millions of dollars of tax revenue that was being sent to the VT state legislature was held up when Killington complained of the few services it received in return.

The state of Vermont was pressed by the Killington Ski area to allow the whole mountain to secede to the neighboring state of New Hampshire, where there are no applicable state taxes and the other state would be more supportive of the goals to be the best ski area on the East coast.

Killington,VT Pays High Tax Bill To The State of Vermont

Killington Vermont is popular ski resort in Sherburne, Vermont that was created in 1958. Despite its great success the ski resort had problems with the VT state legislature because resident’s taxes were high and few services were received back from the state.

Residents and visitors paid a total of $20 million dollars taxes a year to the state of Vermont (In property taxes and sales/lodging taxes) but only received $1 million dollars’ worth of local funding back from the state for roads and schools. This was dramatically out of line with the returns that other Vermont resort towns received, which are often at around a 20% return. The “resort” designation that VT assigned to Killington is often seen as an opportunity for the Vermont legislature to get money for nothing.

Financial Disparity

This great financial disparity between towns forced many Killington residents to consider secession to the state of New Hampshire, which is 25 Miles to the East. New Hampshire has no sales tax and promised a “dollar for dollar” return on property tax. If the Killington ski mountain was rezoned into the neighboring state, New Hampshire would receive a room and lodging tax, but not hit Killington up for anything else.

The net saving, according to an economic study conducted by Killington, shows that the Killington ski resort would save at least $7 Million dollars a year in taxes alone and could expect a 24% increase in sales in retail sales and dining as New Hampshire does not tax these items and local Vermonters would start to make trips to Killington for groceries and gasoline at tax-free prices.

State Of Vermont Does Not Want To Give Up Its Cash Cow

Not surprisingly, the Vermont legislature did not want to part with the Killington cash-cow willingly, so they created various road blocks to the transfer of the town including citing the fact that the US Constitution explicitly prohibits land secession from one state to another.

They also demanded large payments for “asset abandonment” and reminded Killington residents they would lose all the rights to welfare, tuition and their discounts to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream – although New Hampshire had promised better benefits and to reimburse Vermont up to $500 Million dollars for asset abandonment as well as supply large amounts of free Haagen Dazs or Blue Bunny ice cream instead.

Vermont politicians did not allow the initiative to go ahead so the bill to transfer control of Killington to The State of New Hampshire finally died in the Vermont legislature on June 1st 2006.