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Vermont town wants to secede, join New Hampshire
Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity.Voting with a thunderous "aye," Killington residents endorsed a plan Tuesday for the ski resort town to secede from Vermont. The overwhelming voice vote inside the elementary school opened the next chapter in what could be a long and costly push to join New Hampshire, a state 25 miles to the east. Town officials estimated between 200-300 people attended the meeting, and that about two-thirds of them supported the idea in the voice vote. "Other towns have been sitting back and waiting for Killington to break ground," said Jim Blackman, 46. "It is Killington's obligation to break that ground." Blackman's comments were echoed by many of the dozen-odd residents who spoke at the town meeting. Their comments mirrored Killington's long-standing frustration over how much the town of roughly 1,000 pays the state in taxes and how little residents say they get in return to pay for the town's school and municipal services. That frustration drove town officials to launch the secession movement last fall. The town already has spent about $20,000 studying the feasibility and potential advantages of joining New Hampshire, the state where it was originally chartered in 1761. Secession activists say the legality and economic rationale behind the plan are sound. Vermont lawmakers have given the plan a lukewarm reception. They have said it is largely symbolic and probably will be voted down by the Legislature. "The state is treating us like a cash cow," said David Lewis, the town manager. Not everyone at the meeting was in favor of the plan, however. "I was born and raised a Vermonter, and I hope to always be," said resident Julie Thomas, 38. At the heart of the displeasure with Vermont is the state's new system of financing education, adopted in 1997 under order of the Supreme Court, which dramatically increased property taxes in communities, like Killington, deemed to be property wealthy. The last time we had a secession, it wasn't pretty... Posted by: Dar 2004-03-02 |
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