Atkinson's October Fundraiser Cocktail Party
David will be holding a Fun-raising event in October. Here’s the details as best as I know them:
vermont
World Water Monitoring Day
Libertarians in Action: John West is the “Early Education Outreach Coordinator” for
the Green Mountain Water Environment Association. He has been giving out river test kits for worldwatermonitoringday.org (paid for by GMWEA) to elementary schools throughout Vermont.
He arranged for the Governor to come to Wallingford Elementary School on October 2nd to kick off “World Water Monitoring Day” in Vermont. He is hoping to hand out a test kit to all 331 schools in Vermont next year.
Increase of taxes on Vermonters by over 7 million dollars
Vermont Will Tax Beer
WCAX, Montpelier, Vermont – September 26, 2006
From Budweiser to Vermont’s micro brews, the cost of a six pack is going up. That’s because for the first time, the state’s six percent sales tax will be levied on beer.
“Here in Central Vermont a six pack is going to go up 45 cents that is going to be a noticeable increase. I think people are going to be very surprised because it is kind of like a sleeper deal,” said M & M Beverage Owner Gilles Moreau.
Vermont and a host of other states are joining forces because they are worried about losing tax revenue because of the internet. Folks are catalog shopping on line and many of those purchases do not include a sales tax.
“Internet sales are growing I think 25 percent,”said Mike Wasser of the Vermont Tax Department.
Because Vermont decided to become a member of the so called streamlined sales tax agreement, Vermont now will be able to collect taxes from out of state vendors who ship and sell goods here. No one is sure how much Vermont might collect – but it’s likely to run into the millions. ”
A guy in my business believes we need to tax … to get tax on internet sales, because internet sales are killing us other ways so I think overall, it works,” said Moreau.
But the state’s grocers are worried about the new beer tax taking effect in January.
“This is an increase of taxes on Vermonters by over 7 million dollars,” said Jim Harrison of the Vermont Grocers Association.
There will be a beer tax because Vermont already taxes wine. Under the national streamlined tax deal, wine and beer must be labeled as alcohol.
“So legislators either had to repeal the sales tax on wine which they were not willing to do or tax both. They opted to tax both,” said Harrison.
It was three years ago when the Governor and the legislature decided to enter the streamline system. It was needed at the time they said because they were making changes to Act 68. That’s the fund that pays for education in Vermont.
“Our legislators looked at this determined in the long run. This would benefit the state. It would remedy these inequalities,” said Wasser.
Some taxes will go down. Vermont can no longer tax clothing over $110. But the biggest shock may come at the cooler, in part because of the computer.
Vermont Libertarians Batting .750 in Contested Primaries
The National LP issued the following press release…
Vermont Libertarians Batting .750 in Contested Primary Races
Libertarian Fusion Candidates Win Three State Representative Primaries in Green Mountain State
(Washington, D.C.) Benjamin Todd and Jeff Manney are running for Vermont State Representative seats on a Libertarian-Republican fusion ticket. As their races were uncontested, they easily won Tuesday’s Republican primary elections for their districts. Vermont’s other four LP fusion state representative candidates had to fight a bit harder, but still pulled off an impressive win/loss ratio.
Vermont Libertarian Party Chair Hardy Machia was responsible for recruiting most of the candidates and orchestrating the state representative campaigns. He stated that he is “very pleased with the showing of our candidates in the major parties’ primaries.”
Two of the winners were Bob Wolffe and David Atkinson in the Orange-Addison-1 district. According to the latest election returns, Atkinson won his race by one vote. Machia wasn’t merely coordinating campaigns; he was running in the Grand Isle-Chittenden-1-1 race himself – a race which he won.
“Running a fusion campaign as a Libertarian-Republican makes it easy to talk to Democratic and Independent voters who are very frustrated with the Republicans in DC, because I can empathize with them against the war in Iraq, against out-of-control spending, and against infringements on our civil liberties,” Machia said. “The voters I talked to want to see change. They want the property taxes problem fixed.”
The Wolffe and Atkinson campaigns were assisted with GOTV calls from the national Libertarian Party’s Ballot Base. Machia felt confident enough about his potential to win his own race that he insisted the other candidates receive the priority for GOTV telephone calls.
The single defeat these Libertarian candidates took isn’t a complete loss. While Kevin Volz lost the Democratic primary in Rutland-5-4, he will still be on the ballot as a Libertarian in the November General Election.
In addition to their fusion candidates, the Vermont Libertarian Party will be running three more candidates for state representative positions on the Libertarian Party ticket: Thomas Carpenter, Jr. in Rutland-5-3, Andrew Thomas in Chittenden-3-8, and Don O’Donnell in Washington-6.
Recent polling has shown Libertarian candidates performing at higher than normal levels in multiple states and races around the country. In Vermont, the combination of voter discontent, an effective state strategy and the Libertarian Party’s Ballot Base program was the deciding factor in this set of Libertarian victories.
“The incumbents have been ineffective and are not addressing voters’ concerns,” Machia said. “A lot of people are ready for change. It’s time to take the momentum from this win into the general election.”
LTE: The problem: Duopoly of Democrats and Republicans
To The Editor,
Vermonter’s are pretty good at reading between the lines. We hear how one party has brought about quagmire so it is imperative to vote for the other party.
Joe Lieberman’s flip flopping in the partisan world of politics should be enough for anyone to see there is little difference, if any, between Republicans and Democrats (this includes partisan candidates who awaken, independent, after primary failure).
Both parties together, through incumbency, have given us a corrosion of basic civil rights, pre-emptive war, and catastrophic deficits, all for war.
Democrats and Republicans are the problem, together. This election year, Think independently. Vote against the incumbent party.
Failure to do so will ensure continued loss of liberty. It is not just someone else’s representative or senator who is taking us down the road to imperialism. It is yours as well.
Joel Williams
Poultney