Dear Editor,
The front page of this past week’s (June 11-17) Mountain Times reported on the first quarter local options tax in the story headlined “Central Vermont towns report good first quarter revenue for local options tax.” In it, Killington town manager reported we took in $483,628. Where does that money go? It goes into the general fund. In comparison, Rutland Town took in $249,327. But they use those monies to reduce property taxes to be applied to their next fiscal year. Our leaders use these funds for consultant fees and studies. We are heavily in debt trying to pay off the golf course, which seems to be never ending. The course needs substantial repairs, the pool needs work. Not one red cent of the revenue from the option tax is used to reduce our taxes. They keep going up, up, up. And while the local businesses enjoy an increase in their bottom line, something that we the town are all in favor of, we the residents receive zero. But whose fault is it? The same 15-20 people show up for the Select Board meetings. The last election only 37 percent of the registered voters went to the polls. “It’s our own damn fault!”
It’s hard to listen to one of our leaders say, “if you don’t like the job we’re doing, you can vote us out of office,” as happened at a recent Select Board meeting. But that, my friends, is exactly what we have to do. You the residents must take a more serious interest in what’s happening to our town. We also need to get the second-homeowners to voice their opinions and concerns. After all they pay taxes, too. We all must get involved if we want change. We can’t leave it to those who appear to be less than interested in performing for the interests of all the people of Killington.
Richard Kropp, Killington
