Zuckerman: Vermonters can’t afford a 12% tax increase; real solutions needed now

December 5, 2025  |  By David Zuckerman

Vermonters are staring down a staggering 12% property tax hike in 2026—that’s simply unacceptable. It’s a looming crisis that will squeeze working families, small businesses, and residents on fixed incomes, threatening the stability and affordability of our communities.

Lawmakers now face a clear and unavoidable choice. They must decide whether to (1) embrace responsibility and reform, or (2) perpetuate failure:

1. Adjust the tax formula to help working and middle-class Vermonters, tax second homes (not camps), and adopt data-driven reforms that save hundreds of millions of dollars.

2. OR, continue down the governor’s failed path of double-digit tax hikes, which creates unnecessary and unproductive centralization, and stagnates educational outcomes.

This looming tax crisis is the direct result of years of political leadership choosing distraction over diligence. 

For 10 years, the governor has attacked teachers, defunded the Education Agency, and ignored funding formula changes that would have helped working and middle-class Vermonters. Instead, last January, Gov. Phil Scott proposed and the legislature focused on closing schools, eliminating local control, centralizing spending decisions in Montpelier (foundation formula) while taxing people on their property value without lowering taxes based on income. 

The legislature ultimately passed the governor’s proposals: A redistricting plan with no demonstrable cost savings, and a $100 million one-time allocation to buy down tax rates, thus creating one-half of this year's insane increase. Together, they could have spent that time fixing the inequitable education portion of the property tax instead.

The good news is that the Task Force on the Future of Education refocused the discussion back to where the real savings are. Despite significant stonewalling and resistance from the administration, the task force produced a comprehensive, data-driven plan that identifies ways to reduce costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is not partisan; the plan is backed with solid evidence, including an independent financial analysis by the Campaign for Vermont, a conservative think tank.

Crucially, this plan achieves these massive savings while improving the quality of education. It also avoids the governor's community-disrupting outcomes, such as closing local schools, putting children on two-hour bus rides every day, and removing local control of whether to operate schools. 

Families deserve immediate relief (option one above). Implement inflation-adjusted income sensitivity across the board. This will improve affordability and protect our lower and middle-income residents from crippling tax increases. Additionally, the state must enact a separate, additional tax on second homes (not camps) to broaden the base and immediately lower tax rates across the board for primary homeowners and small businesses. 

These immediate steps, along with the long-term structural savings recommended by the task force, will make Vermonters more affordable for years to come. 

Vermonters deserve leadership that supports both kids and taxpayers—not excuses, finger-pointing, and empty promises. It is time to put evidence over ego, data over distraction, and real, accountable savings over painful tax hikes.

Hinesburg farmer David Zuckerman served as Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor from 2017 to 2021, and again from 2023 to 2025.