March 7, 2004

Killington wants to secede to succeed

Vermont town, in tax revolt, asks to join New Hampshire

By Morten Lund

The world of destination resorts in the Northeast has come a long way since the grass roots alpine skiing movement in New England. Beginning 1934, the date of the first tow in Woodstock, Vermont, early Northeastern ski clubs, ski areas-to-be and inns set up something over five hundred ropes tows in a matter of a few years. Rope tow skiers literally created a sport so accessible that almost anyone who wanted to ski could and would. It was a case of skiers enjoying skiers, regardless of all else. And of strengthening rural states' economics versus those of the more industrialized states. That is the way is was for at least alpine skiing's first two decades. That was followed by an accelerating rush toward more and better. Ski resorts have distanced themselves from the friendly days. The money destination resorts charge currently for lifts, accommodations, meals, apres-ski and real estate have entered a surreal realm at the end of a dizzying upward spiral. The spirit of the sport vanished somewhere along the rapid rise.

The citizens of Killington, Vermont who mostly live off the fast-rise cost spiral of resort skiing have confirmed the disappearance of the sport's essential spirit by declaring their wish to depart from its state of Vermont altogether. Most of the thousand or so permanent residents have denounced the extent of their contribution to the education of Vermont school kids. To summarize, a complicated 1997 Vermont law pooled the local school taxes across the state the formerly favored the rich (read "resort") towns in order to equalize school spending per child across the stare. Citizens of towns with high-value realty pay more property tax, much more, since 1997.

Killington citizens point out that the town contributes mightily to state revenues through taxes on meals, rooms, and liquor and property taxes-in fact, a total of $20 million a year. Decrying this extraction, Town Selectman Walter Findelsen recently sounded a sharp note of pain, saying, "We're not against helping out and paying our fair share. We're against is having it socked to us. The best thing is to leave the state. The state doesn't want us."

In short order, the town board at its recent meeting allocated $10,000 to study how to succeed by seceding, asserting Killington belongs in New Hampshire in a parallel universe that would save Killington an estimated $10 million by having their neighbor state to the east annex them.

Granted the transaction is clearly unauthorized by the Constitution, the Killington revolutionaries see little problem. The citizens of Killington are not offering a credible threat but a magnificent pageant of publicity occasioned by a spurious assertion of independence. News program cameras whirred at the recent Killington town meeting where Killingtonians spoke their piece against the taxes without mentioning that 90 per cent of it is paid by nonresident tourists and vacation homeowners. Not that the residents neglected these, their benefactors-under the fog of tax revolt, the residents quietly assented to spending a chunk of tax revenue on behalf of their esteemed visitors by underwriting the town's second golf course.

Unspoken, too, was the fact that the mountain on which the Killington resort sits belongs to the state of Vermont, The state could legitimately decree that the town run its own financial affairs and in lieu of taxes buy the mountain at today's prices. Independence so delightful then would clearly become a reality so expensive.