The credits are issued based on income -- hence it is a quick step to calculate a fairly precise estimate of anyone's household income since property tax bills are public.
Act 185, which created the shift from prebates to credits, also allows people to apply income tax refunds to their property tax bills, something proponents suggested would provide a measure of privacy because anyone perusing tax bills would not know whether the credits were due to income levels or income tax refunds.
The fact that only 0.065 percent of Vermonters applied income tax refunds to their property tax bills means that the household incomes of the other 99.935 percent of Vermonters who receive credits can be calculated from property tax bills.
This personal financial privacy violation is not visited on all Vermonters -- only those who need and receive financial assistance with their property taxes. The family and household incomes of those with incomes above a certain level are protected.
Our elected officials promised to fix this problem in 2008 but the legislative session came and went, and low/middle income Vermonters' personal financial information is still public.
Election season is upon us. It's incumbent on all candidates to provide us with clear, concise answers to how they will fix this. There are legitimate rights and expectations regarding financial privacy and they must be extended to all Vermonters regardless of their income level.
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