So according to the Census Bureau, things are heading in the right direction even though we are currently in a bit of an economic rut
America's poverty rate remained flat, but the median household income reached $50,233 in 2007, a modest increase of 1.3 percent from 2006 after adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. The number of people without health insurance dropped from 47 million to 45.7 million.
The figures showed incomes rose for whites and blacks across the country, but stayed flat for Hispanics and Asians.
But in Vermont, things look a bit different
A Census report released Tuesday offers a dim picture of Vermont's economy: the state's median household income for 2006-07 dropped by 4.7 percent from 2004-05.
"Experts" in Vermont are clueless as to why this should be so.
Woolf also said indicators paint a different picture of Vermonters' income. The state's income withholding tax revenue grew during that time period and continues to grow, he noted.
"Those numbers have been fairly healthy," Woolf said. "How do you reconcile that?"
Hmmm. Let's review a few facts and see where that leads us.
First, is something I noticed back in May of 2007:
On the heels of the announcement that Vermont's tax burden on individuals is the highest in the country, comes the news that the State coffers are overflowing with cash.
Secretary of Administration Michael Smith said financial analysts expected the flow of taxes into the state's General Fund might exceed official targets by about $15 million. "I don't think anybody expected this."
Now you'd think that these two stories, when put together would indicate that people are taxed too much. I mean clearly, if you have a surplus, then you have taken in more money than you need to run the government.
Now as any person who has played SimCity knows, when the tax rates go up higher than the perceived value they receive, people tend to move away. Is there any evidence that people are moving away from Vermont?
Why yes there is.
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more people are leaving Vermont than moving into the state. There's nothing really new there, but the decline is steeper than earlier estimates....
"The estimates are showing that Vermont has a net decrease of people moving around from state to state," Sawyer said, "so people moving out of the state, there's a net decrease in the past seven years -- of about 300 people. There's a net increase of around 5,000 based on international migration," he added.
International migration. Vermont is only growing at all because of refugees from other countries
This means that refugees and other immigrants are arriving in enough numbers to reverse what would have been an outright loss of population in Vermont into a slight gain. In each of the seven years since 2000, the census has estimated slow growth in Vermont up from 609,909 to 621,254. That's a little less than 2-percent.
And high taxes might lead businesses to go elsewhere.
One crucial fact they have recently discovered is that though the late 1990s seemingly produced sunny economic forecasts, there was a dark side to the state of the state's economy. Low unemployment rates and non-wage income masked an economy with an eroding base of strategic industries that was also too dependent on a handful of companies.
That was from 2002, but the situation has not gotten better since. Unemployment in Vermont is higher than the national average.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Legislature under Douglas' opponent Gaye Simington were more concerned in the last session about impeaching President and Global Warming than they were about addressing Vermont's business climate.
And then they wonder why incomes in Vermont are falling.
