How to fund state coffers? Brattleboro House primary draws interest with a taxing debate.

BRATTLEBORO — For visitors, the campaign signs dotting local lawns like dandelions are as seemingly simple as white or green. But for voters in this town’s Windham-7 electoral district, the contrasting colors represent the two sides of a red-hot primary debate over taxes.

The district’s state House representative, Democrat Emilie Kornheiser, made national news earlier this year when she introduced bills to impose new “wealth taxes” on Vermonters with the highest incomes and assets.

“The way our tax structure is set up, our middle class is carrying an undue burden, compared to folks at the top,” Kornheiser, chair of her chamber’s Ways and Means Committee, told the New York Times in January. “We want to make sure that all Vermonters are paying their fair share.”

A month later, Kornheiser, who once supported a limit on the rate of increase for education property taxes, sparked more headlines by pushing for the cap’s repeal in an effort to curb unexpectedly costly ramifications just weeks before March school budget votes.

Brattleboro farmer Amanda Ellis-Thurber remembers the reaction from some of her fellow residents.

“Friends and neighbors have been telling me they’re really nervous about provocative legislation and property tax increases,” said Ellis-Thurber, part of the third generation of family to raise dairy cows and organic crops at the nearly century-old Lilac Ridge Farm .

And so Ellis-Thurber decided to run against Kornheiser in the district’s Aug. 13 Democratic primary, spurring this summer’s bumper crop of white “Emilie” and green “Thurber” signs.

Ellis-Thurber, 52, is new to politics, but not to public service. She was a presidential appointment during the Obama administration to Vermont’s 10-member USDA Farm Service Agency board.

Kornheiser, for her part, is a 45-year-old social service specialist who first won her seat as a political newcomer in 2018 when she challenged then Rep. Valerie Stuart, a four-term Democratic incumbent.

“People want to feel their quality of life is improving,” Kornheiser told the press six years ago. “I want to move from Band-Aids to systemic solutions.”

Kornheiser had hoped to implement the latter upon her 2023 appointment as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. A year earlier, she had supported a 5% cap on education property tax hikes as part of Act 127 , which sought to improve student equity by adjusting the state funding formula for schools. But when the legislation resulted in higher spending and a nearly 20% projected spike in average tax bills, she had to push for the adoption of a different, untested model just before this past March Town Meeting season.

Despite that adjustment, almost a third of Vermont school districts went on to reject initial budgets for the coming academic year, with Barre still without an approved plan as residents await a fourth vote, according to the Vermont Superintendents Association.

Kornheiser has apologized for the last-minute nature of what she considers necessary changes. But as the legislator seeks to boost access to health care, housing and other social supports, she’s continuing to call for more taxes on the highest-earning individuals and businesses.

“People sometimes paint me as just ‘The Lady Who Loves the Taxes,’” Kornheiser told VTDigger. “While I do believe that taxes are the way we pay for civilization, I think it really matters how we levy those. I am very focused on shifting our tax structure so that those who are most able can pay their fair share.”

For her part, Ellis-Thurber is calling for what she terms “a pragmatic fiscal approach” centered on creating more jobs and businesses.

“We need to increase the revenue the state takes in to fund important social programs through economic activity rather than taxing individuals at a higher and higher rate,” Ellis-Thurber said. “I’m in the camp that growth of the economy will have a more sustainable impact, so that we’re able to recruit and retain residents.”

The weekly Vermont newspaper Seven Days published a profile of Kornheiser during the past legislative session in which many state insiders agreed to talk only if they could do so anonymously.

“Few people who labor in the trenches of state policy want to risk ruffling feathers on Ways and Means,” the profile said.

But locally, many district voters are offering letters to the editor in support.

“Kornheiser has the right positions on equal rights, economic development, affordable housing, a living wage, the environment and much more,” George Carvill, a former journalist and software engineer, wrote in one . “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

About 50 people attended Kornheiser’s campaign kickoff, which featured many fellow Windham County legislators. House Speaker Jill Krowinski and Attorney General Charity Clark are among those who have contributed to the incumbent’s $13,923 campaign treasury, according to a July 1 state financial disclosure form.

In comparison, Ellis-Thurber hosted some 100 people at her opening event and has raised $8,603, state records show.

Local lawyer Craig Miskovich, board president of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, is serving as Ellis-Thurber’s campaign treasurer. In an interview with The Commons weekly, Miskovich said “I am not against anyone” but instead for candidates who he believed would support funding the government through economic growth.

“We need to protect those assets that generate revenue and wealth in this community,” Miskovich said. “A tax policy that discourages those economic engines is one that, ultimately, is trying to tax fewer and fewer people more and more, rather than building an economy that’s vibrant.”

Kornheiser is one of three House members who each represent their own section of Brattleboro.

In Windham-7, the winner of the primary will run this fall against Republican Susan Murray.

In Windham-8, Democratic Rep. Mollie Burke will seek a ninth term in November against Republican Bill Harvey.

And in Windham-9, Democratic Rep. Tristan Toleno is stepping down after 12 years, resulting in a party primary between David Gartenstein and Ian Goodnow. Both candidates are local lawyers and former selectboard chairs, leaving the press to sum up the race between Gartenstein, a 64-year-old deputy state’s attorney, and Goodnow, a 32-year-old defense lawyer, as one of “two attorneys at vastly different points in their careers.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the color of some lawn signs in the campaign.

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