Seeking secession

KILLINGTON, Vt. -- When Michael Miller bought Mountain Meadows, a cross-country ski outfit beneath Killington Mountain, 15 years ago, he and his wife were attracted by three things: a good school, the pleasure of operating a small Vermont business, and low taxes.

But now he says the state he loved has turned on him, saddling him with taxes he cannot afford. And he wants out.

"I've been proud to be a Vermonter," said Miller, a Killington selectman. "But pride doesn't pay the bills."

Rather than packing up and leaving the state, Miller and the other two Killington selectmen, along with Town Manager David Lewis, are leading a move to secede from Vermont and join their town with New Hampshire, some 25 miles to the east. Since 1997, when Vermont passed Act 60, taxpayers in property-rich towns like Killington have had to share the cost of educating students in Vermont's poorer communities. Miller has seen his taxes quadruple.

"We have two children. We're operating a seasonal business in New England at a time when the economy is not that great," he said. "But it's the taxes that are killing us."

He's not alone. The resolution appears to have widespread support in this popular ski-resort town, which has been battling state officials over environmental regulations and school funding formulas for decades. Miller said people have had enough.

"I've been a selectman for five years. Usually only one or two people show up for the meetings, but ever since we started talking about seceding from Vermont, our meetings have attracted more and more people," Miller said. "When the selectmen passed the resolution, everyone cheered."

Residents say the move is more than symbolic. "We're dead serious," Selectman Walter J. Findeisen said. "For years now, we have complained, pleaded, trying to get fairness out of Montpelier. We've gotten none of that. They're treating us like a cash cow they can milk forever."

Findeisen said the town is examining the legal ramifications of secession. A state historic marker on the road to the ski area notes that the "Rev. Samuel Peters claimed he christened the wilderness with the name `Verd-mont' in 1763" from atop Mount Killington. But the resolution penned by the selectmen says that, since the town "was originally chartered in 1761 as a township of what was then known as the province of New Hampshire," its residents can simply decide to rejoin New Hampshire as a way of addressing current injustices.

"New Hampshire will probably accept us. The deputy secretary of state of New Hampshire, David Scanlan, has already said he was complimented by the idea," Findeisen said. "If Vermont declines to let us go, we'll appeal to the US Legislature and the US Supreme Court."

Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, however, said it is not that easy.

"Although Vermont was originally created as the result of an armed insurrection on the part of people living in communities claimed by the state of New Hampshire and, in a few cases, New York, the Vermont Constitution from day one gave the Legislature the power to recognize and dissolve towns," Markowitz said. "There's no independent authority that would allow the towns to take themselves out of Vermont."

Bill Russell, chief legislative counsel for the state of Vermont, agreed. "As far as Killington goes, they can all physically move to New Hampshire if they want, but they can't take the real estate with them," he said.

That is especially significant in the part of the mountain that Killington Ski Area trails are located. The property most essential to the town's financial health is within the Coolidge State Forest, which belongs to the people of Vermont.

What has been especially galling to taxpayers in Killington is that the latest version of the statewide property tax law undermined a loophole under which Killington was able to establish a nonprofit foundation to fund their own schools and, thereby, circumvent paying into the cost-sharing pool. The new law sets a higher tax rate for second-home and business properties than for primary residences. That has been particularly burdensome for Killington, where more than 80 percent of properties are second homes or businesses.

Findeisen said Killington "pays more than $20 million to the state -- $10 million through the statewide property tax and another $10 million in sales and other business taxes -- but gets back less than $1 million to run our own elementary school."

Killington challenged the legality of Act 60, arguing successfully in Rutland Superior Court that the law "was arbitrary and created disproportionate and inequitable taxation." The Vermont Supreme Court, however, overturned the lower-court ruling.

Miller said residents would also welcome not having to pay sales and income tax as citizens of New Hampshire. "Even if New Hampshire's property taxes are as high as Vermont's, I'd make out not having to pay a 6 percent sales tax and income tax. We could become a tax-free zone within Vermont," he said. "People could come here to shop."

Murray McGrath, owner of the Inn at Long Trail, built in 1938 as the first ski lodge in Vermont, does not believe the measure has a chance of passing legal muster. But "it will draw attention to the fact that the state's taking a lot of our money and not giving much back, that they've targeted the resort towns unfairly."

But Bill Radaker, owner of Bill's Country Store, which sells a full range of Vermont-made products, said there is an easier solution. "We have to stop electing the people that keep passing these laws. Our taxes here have doubled, doubled again, and they're going up 50 percent again this year. I think it's just a publicity stunt," he said of the secession proposal, "but I'm all for it."

Gregory Sanford, Vermont state archivist, said it is hard for people to understand that towns or property owners do not ultimately own the land they inhabit. Although Vermont is a self-created state -- it took 14 years for Vermont to be recognized as the 14th state -- he said the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in 1913 that the Legislature had sole authority to create or obliterate towns.

Killington is not the first Vermont town to threaten secession. The Lake Champlain island town of Grand Isle made a similar move about 20 years ago. And Sanford said some 30 or 40 New Hampshire towns along the Connecticut River voted to join Vermont in 1779 and 1781. Just as Killington believes politicians in Vermont's capital of Montpelier are not hearing their appeals, the Connecticut River towns felt that New Hampshire's seacoast towns were not listening to theirs. "It didn't do them any good either," Sanford said.

Over the years, Vermonters have threatened to secede from the United States. Frank Bryan, professor of history at the University of Vermont, and high school teacher Bill Mares wrote "Out: The Vermont Secession Book," promoting the idea that Vermont would be better off outside the United States.

Thomas H. Naylor, a retired professor of economics at Duke University who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., is the current leader of the secession movement in Vermont. His book, "The Vermont Manifesto," calls for Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to join with the four coastal provinces of Canada to form a country about the size and population of Denmark. Naylor deplores the motive behind the Killington secession move but applauds their right to do so.

"They're doing it for economic reasons, to not pay their share of the cost of educating Vermont kids." he said. "I don't agree with their motivations. However, the notion of sovereignty cannot be delegated to a state. It's a God-given right. If they want to do it, they have the right to do it. They have a right to disband."