 Good evening and welcome to the woodchuck report. My name is V Chase. I'll be standing in for Bonnie today a little bit about myself. I Obviously, I am a libertarian. I was on the libertarian party have been since 2004-14, one of those two years. I have run for a state representative twice now and I more than likely will be and so today I'm just filling in for Bonnie and Well, here we go. This is the woodchuck report. First thing I'd like to do is just talk about You know the town caucus, you know every every election cycle. We have to caucus at least 10 towns to be able to count and so far we have Essex Dunn, Fairfax, Westford, Shaftesbury, Roxbury, Richmond, Burlington, South Burlington and Milton have been organized. So thank you to all those who did help organize We appreciate it. We still have a couple of towns left to go to meet our 10 minimum town minimum So if you would like to organize your town or if you if you're in Addison County We have we need a couple more members for that. If you're in Addison County, please email Be libertarian with me VT at gmail.com. The person to contact is Archie Flower So if you're not Addison County again, please email him. We could really appreciate you and your numbers Also, if you just like to organize the town for this year in any subsequent years, please email The name to email will be Jeremy Ryan. You can reach him at chair at vtlp.org That is vtlp.org So now that we got the Town cockies things out of the way, let's get to the good stuff So right now we have in terms of news updates Now we do have the drug policies that we need to talk about. We do have um In case you haven't been paying attention the new US senate tax bill has come out or at least the uh The outlines of it and what it's going to entail And as well as what's going on at the Vermont airport We do have some second amendment updates as well and Things to look forward to in our libertarian calendar So first thing first, I'd like to get this out of the way since I have it right here in front of me We can talk about the new tax bill And how it's going to at least the senate section and how it's going to affect you the most important thing I want to talk about is us the middle class and Right now the way it's looking as is uh That our taxes will go up anyone making between 75 and 100 grand will be going up and so That's going to affect about 11 percent of the households As well in fact, I can read it off to you right here since I have it in front of me It's going to hike taxes for some americans And of course there are several analyses from various groups including the joint committee on taxation Which forecasts that one in five households We'll see the bill go up within the next decade if the law is enacted So by 2019 11 percent of households We'll be making ten five to a hundred thousand dollars And actually we have someone on the line. So let us cut to the line Hello, you're on the woodchuck report Hi, Barthala. This is Abhani. I didn't mean to interrupt you going into the tax bill. I uh Wanted to get to the other topics if you want to continue talking about the tax bill go ahead with that. I don't know actually let's talk about You're on the line. So let's talk to you first Okay, um, I Wanted to call in with a couple of updates here We did talk about the panel situation Last year and later in the show. We're expecting that Becca drag and herself will be calling in to talk about that she Has been speaking up about the town plan and panel and she found other liberty minded residents from various parties who agreed with her and she's been talking about the empower panel plan Which she says is is all about social engineering. So we're looking forward to her calling in And then I just wanted to do a bit of a drug policy update, which we is a topic we often cover on the show here um One the the major news I guess um Is that there's no news yet on the marijuana task force Governor Phil Scott detailed the marijuana bill passed by both houses of the Vermont legislature last year our Earlier earlier this year before the legislative session ended And he created the committee to focus on public health and safety issues It's three subcommittees will focus on highway safety education and prevention and taxation and regulation And their first report the from that committee is due to come out on january 15th And then they have another more comprehensive report due on december 15th of 2018 So obviously nothing much is going to get done till december 15th in terms of a regulated market And we might not even see the legislature doing anything like the bill that passed last year before then either Which would really be a shame because that would be after the next set of elections And we know this legislature was interested in passing a bill that included home-glowing And and decriminalization even better decriminalization than vermont has now um I just wanted to to quote a story by the vermont press bureau. They told the jay pushing johnson who was governor phil scott's legal counsel Saying kind of what the woodchuck's report has been saying for a year or two that There really is no standard roadside test, which is something that the legislature And even the government a bit was holding everything up for you know We want to slide a test that works just like an alcohol test And now scott's legal counsel jay pushing johnson is saying that the dre's the drug recognition experts That i've talked about in the past on the show might be the only thing that's realistic to detect impairment on the road So um The other Twist in this is that the hemp farmers in the state are now a little concerned That there recently won freedom to grow industrial hemp could be threatened But lieutenant governor dave zacherman of course is on their side and He encourages them to contact him with their concerns so they can be addressed by the legislature and In the hemp department my champlain valley reported that the department of agriculture has nearly 560 acres of hemp farm registered in von vermont to various growers So that is progress that we don't want to lose And then one other story i wanted to bring you to the attention of the viewers are Is about the messaging going on at the vermont airport addictionpro.com I had a good story about that Drug testing lab in vermont burlington vermont and more than a dozen partner organizations Have converted a high traffic section of the burlington international airport into a change corridor Featuring information about substance use disorders The author of that article gary enos at addiction pro reported that the drug testing companies as the partnering organizations Which include treatment organizations state agencies in the burlington police department Came together to emphasize in the viewing public that substance use disorder is a brain disease and not a choice This is basically what Substance use disorder professionals have been saying for a long time. It's what the libertarian Have been saying is that this is not this is not a crime. This is you know, if somebody is abusing drugs it's a problem that they need help with And throwing people in jail taking away their ability to keep a job things like that are not helping the problem So I just wanted to let people know that that display is on the second floor of the north terminal at burlington airport and I just wanted to welcome you welcome you to the show. I hope you enjoy doing it And i'm looking forward to Making the show even better with with you there and hopefully getting more people to contribute You know looking for news and making comments on it and So thank you and if everybody could join us at the woodchuck report Let's let's get a good libertarian news source. Let's keep let it let's let it go on for another decade All right, and thank you bonnie I am happy to be here very happy to be here So back to what she was saying about about the drug life testing as she was saying so we have various places especially the airport And so the next thing on my agenda would be the the new uh, the bump stock rules that are happening In case you haven't you are living under a rock for however long there was another heinous gun crime and uh Guy in a hotel shot hundreds of people at our at a concert concert venue And so one of the things I was targeted is a bump stock for those of you don't know it's a bump stock it's an attachment onto the actual stock of a Generally a rifle that allows you to pull for each trigger pull multiple triggers. So is this long story short It's designed to make a semi automatic rifle semi automatic rifle operate like an automatic rifle Even though it is configured for semi automatic And so now the new legislations, especially uh, massachusetts has is outlawing bump stocks So anyone who is caught with a bump stock is required to dispose of it lawfully And so obviously there are people against it. There are some people for it And so uh, the free state project supporters, they're they're pledging to move to new hampshire from the bay state asap and also as well as various other groups And obviously vermont being a very free gun state Our laws well, we have no laws so To some that is a bad thing to many others as it's a good thing. I feel like we are extremely responsible people I believe as of this year possibly last year according to the fbi We are not the safest gun state in the union. We overtook new hampshire so I think one of the things we could be looking at is no how are we different so I mean we do have places like chicago who We have a many many people use chicago has some of the strictest gun laws yet. They have some of the highest gun crime rates so Those are arguments as gun control doesn't work and there are other arguments that chicago isn't a prime example of that But whatever your take on it It's I think a discussion regardless needs to be happened The end and the end decision Well, the end decision is the end decision So next on my list will be the liberty calendar And one of the things that we're looking up to is the 11th annual liberty forum, which would take place between february 8th through the 10th 2018 at the raston hotel, which is downtown berlington We also have one in the manchester new hampshire and all early birds tickets are available. You can go to New nh liberty forum dot com that is nh as in new hampshire abbreviation nh liberty forum dot com And other events will be coming up and as we find out more about them more information We will be letting you know posting on various websites, especially the libertarian website As my phone goes off so If I may go back to our tax to the new senate taxes and since as we all know Things you can't cheat in life death and taxes so right now Taxes is our biggest deal And back to what we're saying to what I was saying about about the middle class, which is the majority of us here anyways If you're between $7500,000 You're most likely going to see your tax go up and this is according to the joint committee on taxation Which they forecast one in five households We'll see the bill go up if the law is enacted Which in by 2019 will be approximately 11 percent of the population of households So most of those people who are seeing the house their income go up are already high income But according to some estimates like the tax policy center Roughly 9 percent of the middle class 20 percent of all the earners will see a tax increase as soon as 2018, which is next year With an average about $1,000 increase and then we have an estimate from the penn Wharton budget model Which finds that the tax bill will shift the tax burden towards the higher earning groups But that won't be before 2040 And possibly not if the bill raises the deficit Now from a libertarian's perspective, you know tax cuts are always welcome and that is one of our models In a low taxes more freedom I personally Do see some benefits in this I would like to see a spending cut myself Since there's no point in lowering taxes if you keep raising spending you just create a higher and higher budget deficit So let's just Economic front of one your income goes down you spend more you got to make up that gap somehow And so for us we keep borrowing borrowing borrowing our tax The deficit just hit it's about 19.9 trillion dollars last I checked which was shortly before this And that is keep rising. So One of the things they're looking at is how the senate plan will raise or lower the taxes for the middle middle class Since the senate plan according in relative to the house of representative plan Is they're both facing criticism because they're adding wider tax breaks that benefit the wealthy In the house bill for example the repealing the taxes on large inheritance and tax breaks for parents and children in private schools And notably the senate tax plan is going to be maintaining the estate tax Which doubles the current exemption effectively making it far more generous to those who have millions of dollars to pass onto the heirs so In conclusion for one of the things they're talking about in scrap One of the things that they're going to be talking about is scrapping both state and local tax deductions Which this is a part that affects Vermont since we are a high tax state as So many of us already know So the senate plan is going to essentially deal a huge blow to us the middle class They're saying about 7.6 million households, which make between 50 and 75 thousand a year in income Oh Lost that page Sorry, so between 7.6 million households between the 50 between 50 and 75 thousand dollars Do take that tax deduction? So if they eliminate that that means that it's an added bill that they will have to pay So new york university's lily batch shelter Who was looking at this? Pointing out that the house bill versus the senate version repeals the personal exceptions that are indexed to inflation For those of you who don't know the basics of inflation Government prints out more money cost of everything goes up So if there was no printing of money, you would have zero percent inflation So in that respects, it would be indexed to inflation, which will replace the credits that are currently in existence Which would mean that some middle-class families would end up paying more taxes than they would now Meanwhile the senate bill is going to leave in some of those deductions Which disproportionately are used by the upper income Including the mortgage interest tax deduction, which is always a high price high ticket item The senate plan will also scrap the alternative minimum tax Which generally targets high income earners because they can effectively make their tax rate lower than For example, someone making a million dollars could have an effect tax rate that is lower than say someone like me not making a million dollars So someone who making a million dollars might have an effective tax rate of say 15 percent Meanwhile, someone who's making 35 50 45 000 dollars who might have an effective tax rate of 20 25 percent And so that is a very big ticket item You might have heard Warren Buffett talk about that how his effective tax rate is lower than his secretary even though he makes Tens of times more money than she does So that is a big big ticket item now president jump Who reportedly owed more than 31 million dollars in taxes as of 2005 would also be exempt for that To use that as another example So that's just some excerpts from the proposed plan from both the house and the senate And how it will and most likely will affect you if you are concerned about it I suggest you go online and do your research look at it Obviously as time comes on and all these tax bills and details come out You're going to see them all over the news here For example the Woodchuck report and also on your local news and any social media you're going to start seeing So for it so Not that we got that out of the way Things we need to talk about make sure I cover everything Well, now that I got that major agenda out of the way. I would like to Talk about me here again since And it looks like I would be replacing Bonnie as I said, my name is v chase I am a libertarian. I like to consider myself a classic liberal libertarian And so some of my backgrounds is I did I went to Essex high school graduated and shortly afterwards I Was lost as most young kids are decided they joined the the military Went up into the navy Spent six years of that, you know some really good times some really fun memories. It is an experience I do not recommend it for everyone. It requires military life itself requires Certain obviously dedication. It is an obligation. It is a contractual obligation But also requires a certain mindset that you need And need to enjoy I had fun while I do it. I was doing it and then For some reason it clicked my head that I wanted to do something else So I left decided to come back and go to school I went to UVM where I graduated With a bachelor in economics and that was fun. I had Professor wolf who we have mentioned before in in the show And I was all on the track team as well. So I had Fun being both active and getting an academic education And then after that I got out, you know during the job force realized a couple of things like a I needed more education. So for some unknown reason I've now decided to go back and Get my masters which I'm still planning on but we shall see Well, it looks like we do have another caller and I'm going to interrupt myself and see who we have here Good evening. You're on the woodchuck report Hi Hello This is uh, rebecca dragon from panel Rebecca good. Good to see you. Good to hear from you Bonnie said you had questions for me to get me started talking about what's been going down in panel Yes, yes, one of the things well, I wanted to At least have you recapped the whole situation for those who do not know who have not been heard You know who have been living underneath a rock so they can at least get the quick spin on the things Yeah Um, so I guess there's a lot of things going. Um Down in panel and in vermont as a whole as well. Um, a lot of Back and forth with state versus local control of a lot of different things and the most recent, um Thing that has happened is, you know, we have to ratify a new town plan. Um and the state has Created a system whereby when When you write your new town plan if you want to have deference at the um At the top of the Montpelier for instance any kind of um green energy siding anything like that Um, if you want to have deference meaning that you get to go there and say, you know what? I really don't want this project there. You get your town gets to have say if you do that Um, you have to have all of these things Requirements written into your town plan that almost makes the deference Unnecessary if that makes sense No, I actually was saying Yeah, and so, um There's a very big in panel in particular. I find a really huge philosophical divide regarding the role of government um versus uh the role of a local community In making decisions. Um, who makes the best decisions where is it best to have the power centralized? Um, and there's a huge movement towards um regionalization right now also through act 46 um the town plan planning the way that's been going on um As far as our town plan is concerned, um A lot of language was was written into the first one that was proposed that would Have the potential to displace Many people living in trailer parks. We have one of the largest populations of people living in trailer parks in the state and um Under the guise of flood plane control, uh, they a lot of languages written in there about Literally moving people out of their homes um, and So many of us came and got our hackles up at the local town plan meeting and Um stood up against this and said why we were against them having this kind of language written into the plan And um in the beddington banner eventually what happened was a an article, uh Decrying the dangers of um libertarianism In relation to this town plan, uh Uh was printed in the banner. So that's how I believe um, body got Uh started reading what I was writing because I wrote a rebuttal to that. So that's kind of what's been going on May I ask what uh, what were they saying about no when they were you saying they were decrying the libertarianism What were some of their arguments? um Well just that government isn't all bad. They called they called us I believe like paranoid and delusional um Those of us that didn't want so much state control that we felt controls much better localized um, and um That is night. I think naive misinformed They accused many of us through the town through the town plan process of spreading false information One woman had actually um Sent out a flyer and distributed it in the um trailer parks and the flyer Literally only quoted the town plan. It didn't have commentary It didn't nothing. It just said this is what is in the town plan and here's where the meeting is If you want to say something about it, um, also we started on our local front porch forum I believe that's everywhere now in Vermont. Um, um several people started every day putting a new quote from the town plan no commentary and We were accused of spreading false information And then it turned they turned it into libertarianism And I believe they got the libertarian quote because I on one of these front porch forums just said You know, there was all this, um organization of democrats So I wrote on there as a response Is there any organization of libertarians or republicans? and I think they just glommed on to this libertarian statement and Turned us all into libertarians. Although I think I'm the only one who's officially a libertarian Yes, that is uh That is interesting to say the least So in terms certainly very interesting Yeah, so in terms of the town charter and the rewriting of it You know, what are one of the things that uh the town panel and the The oppositions and those who are for it. What are they trying to get in out of it? Well, I mean, I think there's again, there's a philosophical divide um and One part of that is this idea, you know, like quote unquote safe housing There's a very big push for wanting to build subsidized housing Um, which I believe is just one little tiny part of this grand Um idea of smart growth, right? Um, so they're trying to implement these ideas of smart growth. They're trying to get people out of their cars um building bike paths boosting More public transportation and also really controlling the way you're able to use your own land Um, how you're able to develop or not develop your own property um Preserving quote-unquote open spaces Um, which you know, maybe on the outset a lot of that sounds very good Well, of course, I should be safe housing for people and of course we should protect these beautiful open spaces But really what it is is it's really it's almost micromanaging to the nth degree our daily life and how we The people of our communities want to live in move through and actively Develop and hold together our communities if that makes sense um And so there is this there's one group of people that could that have the opposition towards it that in my mind to have Definitely more of a we know better kind of big government Trust and big government These are ideals. These are obviously the right ones. So we need to implement all of these rules and regulations that will that will Bring in Our ideals and not caring or thinking about that people might think or live or want to live differently Okay, that is Well, we look forward to hearing more about it as the events occur some more I want to thank you Hopefully right now the town plan they're they're rewriting it based on some of our suggestions So when I find out what changes were actually made, I'll um, I'll update you guys. Okay. All right. Well, thank you Right. Thank you Well, as a great man once said the scariest thing you can hear is I'm from the government and I'm here to help So with a couple minutes left, I'd like to wind on the show and say well Thank you to all who is our listening who will be watching this in the future when they Rear it is again and this is the woodchuck report and obviously and so in Passing one of the things I'd like to add to you if you are interested or if you just want to know, you know What is libertarianism, you know, what entails it is a very broad branch of As I was said philosophical thinking, but it's also a little more than just philosophic philosophical thinking it is Definitely a way of life, you know the the catch-all banner of no small government more freedoms Is what we aim to provide But I think there's there's more to that more to it than just that so go online There is the national libertarian party you can go to I gave you the email for our chairman jeremy ryan if you'd like to have a conversation with him Definitely help us in our caucusing Because so we can at least try to end this whole two minute The two-party system So In conclusion, I want to thank you again for watching the woodchuck report My name is v chase and and I hope you stay tuned to next time we have the show