MARLBORO-I feel compelled to respond to Selectboard member Richard Davis, who questions if now is the time to cut town nonprofit support in light of rising local taxes.
I have worked for three Brattleboro nonprofits: In-Sight Photography Project, River Gallery School of Art, and Brooks Memorial Library (a town department). I appreciate that Mr. Davis has had positive experiences with the generosity of private donors, as I did in these capacities.
However, funding at nonprofits is always precarious, even in the best of times, and when it comes to basic humanitarian needs like food, health care, housing, and mental health service, I do not believe we should rely on the whims of wealth.
That's especially true when this funding represents such a small portion of a resident's tax bill. (Mr. Davis cited $100 of a $5,000 tax bill.)
To put the security and well-being of community members at further risk is a huge long-term mistake that, frankly, we have been making for years now.
All that being wealthy means is that you or someone in your family made shrewd business choices and had societal connections. It does not mean that this person or family is well-informed or in a position to make choices about the collective good.
It is already terrifying to see how many local families have to rely on GoFundMe campaigns to pay medical bills.
As a queer friend said to me recently, my likability should not be what determines my access to housing, health care, food, and education. Private money is subject to bias and bigotry and is not a solid foundation for a society, especially at this moment in time, where there is wealth disparity beyond the levels of the 19th-century barons, on top of a climate crisis, vast diversity, and a potential federal gutting of social services.
It is crucial that Vermont, and Brattleboro, if it is truly compassionate, take a very different tack.
Vermont as a state has had a very complicated 100-plus-year dance with wealth moving through our otherwise lower-income, small-population state. We continue to pour endless resources into accommodating the vacationers and second-home owners without asking for adequate reciprocity.
Until we embrace a system that shifts the tax structure of the state, as Rep. Emilie Kornheiser proposed in the 2024 legislative session, we will not be able to adequately support the well-being of all Vemonters.
Now is the time to step toward a relational beloved community, not a system of exclusive value.
Jessica Weitz
Marlboro
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