Snow making operations continue on Sky Lark at Killington Resort

Snow making operations continue on Sky Lark at Killington Resort

It has been a somewhat strange weekend at Killington. Cool temperatures have once again settled over the area. The mountain is in great shape. Crowds have been moderate to light. Snow making is continuing quite visibly down the length of Sky Lark on the Killington Basin side of the resort.

Then you add in the weirdness. Local and State governments are starting to act up in response to the economic downturn and resultant decrease in tax collections. And then there was a disgruntled citizen who decided to take matters into their own hand.

At the State of Vermont level, discussions are ongoing about the fate of Amtrak Train service to the Rutland/Killington region. Legislators want to cut the transportation subsidy to Amtrak in the process eliminating train service to Rutland from Albany, New York City and points south. In its place, the Vermont Legislature is proposing subsidizing bus service from Albany to Rutland as a way to make up for the loss of train service. Local citizens and business people have rightly registered a complaint about these budget cuts. With no interstate road network, Amtrak train service is the only mass transit connection between western Vermont and the rest of the United States. In fairness to the legislature (or maybe in spite of the legislature) the Vermont State budget is a mess. Services will need to be cut. There are plenty of arguments for and against eliminating Amtrak service to Rutland. But one thing is fairly certain...if it is eliminated it will probably never return.

The second item in the news this week tips to a little Robin Hood behavior by the State of Vermont which impacts Killington residents and second home owners in regards to their property taxes. As many readers will know, Act 60 and Act 68 in Vermont established a state wide real estate tax with proceeds being distributed to cities and towns to fund education. The state has effectively passed administration of tax collection of this state wide tax back to the towns. As it stands at this moment, as the Killington Selectboard prepares documents for the Annual Town Meeting in March, it looks like local taxes might increase by as much as 11%. It turns out about $630,000 is owed in unpaid taxes to Killington in 2008. (Probably as a result of the current nation wide economic situation.) It would be bad enough that the town is owed this tax money, but it turns out that much of it is owed to the State of Vermont for Act 60/68 taxes. And even though the Town of Killington has not been paid this money, the town is required to pay the state. As a result, all of the taxpayers who have obeyed the law and paid their taxes will have to cough up the additional money to make up for scofflaws. The perfect Robin Hood scheme, or in other words..."Thank you for being responsible..now pay more!"

And finally, if state sponsored "pick pocketing" is not enough, the retail store at the Ki Base Lodge was robbed at gunpoint on Friday afternoon. Thankfully, no one was physically hurt, although understandably the clerk who had a gun pointed in his face was shaken up by the incident.

All I can say is, at the end of the day, I would rather be skiing...so it goes.........let it snow!