WALLINGFORD — There is no support among municipal officials for a 1 percent local option sales tax.

The Select Board opposes efforts in Montpelier to allow towns to raise revenue in that manner.

“I’m personally against the local option tax,” Selectman Nelson Tift said.

The five-member board considered a request Monday by its counterpart in Bennington to support proposed legislation giving all towns the option of assessing a 1 percent sales tax.

Only those towns considered to be “sending” towns under the state’s education funding laws currently have the option of assessing the tax.

Those include Rutland Town, Killington, Ludlow, Middlebury, Manchester, Burlington, Dover, Stratton, Williston, Wilmington and Winhall.
Select Board Chairman William Brooks said he was “OK” with other towns enacting the tax, but he did not think it should be assessed in Wallingford.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily anything we would want to institute,” he said.

Tift said Vermonters were overtaxed and he was unhappy with legislators considering additional revenue sources with “a gas tax, soda tax and a tax on just about anything you can think of.”

Selectman Gary Fredette said the town should not join Bennington in encouraging legislators to pass a bill giving all Vermont towns the ability to assess the tax.

“I think we’ve got enough to worry about,” he said.

New Selectman Mark Tessier also opposed the proposed legislation. “I don’t think we want to be associated with it,” he said.

Brooks directed Town Administrator Julie Sharon to inform Bennington officials that Wallingford “respectfully” declines any effort supporting a 1 percent local option sales tax.