Ideas, Policy, Science

What we know and what we need to know

As David R. Smith says, “To a scientist, the key uncertainties are those that suggest interesting alternative hypotheses. To a decision maker, the key uncertainties are those that affect decision choice; in some cases it is possible to make a smart choice despite unresolved uncertainty.”

Applications, Ideas, Policy, Solutions

Local Tax App Update

Based upon interest and feedback I’ve made some updates to the tax application described here. In short, I developed an application using Shiny that helps residents in my town of Nottingham, NH determine their estimated tax based on the future outcome of election results on warrant articles at town meeting. The updated version is here: https://jonathancummings.shinyapps.io/NottinghamTaxCalculator/ Layout The first thing…

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Applications, Ideas, Policy, Solutions

I made a Shiny Application: Nottingham, NH Town Meeting Tax App

Inspiration I wasn’t able to vote but, I attended town meeting last year to start getting a sense of my new community of Nottingham, NH. One of the warrant articles requested the town to provide live updates to the expected tax impacts from the passed and remaining proposed articles. It was voted down, I think mostly because it was viewed…

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Ideas, Policy

Revenue Taxes, and Behavior Taxes

I just had an idea I thought I’d share. One that maybe the state of Vermont in particular could benefit from at the moment. It seems as if Vermont legislators could use an update in their thinking about tax policy, in particular regarding funding road repairs and weatherization projects and addressing economic and environmental costs associated with driving and home…

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