What's this? Art Woolf made a mistake?! In Wednesday's Free Press, Candace Page reveals a slight miscalculation in the report filed at the end of 2009 by Douglas' pet economists, Art Woolf and Richard Heaps.
Instead of increasing $241., the inflation-adjusted median income of Vermont couples filing joint tax returns actually fell $1,870. or 2.7 percent in 2008.
According to Woolf, the discrepancy came to light when he was
recently checking his calculations and discovered he had transposed two formulas.
The article goes on to say that Woolf thinks the corrected data "makes more sense." Duh! Observed Mr. Heaps:
I will be the first to admit that any economic assertion by Art Woolf is likely to be received by me with skepticism; more especially because we are on opposite sides of an outstanding Act 250 appeal that involves, among other things, Walmart's impact on local economies. Still, anyone might wonder on what fluffy cloud of disconnect Mr. Woolf reposed when he came up with the glaringly erroneous result and did not immediately question it. Being a longtime member of UVM's economics faculty, surely Mr. Woolf knows that the first rule of math is to check your work!
I can't resist the urge to speculate on what year-end decisions within the Douglas administration might have been influenced by this timely and remarkable discrepancy.
250-1
75-1
