Legislature discuss bypassing recalcitrant school voters, allowing school boards to impose budgets
By Guy Page
The House Ways and Means and Education committees heard a plan this morning, Friday April 26, to allow local school boards to impose a ‘default’ school budget after the first three proposed budgets have been rejected by voters.
“There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this,” Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, Chair of Ways & Means, admitted as she began committee discussion after the two committees reviewed details of the Legislature’s latest plan to secure school funding amid a property taxpayer revolt.
The draft plan was discussed a day after hundreds of Vermonters rallied at the Vermont State House Thursday to protest increased taxation, and four days before another 11 school districts will vote on revised school budgets turned down at Town Meeting amid taxpayer dissatisfaction about a proposed 20% property tax increase.
A total of 33 school districts voted down budgets at Town Meeting. To date, 13 of the 15 revised budgets also have been rejected. (See table below.) The House passed H.887 this week raise property taxes 15-18%, create two new taxes, and not cut spending, It’s now in the Senate.
The Ways and Means plan does not have a bill number yet, and may be inserted into an existing miscellaneous education bill. But ‘draft 1.1’ was discussed in Ways & Means and is published on the Vermont Legislature’s website.
“If a school district budget for the support of schools for fiscal year 2025 has not been approved after at least three votes by the district’s electorate, a school board may vote to recommend a proposed default budget,” the draft states.
Current law allows school districts to borrow up to 87% of the current year budget, while continuing to present budgets until voters finally pass one.
The draft describes how:
The dollar amount of the imposed budget will be determined, using terms like “long-term weighted membership” and “equivalent yield” that have been proven difficult for lawmakers and professional educators to explain and understand. House Education Committee chair Peter Conlon clarified that the imposed ‘default budget’ would be a dollar figure “below which, if further cuts occurred, it really wouldn’t make any difference to the tax rate.”
The draft states – “The proposed default budget shall be the district’s long-term weighted membership multiplied by the fiscal year 2025 property dollar equivalent yield, plus the amount of other State categorical aid funds the district is entitled to that would not be included in the district’s education spending.”
The budget will be approved by school board, and not voters:
“The vote to recommend a proposed default budget shall occur at an open meeting and the board shall prepare and distribute to the electorate, not 13 less than ten days prior to the vote, a copy of the proposed default budget.
Business managers and superintendents will approve budget accuracy:
“In conducting the Review, the Secretary of Education shall select three business managers and three superintendents to serve in an advisory role in the Review. The Review shall confirm the district’s default budget was calculated accurately. The Secretary shall issue a written confirmation to the school board if the default budget is confirmed or shall issue a notice of corrected default budget, with accompanying calculations, if the Review determines the default budget was not calculated correctly.”
After the committees reviewed the draft, Kornheiser conceded upfront it might not be well-received by school budget voters. And if so, the axe could fall on the school boards.
“There is something, sort of, you know, that might tend towards anti-democratic about this, I can see that, there’s also the fact that voters voted this school board in and can vote this school board out, so there is still sort of that accountability there,” Kornheiser said.
Rep. Julia Andrews (D-Westford) of Ways and Means expressed concern about losing voter trust if imposed budgets come in higher than the budgets rejected by voters – something the legislative counsel at the meeting agreed could happen.
“So I think potentially, we run the risk if we’re imposing a higher budget that was voted down, of further eroding the trust in the communities,” Andrews said. She suggested offering a choice between the newly computed default budget and the last rejected budget, “whichever is lower.”
Ways & Means kicked around the idea of taking budgets away from voters after a certain date, rather than after a certain number of votes. To Rep. Curt Taylor (D-Colchester), the important thing wasn’t how the decision is taken from voters, but that at some point, it needs to happen.
“Whichever method we choose, I think it’s important that there needs to be a real end point where you say at this point the voters are no longer involved….where the voters have had as much chance as they can, and the school board needs to take over. Otherwise it keeps going on forever,” Taylor said.
Kornheiser said she would float the imposed budget idea past “the field,” legislative shorthand for the professional education groups like the Vermont School Board Association, and organizations representing superintendents and teachers. If it’s deemed to have merit, it will be inserted into one of several current ‘miscellaneous education’ bills.
| School District | Town Meeting Vote | Revote |
| Alburgh | No | May 7 |
| Fairfax | No | No |
| Georgia | No | No |
| Holland | No | April 30 |
| Milton | No | No |
| Rutland Town | No | April 30 |
| St. Johnsbury | No | No |
| South Burlington | No | No |
| South Hero | No | May 14 |
| Springfield | No | No |
| Barstow UUSD (Chittenden, Mendon) | No | April 30 |
| Otter Valley UUSD (Brandon, others) | No | April 30 |
| Addison Northwest USD (Vergennes, others) | No | April 30 |
| Champlain Valley USD (Williston, Shelburne, others) | No | Yes |
| Lamoille North MUSD A (Cambridge, Johnson, others) | No | No |
| Harwood UUSD (Waitsfield, Duxbury others) | No | April 30 |
| Mt. Abraham USD (Bristol, others) | No | No |
| Kingdom East USD (Lyndonville, Burke, others) | No | No |
| Paine Mountain (Northfield/Williamstown) SD | No | Yes |
| Montpelier Roxbury School District | No | April 30 |
| Green Mountain USD (Andover, Chester, others) | No | No |
| Ludlow – Mt. Holly UUSD | No | No |
| Champlain Islands UUSD (Most Grand Isle towns) | No | April 30 |
| Slate Valley UUSD (Castleton, Fair Haven, Poultney) | No | No |
| Enosburgh-Richford UUSD | No | April 30 |
| Washington Central USD (Berlin, Middlesex, others) | No | May 7 |
| Missisquoi Valley School Distrist | No | April 30 |
| Elmore-Morristown UUSD | No | No |
| Barre UUSD | No | May 14 |
| Northern Mountain Valley UUSD (Berkshire, others) | No | April 30 |
| Caledonia Cooperative School District (Barnet, Walden, Waterford) | No | May 7 |
| Rivendell Interstate School District (RISD) | No | May 18 |
| Essex-Westford school district | No | May 7 |