by Guy Page
Voters in the Northeast Kingdom East supervisory union and St. Johnsbury schools yesterday joined the growing number of school systems to have rejected a school budget twice this year.
Georgia and South Burlington also have rejected proposed school budgets – first at Town Meeting on March 5, and then more recently on revotes with reduced budgets. Both votes were rejected narrowly. Hartford voters narrowly approved the budget they rejected on Town Meeting Day.
NEK East includes Lyndon, Lyndonville, Burke, Wheelock, and surrounding towns.
30 school systems voted no on March 5, in response to a likely 20% increase in property taxes resulting from a ‘perfect storm’ of increased payroll and insurance costs, loss of pandemic-era school funding, an equity-based state aid to education formula that rewarded big spending by ‘socializing’ local costs among all school districts.
“The good news is they have something on the table acknowledging we have a severe structural problem with our education system,” Gov. Phil Scott said at a press conference today. “The concerning thing is it doesn’t do anything about property taxes this year…..Vermonters need relief now, today.”
VDC hopes to publish a more complete update of revotes in upcoming issues. Meanwhile, legislative leadership in the State House is considering a plan that would provide a ‘foundation’ of basic educational costs to all school districts, and leave extra spending the discretion and financial responsibility of local school districts and supervisory unions.