“Legislators do not have the right to steal the budget process….stop spending like there is no end”
by Guy Page
Social Media response to a video of a Colchester representative supporting taking the school budget vote away from the voters after repeated budget rejections at the polls has been strong.
Sunday morning, VDC Social Media Director Paul Bean posted on the Chronicle Facebook page his excerpt of Rep. Curt Taylor’s comments at Friday’s joint Ways and Means/Education committee meeting, posted via YouTube on the Legislature’s website. Taylor was commenting on a Ways & Means committee draft plan to allow school boards to impose a budget after voters reject a budget for a third time.
“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. Colchester approved its budget at Town Meeting.
Cutting out voters, even after three failed budgets, didn’t go over well with VDC Facebook readers.
Some invoked the Revolutionary War slogan of ‘No Taxation Without Representation.’ Others compared the move to communist authoritarian governments. One attempted to explain to lawmakers why 33 school budgets have been voted down once, and 13 have been voted down a second time.
“Sadly, the legislature is failing all of us. Here is the message from voters. Stop spending like there is no end. As TAXPAYERS, we have a right to say no to all the spending. If the legislature refuses to fix their ridiculous education funding system, then Vermonters have the right to vote down a budget. The legislators do not have the right to steal the budget process from the people,” one commenter said.
At the Vermont Values Under ATAX rally Thursday, a Williamstown resident shared similar concerns about affordability and the statewide property tax.
A ‘Super Tuesday’ of second budget voters will take place tomorrow, Tuesday April 30, in 11 school districts (see table below).
Taylor and other members of the two committees were discussing a draft plan to allow voters only three bites at the school budget apple, before allowing school boards to impose a budget based on a formula provided by the Legislature.
The committees didn’t make a firm decision on the plan, but Ways and Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser (D-Brattleboro) 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.
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.”
Tomorrow, the House is scheduled to take up H.887, a bill that would pay for the coming year’s school spending by raising the property tax 15-18% (homestead/non-homestead), and tax internet services and short-term rentals, without committing to any short-term or long-term cost containment.
11 school districts to hold revote Tuesday, April 30
| Alburgh | No | May 7 | Grand Isle SU |
| Fairfax | No | No | Franklin West SU |
| Georgia | No | No | Franklin West SU |
| Holland | No | April 30 | North Country SU |
| Milton | No | No | Milton SD |
| Rutland Town | No | April 30 | Greater Rutland County SU |
| St. Johnsbury | No | No | St. Johnsbury SD |
| South Burlington | No | No | South Burlington SD |
| South Hero | No | May 14 | Grand Isle SU |
| Springfield | No | No | Springfield SD |
| Barstow UUSD (Chittenden, Mendon) | No | April 30 | Rutland Northeast SU |
| Otter Valley UUSD (Brandon, others) | No | April 30 | Rutland Northeast SU |
| Addison Northwest USD (Vergennes, others) | No | April 30 | Addison Northwest SD |
| Champlain Valley USD (Williston, Shelburne, others) | No | Yes | Champlain Valley SD |
| Lamoille North MUSD A (Cambridge, Johnson, others) | No | No | Lamoille North SU |
| Harwood UUSD (Waitsfield, Duxbury others) | No | April 30 | Harwood UUSD |
| Mt. Abraham USD (Bristol, others) | No | No | Mt. Abraham USD |
| Kingdom East USD (Lyndonville, Burke, others) | No | No | Kingdom East SD |
| Paine Mountain (Northfield/Williamstown) SD | No | Yes | Central Vermont SU |
| Montpelier Roxbury School District | No | April 30 | Montpelier Roxbury SD |
| Green Mountain USD (Andover, Chester, others) | No | No | Two Rivers SU |
| Ludlow – Mt. Holly UUSD | No | No | Two Rivers SU |
| Champlain Islands UUSD (Most Grand Isle towns) | No | April 30 | Grand Isle SU |
| Slate Valley UUSD (Castleton, Fair Haven, Poultney) | No | No | Slate Valley UUSD |
| Enosburgh-Richford UUSD | No | April 30 | Franklin Northeast SU |
| Washington Central USD (Berlin, Middlesex, others) | No | May 7 | |
| Missisquoi Valley School Distrist | No | April 30 | Missisquoi Valley SD |
| Elmore-Morristown UUSD | No | No | Lamoille South SU |
| Barre UUSD | No | May 14 | Barre UUSD |
| Northern Mountain Valley UUSD (Richford, others) | No | April 30 | Franklin Northeast SU |
| 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 |
Categories: Media
???? Wait-a-min. This is a debate about the details of managing government schooling businesses…right? Doesn’t the contention suggest that perhaps we don’t need to have our government running these businesses for us? Should we privatize this enterprise…give it back to the citizens? Return the funds to families? Re-empower them to directly buy whatever schooling services,, teachers and curriculum suits the education aspirations they have for their kids? Why would we choose to stay tethered to a failing business?
You make an excellent point. Our four kids were homeschooled through grade 12 at a fraction of the cost (all four combined) of the current cost (at that time) of just one in the public system. All the while we were compelled to also support the public system via our property taxes. I’m left wondering the amazing field trips and individualized tutoring that we could have had if we had been granted the per head public cost!
Because the teachers union owns the leftist politicians and they will never allow it.
because the new world order wants you dumb/// now take a few more covid kill shots and all the boosters/// watch for the central bankers new money system//// more total lock downs will make you obey///
If I were a politician I would stay clear of the fan !
sooooo perfect
Drag these communists from the state house and remove them from ever being in a leadership or representative position again.
As usual, you’ve got this 💯 percent right…
Jonathan Johnson; Perhaps you, and all homeschoolers, might talley it all up an submit the bills to Montpelier?…again,and again and again…
Unfortunately, they’re much too arrogant to even open the bills…
Perhaps Curt Taylor should be asking the question “at what point does it become clear that the electorate has lost faith in us” “how many defeated budgets should trigger the expulsion of the legislators who are responsible for the ship that they’ve set adrift towards utter destruction” Seems a more fair question to be asking then his wanna be dictator question. One good thing perhaps from his out loud musings: the true colors of the Marxists in Marxpelier are really starting to show through whatever thin facade they have attempted to present of representing the people. The answer is clear people : time to clean house in November! For all those who may be waking up as the pitchfork of excessive taxation is sticking them in the posterior. Y’all have been had, come over to the fiscally responsible way of thinking! Would you seriously plunge yourselves into the level of debt that our “representatives” are gleefully and blindly subjecting us to???
Who does Taylor think he is? Vermont Law addresses the situation. Maybe these legislators should read the statutes. The real end point is voting out the legislators who don’t follow the law, or impeach them for suggesting unlawful procedures. They need a reminder that they serve the voters!
Title 16 : Education
Chapter 009 : School Districts
Subchapter 001A : Government of School Districts
(Cite as: 16 V.S.A. § 428)
§ 428. Budget to be voted
(a) At each annual town school district meeting, the electorate shall vote such sums of money as it deems necessary for the support of schools. If such sums are not approved or acted upon at the annual meeting, the electorate shall vote such questions at a duly warned special school district meeting. A district may vote money necessary for the support of its schools to the end of the full school year next ensuing.
Title 16 : Education
Chapter 011 : Union School Districts
Subchapter 004 : Union Elementary School Districts and Union High School Districts
(Cite as: 16 V.S.A. § 750)
§ 750. Union elementary or union high school district budget; preparation and authorization
(a) The board of a union elementary or union high school district shall prepare and distribute a proposed budget annually for the next school year pursuant to the provisions of subdivision 563(11) (powers of school boards; budget) of this title.
(b) If the voters do not approve the board’s proposed budget, then the board shall prepare a revised proposed budget pursuant to 17 V.S.A. § 2680(c)(2) (local elections using the Australian ballot system; rejected budget).
(c) If the voters do not approve a budget on or before June 30 of any year, the board of the unified union school district may borrow funds pursuant to the authority granted under section 566 (school districts; authority to borrow) of this title. As used in section 566, the “most recently approved school budget” of a union school district in its first fiscal year of full operations means the cumulative budget amount of the most recently approved school budgets of all districts that merged to form the union district plus 1 percent. (Added 2021, No. 176 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. June 7, 2022.)
§ 566. Authority to borrow
Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision 562(9) of this title, if a budget for the support of schools for the ensuing year has not been approved on or before June 30 of any year, the school board may borrow funds necessary to enable it to operate the schools on a budget of up to 87 percent of the most recently approved school budget. If the school board borrows money under this section, it shall determine how all funds shall be expended. (Added 1995, No. 32, § 1; amended 2001, No. 8, § 7.)
Nothing new here, cathyhoyt2000. Curt Taylor has fallen prey to a common psychological malady, as we all have a propensity to do when criticized. The question is, how does a debate such as this get resolved? By individual incentive or the extrinsic rule of the collective?
Mr. Taylor, obviously, feels that we should be compelled to follow the authoritarian rule of ‘experts’, as opposed to directing our own decisions, albeit learning from our failures when they occur – and fail they will from time to time, but to a lesser and lesser extent as we continue to learn for ourselves.
Under Mr. Taylor’s perception, personal decision-making is too challenging and chaotic for his personal tastes. He would rather be told what to do – and blame the collective for any failures that occur. This is the inherent difference between ‘free enterprise’ and ‘socialism’.
Curt Taylor reminds me of Wesley Mouch’s Unification Board and Directive 10-289, intended to ‘stop the country’s economic decline by freezing the economy in its current state, ending economic and personal freedom in the United States. The government controls every aspect of an individual’s economic life.”
The result being, of course, that motivated individuals, those willing to assume personal responsibility in order to improve their standard of living (including the standard of living for those with whom they associate), ‘won’t tolerate this change. They retreat (‘disappear’), and the expertise created by the free markets in which they thrive disappears along with them, to everyone’s disadvantage’.
‘Oh well’… Atlas Shrugged.
If taxes are raised every year, it doesn’t take long before you see yours doubled. Must cut spending and keep taxes stable for a while.
Me thinks we should defund government, and politicians.
Fear not, oh valuable and self-important representatives. The same idiots that voted you in last time will again vote for you, regardless of how you vote on this issue. You cannot fix their issues, it’s a mental problem.
Do any of you actually believe that the Vermont Legislature cares what tax payers want?
No. We KNOW they do not care what we want….we just keep wondering if the REPRESENATIVES will actually REPRESENT ***US**** at some point.
When push comes to shove. The powerful egos and greed won’t stop until the People take the initiative to collectively put down this beast system once and for all. On one hand, imploding the system to usher in the global, unelected control is what they want. On the other hand, a new system must emerge. What that system is and who controls that system is up to the People. Other countries are all ready doing it and way ahead. The line is now clearly drawn in the sand. Are we a Republic or are we enslaved by fake authorities with fake power operating as a corporation?
Re: “What that system is and who controls that system is up to the People.”
The system exists and has served us well for 230 years or so. It’s the U.S. Constitution. All we have to do is follow it, protect, and defend it from those who want, first, to distort its meaning and intent, and then take away our individual rights, making us slaves to their corrupt benefit.
Some opine the corporation overlaid the original with their own version utilizing lawfare warfare. I can see that by the volumes of VSA, Federal Statutes and case law – volumes upon volumes. Most of which most don’t even know what are in those volumes. Makes it convenient and profitable for lawyers to be inserted into every crevice of every institution to ensure it all goes their way. The most obedient ones sit on the benches and board rooms.
Vermont could just provide an A or B solution for a district that can’t pass a budget. Option A is the amount approved by voters last year or B, an amount recommended by the local school board. This would end the conversation with local control
The problem is, under options A and/or B, that 51% of the voters can dictate what the other 49% receives, and the price they must pay. And both options A and/or B are likely to be excessive, not only in uniformity of cost but in uniformity of curricula. One-size-fits-all.
In the final analysis, only one multi-faceted option will work. Let the electorate determine the level of investment it’s willing to collectively make in its children, and then provide the funds directly to the parents to spend it as they see fit, thereby letting the educational free market thrive and provide the ‘best’ education for each individual student at the lowest possible price.
Postscript: Vermont already has this multi-faceted governance in place in 90 or so of its school districts. It’s called school choice ‘tuitioning’. Each parent receives the ‘average announced tuition’, set by the Agency of Education, and chooses the school that best meets the needs of their children. It’s not only the least expensive education in Vermont, it has the better student outcomes. The only problem is that not all Vermont students can take advantage of ‘tuitioning’.
Of course, this discrepancy can be remedied as proposed by H. 405 ‘An act relating to school choice for all Vermont students’. Unfortunately, the progressives in control of the legislature have tabled this proposal because it threatens their preferred way of life – at the expense of the rest of us.
Let’s take it a step further and put the state budget to voter approval