School boards across the state have level-funded budgets over the last two years, and Gov. Peter Shumlin is asking them for a “zero percent” increase again.
If budgetwriters across the state can keep spending in check as they prepare for fiscal year 2013, Shumlin says there would be no need to increase the statewide property tax. The governor also proposes to lift the freeze on the base formula for per pupil spending by 2.1 percent. The Legislature must approve the proposal.
“In the biggest recession in American history, we need to ensure that property taxes remain affordable … and the good news is that we believe we can hold the statewide property tax at 0 percent increase if the school boards continue to do their good work,” Shumlin said at his weekly press conference.
Shumlin made the announcement at Main Street Middle School in Montpelier where he lauded students efforts to promote a “Buy Local” coupon book for local companies that are part of the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility association. (The students, in turn, dubbed the governor “student of the month” for December.)
The governor told the students gathered in the gym that what makes their school and others in Vermont successful is the state’s equalized spending formula for education, Act 60.
“We have a school funding formula that allows every student in Vermont to have equal access to resources in this state,” Shumlin said. “We’re the only state in the country that ensures every community has the same opportunity to make choices about spending and then has the same tax rate as all those communities that make that same spending choice.”
It’s that formula, which equalizes the amount of property taxes paid by residents in rich and poor towns, that has been the focus of an ongoing assault from conservatives since the inception of the law in 1997.
Rep. Oliver Olsen, R-Londonderry, said in an interview that he doesn’t think the governor’s expectations are “very realistic in the absence of structural reform.” He opposes the premise of Act 60 and believes the statewide property tax funding mechanism isn’t transparent enough for people.
Olsen doubts that the administration can hold the property tax at current levels next year. “I question how they’re going to accomplish that or how realistic that is in light of the fact that we’ve had school boards that have done an amazing job at keeping costs down over last few years,” Olsen said.
The last two years of belt-tightening has led in his view to “a lot of pent up spending and deferred spending that’s going to surface in the next year or two.” Olsen also pointed to the end of the federal stimulus funding this year that went directly to schools. “Now we’re headed into a new budget year without federal money and pent up spending pressure,” Olsen said.
In his presentation at the middle school, Shumlin pointed to the reduction in education spending over time as school boards have calibrated staffing in response to declines in student enrollment as evidence that Act 60 is working.
Student enrollments have dropped from a high of 106,000 students in 1996, when Act 60 was enacted, to roughly 90,000 students in 2010. Recently, the number of educators has also started to decline from a high of 10,800 to about 10,123 last year, according to Shumlin administration officials.
The current tax rate is 87 cents per $100 of value for residential property. The non-residential rate is $1.36. The Joint Fiscal Office had projected a 2-cent increase in the rates this year at a meeting with the House Ways and Means Committee in the fall.
The Department of Education anticipates a school spending growth rate of 1.7 percent on average this year.
Shumlin sent a letter to school districts last month, urging boards to keep their budgets flat.
Read Shumlin’s letter to school districts
Read the Tax Commissioner’s recommendation. Petersen letter to the Legislature regarding the Ed Tax Rate
Armando Vilaseca, commissioner of the Department of Education said in an interview that school districts over the last two years have “done an astounding job at coming in basically flat.”
“I think the governor’s goal and our goal is to continue to find efficiencies within operations so we maintain budgets that remain where they have been the last couple of years,” Vilaseca said. “My concern locally with contracts being negotiated is that even though they may be modest 2 percent, 2.5 percent increases (for teachers’ salaries) how will that impact local budgets when we know staffing makes up 75 percent?”
Shumlin on the reclassification of pot, O’Neil demotion and departure of Neale Lunderville
At the press conference — after students had been sent back to class — the governor told reporters he will ask the Drug Enforcement Agency to list marijuana as a Class II drug, equivalent to a prescription medication. The letter, which has not yet been drafted, would be sent in support of a similar petition from Gov. Lincoln Chaffee and Christine Gregoire who have asked the agency to reclassify pot as a substance with medical benefits.
“I believe marijuana should be decriminalized, that we should use our precious law enforcement dollars to go after the criminals that are really disrupting our communities,” Shumlin said.
“I think it’s ludicrous that marijuana is put in the same category by the federal government as heroin and other drugs that are extraordinarily addictive so I think moving it to a Class II drug make sense. I support the effort by Govs. Chaffee and Gregoire.”
The governor said Massachusetts, Alaska, California have decriminalized the offense for small amounts of marijuana.
“Vermont and Maine happen to share the same distinction of having, per capita, the highest number of residents who are abusing oxycontin and other opiates that are sold by pharmacies and are legal in America,” Shumlin said. “I personally think that’s a much bigger crime problem for us and much bigger addiction problem for us that’s leading to crime.”
Shumlin also took questions about the demotion of Mike O’Neil who had been the Vermont Emergency Management director until about 10 days ago. O’Neil has since taken a job as head of the Fire Safety Division. Peter Coffey is serving as interim director.
The governor refused to give a reason for O’Neil’s departure from emergency management.
“I’m not going to comment on personnel shifts in my administration,” Shumlin said. “As you look at the recovery from Irene and the storms we had this spring I think the fact that we are where we are and we made the progress we have is a tribute to everybody who has worked so hard. It was a group effort and Mike was a part of that and I’m proud of all the work he’s done.”
No formal announcement of the change was made until Thursday afternoon when the Department of Public Safety issued a press release.
Shumlin also told reporters that Neale Lunderville will be leaving his temporary post as Irene Recovery Czar at the end of the year. He will return to Green Mountain Power where he was recently hired as an executive. Lunderville is the former Agency of Administration secretary in the Douglas administration.
Editor’s note: Additional material was added to this story at 6:30 a.m. Dec. 2, 2011.
