[V]ermont’s eight city mayors are keeping their legislative wish list small this session. The Vermont Mayors Coalition focused on two issues in its annual Statehouse news conference Tuesday — education system reform and protecting the state’s waterways.
The stripped-down agenda reflects the fact that the Legislature is dealing with a $100 million budget deficit and has already set its sights on easing the property tax burden created by increases in school spending.
Unlike last year, there was no push by the mayors for state investment in crime-prevention measures, drug and mental health treatment programs or downtown revitalization.
“Look, this isn’t the time to ask for more,” Barre Mayor Thom Lauzon said. “We get that.”
Instead the mayors said they will support Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Legislature in containing education costs and ensuring that all Vermonters share in the expense of cleaning up the state’s waterways.
Montpelier Mayor John Hollar, a former school board chairman, said the group did not endorse a specific path but encouraged lawmakers to find ways to restrain education spending and consider a “more rational governing structure” for schools.
Hollar said the mayors support school district consolidation, in some cases, and believe lawmakers should actively require it.
“The mayors support fewer school districts,” Hollar said. “Voluntary consolidation has not worked.”
Hollar cited the failure of the Montpelier and U-32 school districts to join forces, despite being about three miles apart, as an example of the need for a prescriptive law.
“We are the poster child for the problem,” Hollar said, adding that a merger of those districts would create “better opportunities for students for less money.”
Other mayors, including Winooski’s Mike O’Brien and Newport’s Paul Monette, said rising education costs are affecting municipal budgets as well.
“Where’s the limit on taxability?” O’Brien said. “[The increases in education costs] impact what we do on the municipal side.”
The mayors did not offer an alternative to the property tax as the foundation for financing public schools, but said they were open to considering a hybrid formula of income and property taxes.
Lauzon pointed out that income tax receipts fluctuate and are less predictable than property taxes.
Protecting waterways
The mayors’ group also agreed with Shumlin’s inaugural message of curbing phosphorus pollution that has affected Lake Champlain and other water bodies.
The mayors called for “meaningful improvements in water quality” by the creation of statewide stormwater control measures to achieve phosphorus reduction.
“We need a statewide solution, not just Lake Champlain,” Rutland Mayor Chris Louras said. “We need to make measurable progress.”
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said the burden of protecting the state’s waterways falls on all Vermonters, not just larger cities and towns.
“Municipal stakeholders pay through wastewater treatment costs and other urban activity,” he said.
“The Coalition opposes a funding strategy that places a disproportionate burden on municipalities and municipal stakeholders,” the group said in a news release.
Louras and Lauzon said the mayors’ group considered taking a stance on the requirement of criminal background checks for gun purchasers but could not reach consensus.
A bill calling for background checks is expected to be introduced this week.
Also attending the news conference were Mayors Bill Benton of Vergennes and Liz Gamache of St. Albans.
