Steven Jeffrey, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, says the state has a serious issue with rising education property tax rates.
Education funding — and specifically property tax — loom large on the agenda for the House and Senate Education Committees, and Jeffrey echoed the calls of citizens across Vermont to stop the increasing property tax trend.
Testifying before the House Education Committee last week, the 34-year veteran of municipal government advocacy criticized the growing number of programs that pull from the Education Fund, including the recently passed universal pre-kindergarten program.
Jeffrey singled out programs that have started getting money from the Education Fund since 2005, including adult basic education, corrections department education, and teen pregnancy counseling programs.
Too, Jeffrey implored the committee to stop sending mandates to local school districts from the state, like the universal pre-K program passed last year.
Of that new program, which he noted was championed by Rep. Sarah Buxton, D-Tunbridge, seated at the table during his remarks, he said, “It is a new expense that will be paid for from nothing other than property taxes when it is imposed, because there is no new sustainable state money that came with that mandate.”
Buxton later accused Jeffrey of attempting to “draw me out,” but she stuck to her guns saying literature supports that early investments in preschoolers will lead to more successful outcomes, less costly interventions later.
“We are spending more, and there are reasons why we are spending more,” Buxton said.
Rep. Tim Jerman, D-Essex, said to Jeffrey, that he understood “the purity of the Ed Fund is central to (his) argument. It’s unlikely to change that we’re simply going to pull this stuff out and put it somewhere else,” he said.
Rep. Alice Miller, D-Bennington, like Buxton, defended the investment in pre-K.
“I wish that you would find some other things to target other than our youth and our children, I really do,” said Miller. She referenced studies going back to the 1960s and the founder of Head Start about the effectiveness of investing in pre-K, saying it has been “proven conclusively,” that children’s IQs can be raised given early education.
“We need a second war on poverty,” said Miller. “Can’t you embrace that notion that (when) we are trying to help our children, we are trying to help our state by improving our economy through them?” she said to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey said he didn’t dispute the importance of any of the programs being added into the Ed Fund, but how the revenues to pay for them are being raised. “If the Legislature believes these things are good, then I also believe (they should) raise the tax right on the spot to pay for it,” he said.
