[B]URLINGTON — With the city’s former mayor on the ballot in the Democratic presidential primary, voter turnout for Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day may surge well above average.
While the chance to choose between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton — or to go for one of the Republicans — will draw voters, there are no candidates in the Queen City to ride those coattails, and only a paltry slate of ballot items with the school budget headlining as usual.
There are no municipal races because of the redistricting process voters approved in 2014. That created four districts and eight wards. Representatives for the eight wards were elected to three-year terms in 2015. Going forward those will be two-year terms, just as they are for the current district councilors.
That will allow elections to be staggered, with the four district council seats up for election in 2017 and the eight ward seats up in 2018. The same is true for school board seats. The mayor will continue to serve three-year terms, with the next mayoral race in 2018.
Burlington school budget
In his first year at the helm of the Burlington School District, Superintendent Yaw Obeng has put forth a budget that increases spending by just over 2 percent and avoids tax penalties in Act 46, the state’s new education law, by keeping growth below statutory limits.
Obeng and his team had to close a $2.5 million gap to avoid the Act 46 tax penalties and maintain most current services. In addition to cutting spending, Burlington is dipping into its reserves for revenue, as are many districts across the state.
The budget uses $1.1 million in surplus carried forward from last year and $1.4 million in spending cuts. The cuts will take $400,000 out of central administration and $1 million out of schools. Those cuts mean eight to 10 fewer full-time positions at the high school level, and six to eight fewer at the middle and elementary school level.
The cuts spare special education and classes for English language learners. They also aim to reduce under-enrolled sections and consolidate classes. One area being reduced is foreign language offerings at the middle school level.
If the $84 million budget on the ballot looks eye-popping, that’s because Act 46 requires the ballot to state total spending. In the past, Burlington listed only general fund spending, which is $70 million this year. The portion paid for with education taxes is $58 million.
Burlington’s proposed spending per equalized pupil is $14,033.35, which would result in an estimated 1.72 percent increase in education property tax rates. The owner of a home worth $250,000 would pay an estimated $4,207 in education tax, up $71 from last year.
The income percentage cap for this year is 2.55 percent, down from 2.63, meaning a household with $50,000 in income would pay an estimated $1,275 in education property taxes.
For greater detail on the school budget, see this presentation.
Four lanes for North Avenue?
Question No. 2 on the ballot has received a lot of attention, despite being only advisory in nature. It asks voters, “Shall the City Council, Public Works Commission, Department of Public Works and Administration be advised to keep four lanes open to motor vehicle traffic on North Avenue from the Route 127 access intersection north to the Shore Road intersection?”
The question stems from controversy in the New North End over whether to proceed with elements of a pilot traffic program that would reduce that section of North Avenue to two lanes plus a middle turn lane and bike lanes. Proponents say it’s a dangerous section of road, prone to speeding, and the lane experiment should be given a chance to make a difference.
Residents who felt left out of the public process through which the pilot program was developed say it will increase congestion without improving safety, so the city shouldn’t spend money to test the new road configuration.
The mayor and City Council approved and support the experiment, so it’s unlikely, even if the ballot measure were to pass, that the road renovation would be shelved. City officials have said there will be further opportunity for public input before any changes become permanent.
The question’s phrasing could be confusing, with those who support the pilot program voting no and those who oppose it voting yes.
Questions three and four are both very similar and would increase membership on the Police Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission to seven members, from five.
Both items follow a consultant’s recommendations for increasing diversity in city government. The commissions are citizen boards appointed by the mayor and City Council. Turnover on them is relatively low, according to city officials.
Increasing the number of seats is a way to bring greater diversity to the commissions more quickly than attrition would allow. Police and Parks and Recreation were chosen because they play important roles in setting public policy.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said they chose seven members because the number would allow for new membership but wouldn’t create panels that are too large to work efficiently.
Question No. 5 is what Weinberger described as a housekeeping measure, which overhauls a section of the city charter governing the audit process to reflect current practices.
The section requires that the audit be complete five months after the fiscal year ends. In practice that never happens, largely because city government has grown in complexity since the section was written more than a decade ago.
In addition to extending the audit process, the item would allow the city to publish a summary of the audit in the annual report available on Town Meeting Day, with the auditor’s management letter, instead of the full audit.
The full audit would still be available online. Providing a summary instead in the printed annual report is intended to save money and use less paper, officials said.
For a list of polling locations by ward click here.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the education income tax rate for this year.