Editor’s note: This commentary is by Willem Jewett, of Ripton, who served in the Vermont House of Representatives for 14 years.
[I]t took 19 days for Phil Scott to break his first promise. After running on a pledge to reduce our tax burden, Gov. Scott’s first budget centralizes education budget decisions in Montpelier and leans dramatically on the property tax to fund new spending proposals. It’s no wonder so many commentators and legislators are declaring the governor’s budget “dead on arrival.”
Here’s what the governor’s plan would do:
First, the governor tells school boards to tear up the budgets they have prepared for Town Meeting Day, delay budget votes to May 23, and “level-fund” their budgets. That’s some unprecedented and unrealistic thinking, and here are a few reasons why:
• These are budgets that are being warned in communities across the state for a Town Meeting Day vote right now;
• Even if the delay could be accomplished, delaying budgeting until May 23 would likely keep legislators in Montpelier into the summer because school spending must be worked into the state budget;
• The level funding edict locks in existing inequities allowing high spending district to go their merry way while constraining the ability of low spending districts to improve the education of their children.
This doesn’t just intrude on local control of education; it fully eliminates it and replaces all the individual budgets for schools across the state with one solution imposed by Montpelier. If Gov. Scott thinks he knows how to run schools better than our local school boards, then he should just say so. Let’s hope the Legislature rejects his power grab, and keeps our school decision-making where it belongs, at the local level
His agenda — his core priorities — are laid bare in this budget: reducing local control, slashing spending, while at the same time sticking property taxpayers with higher bills.
Second, the governor wants to add $136 million in new obligations to the education fund. Let’s just be clear, If you increase education fund spending, then you … that’s right, you raise property taxes on Vermonters. While there are some “borrow from Peter to pay Paul” ideas in the Scott budget, there’s still no magic pool of money that the governor knows about and we don’t: your property taxes will fund this new spending.
Third, the governor’s budget doesn’t balance. Gov. Scott may tout his proposed investments in laudable areas: higher education and child care. But there’s the catch; he’s not actually making the tough budget decisions, opting instead to force the hardest belt-tightening decisions onto our local school boards. He proposes dramatic cuts in education to fund new and excess spending. I’m sure all of us would love a new car too, but we all know better than to try to make someone else (in this case, property taxpayers) pay for it.
And let’s not forget that the governor’s budget would hurt the individuals he says he’s trying to help: kids in our public schools. The budget loads new burdens on local K-12 budgets, which will lead to layoffs and reduced services for schools that are already struggling to get by under huge cost and demographic pressures. The budget does nothing to address rising health care costs and nothing to get more innovation and quality teaching into our schools.
For any governor, a budget is a blueprint of priorities. For an incoming governor, the first budget is in many ways the most important: literally and symbolically, it’s an opportunity to take the rhetoric of a campaign and apply it to concrete actions. Candidate Phil Scott campaigned as a guy who would put political agendas aside and make Vermont more affordable. Gov. Phil Scott is proving that he has an agenda far more aggressive than Candidate Scott’s. His agenda — his core priorities — are laid bare in this budget: reducing local control, slashing spending, while at the same time sticking property taxpayers with higher bills.
After two weeks of scrutiny, Gov. Scott hasn’t inched away from his plan. While his own staff is struggling to explain how the numbers add up, ardent political supporters are trying — and failing — to convince Vermonters that the governor is bold for proposing changes that most Vermonters think are a bad idea. Acting boldly is admirable. Vermont needs bold and courageous leadership to address some of our core challenges. But being truthful is actually the kind of “bold” Vermonters voted for, not this.
An extreme and unrealistic budget proposal. Using the property tax bill as a relief valve to “balance” the state budget. An elimination of local control. It all begs the question – Gov. Scott, where is Plan B?
