[B]URLINGTON — City officials are proposing a new tax that would be used to expand affordable housing stock.
Monday night the Burlington City Council passed the advisory ballot question, which asks if the city should “adopt progressive local option revenue” to support the Housing Trust Fund, a city fund that gives money to affordable housing nonprofits.
The Housing Trust Fund is currently funded through city property tax revenues. Last year, the fund spent more than $500,000 on projects. Records show that three groups were major beneficiaries: Champlain Housing Trust, Habitat for Humanity and the Committee on Temporary Shelter.
The ballot question would be advisory and would serve as a referendum on whether city voters believe more affordable housing is needed, councilors said.
“We haven’t really advanced enough specific proposals to add to the Housing Trust Fund, and I think we need to engage in a conversation about how we can do that,” said Councilor Max Tracy, P-Ward 2.
Councilors originally saw the ballot question language last week. In the previous draft, the question was more specific, it asked if the city should establish a 1 percent sales tax on any house that sells for more than $500,000.
During Monday’s council meeting, the question was changed to strike the specific tax language in lieu of the looser “local option revenues.” It passed on a vote of 9-3, with Councilors Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4, Dave Hartnett, I-North District, and Joan Shannon, D-South District, opposed.
Public comment on the issue was split. Most of the people who spoke were under the impression that the 1 percent sales tax was included in the question. Both James Lockridge and Brian Pine, candidates for the Ward 3 City Council seat, spoke in favor of the measure.
“This is a simple initiative that will alleviate pressures that are making Burlington too expensive to live in,” Lockridge said.
Others who spoke opposed it. Patrick Johnson, a social worker and Burlington landlord, said the tax would be unfair. “This is an unnecessary tax directed at individuals rather than multi-unit profit-driven landlords,” Johnson said.
Councilor Chip Mason, D-Ward 5, was irked that council committees hadn’t vetted the proposal.
“It sort of just showed up on Thursday night for the first time,” Mason said. “Actually the first time I heard about this was when a reporter called me to ask if I was supporting this.”
Wright said the vagueness of the ballot question could confuse voters and wouldn’t necessarily provide a clear signal to city officials about affordable housing initiatives. “I predict this will get 80 percent approval, I just don’t know what that would mean except that people are concerned about housing,” Wright said.
The ballot question will read: “Shall the voters of the city of Burlington in order to help the city’s nonprofit housing organizations build more affordable housing throughout the city, advise the city council to identify and adopt progressive local option revenues, the proceeds of which shall be used exclusively to benefit the city’s housing trust fund?”
Clarifying a ‘Conflict of Interest’
During a council work session, a more informal council meeting where councilors talk about their rules and procedures with the city attorney, Eileen Blackwood, several councilors discussed in detail the issue of how and when councilors should recuse themselves from a vote.
The issue came up during the council’s long deliberations over the sale of Burlington Telecom. Councilor Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, recused herself before a key vote but refused to say why. Paul, a certified public accountant who at the time worked for the Burlington accounting firm McSoley, McCoy & Co. later quit her job to alleviate the conflict.
Hartnett said Paul’s recusal created a negative perception of the City Council. “I think we took a credibility hit,” Hartnett said. He believes public officials should disclose conflicts.
In some cases, Blackwood said disclosure violates professional ethics rules. Professionals like attorneys, doctors and accountants could encounter situations in which they are required to recuse themselves from a vote but cannot say why, in order to protect a client’s privacy.
Seven Days is suing Burlington over records that could reveal Paul’s conflict. Blackwood said Monday the city has recently filed a response in Vermont Superior Court to the Seven Days suit, but a court date has not yet been set.
