BURLINGTON — Burlington voters will not be weighing in on whether noncitizens should be able to vote in municipal elections after the City Council reversed course and voted 10-2 to send the matter back to committee.
The council had voted in December to put a question on the March Town Meeting Day ballot asking if residents who are not citizens but who reside “in the United States on a permanent or indefinite basis in compliance with federal immigration laws” should be allowed to vote in municipal elections. Voters rejected a similar effort in 2015.
Councilor Adam Roof, I-Ward 8, who had been leading the push to get the issue on the ballot, made a motion to refer the issue back to the city’s charter community development and neighborhood revitalization committee to allow more time for public engagement and education on the issue.
Roof said he was frustrated to make the motion, but felt there was growing community confusion about the effort. He said he thought more public discourse was required to give the measure a better chance of passing.
“It became clear to me and others that on all sides of this issue, there was a growing level of misunderstanding and confusion,” he said.
Councilors Ali Dieng, D/P-Ward 7, and Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4, voted against putting the matter on the ballot in December and voted against sending the issue to committee Monday.
“This has no community will,” Dieng said. “No one from the community reached out to us in order for us to move this forward.”
Roof said that Dieng’s claim that there was no community support for the measure was “factually incorrect.”
“I look forward to a public process that we can help have a little bit more of a nuanced conversation about this,” he said. “I think without that, we won’t be able to make informed decisions, regardless of what you think about an issue.”
Councilor Perri Freeman, P-Central District, supports expanding voting rights but voted to send the measure back to committee for further public engagement.
“I definitely don’t want people to be voting on something that they’re not even really clear what they are voting on,” Freeman said. “That seems to be really, really important to me in this, I do really hope we do get to a point where we can expand this key voting rights policy, but I do want to make sure people know what they are voting on.”
In another 10-2 vote, the council decided to place a charter change that increases the tax residents pay that feeds into the Housing Trust Fund on March’s ballot. Wright and Dieng voted against putting the change on the ballot.
The change would be increasing the tax to 1 cent per $100 of property value, which is the amount voters approved in 1989, Councilor Brian Pine, P-Ward 3, said.
Under the charter, the tax could not increase in value with citywide appraisals. Instead, the rate was adjusted down to .54 cents per $100 in 2006. This charter change would lock in the 1 cent per $100 rate and allow the rate to grow with inflation.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said the change would generate approximately $390,000 in revenue for the Housing Trust Fund.
“It’s essentially taking something that’s been on the books for a significant period of time and restoring it to what it’s valuation once was,” Weinberger said.
Since its creation, the Housing Trust Fund has contributed $5.9 million to preserve 1,689 affordable homes, according to the city.
