As hundreds of small municipalities prepare to nickel-and-dime budgets on Town Meeting Day, Vermont’s 20 largest cities and towns will vote on special one-time spending requests that together total $250 million.
Local voters will consider investments ranging from new schools to pricey infrastructure improvements to public swimming pools that will require taxpayers to approve multi-million dollar bonds.
The proposals in larger population hubs reveal a growing divide between the 28 Vermont communities with at least 5,000 people and the more than 200 with smaller, stagnant populations.
Town meeting attendees in Arlington, population 2,317, will debate whether to place $6,000 into a capital reserve fund to repair or replace a road grader, while those in Calais, population 1,597, will consider an up-to-four-year $25,000 loan to buy a used wood chipper.
In contrast, South Burlington, population 19,141, will vote March 3 on a $210 million plan to build a new middle and high school and athletic center at its existing Dorset Street campus.
“We know this is an investment, but we believe it’s the right investment to ask the community to support at this time,” School Board Clerk Bridget Burkhardt has said of the proposal. “We’re talking about a building that will support learning in South Burlington for 50 to 75 years.”
The nearby Champlain Valley School District, composed of the towns of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George and Williston, will consider a $6 million plan to upgrade the building and grounds of its elementary schools and Champlain Valley Union High School.
“The vision is to present district voters with consistent, small investment requests,” leaders write on their website. “In the short term though, the investment requests will be a bit higher over multiple phases as we clear up deferred maintenance problems.”
Voters in South Burlington, Shelburne and Williston will face a second big request from the Champlain Water District, which is asking those communities as well as Colchester, Essex and Essex Junction, Jericho, Milton and Winooski to approve $3.5 million for a new pump station and pipes.
Other localities considering infrastructure improvements include Bennington, which will vote on a $9.5 million plan to replace lead service lines that connect municipal water mains to homes and businesses. (The bond is expected to be fully reimbursed through Vermont’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.)
Middlebury is proposing three separate articles totaling $5.5 million for water system and flood resiliency improvements and another $850,000 for rehabilitating a former wastewater treatment facility for police use.
Rutland City will consider a $5 million bond for streets and sidewalk repair and reconstruction.
Woodstock will vote on a $4.5 million plan to reconstruct and renovate its town emergency services building and a $2.8 million proposal to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility.
The Barre Unified Union School District, composed of Barre City and surrounding Barre Town, will vote on a $2.75 million plan to purchase property and create a 10,000-square-foot center so the Spaulding Educational Alternatives program can expand from its current capacity of 30 students to 45.
And St. Albans City and Town will decide whether to build a $5.5 million year-round swimming pool, while Hartford will consider its own $3.3 million community pool.
The spending proposals come as Vermont’s population is increasing in already large localities but flat or falling almost everywhere else. Gov. Phil Scott, in his 2020 State of the State Address last month, identified Vermont’s overall declining numbers as his “biggest concern.”
“We have to acknowledge the real and growing economic disparity from region to region,” Scott said. “If we don’t break this cycle, our institutions, including state and local government, won’t be able to afford what they currently do, or what they would like to do in the future, because costs will continue to rise much faster than our tax base can sustain.”
But communities with bigger electorates aren’t necessarily open to bigger expenses, as voters will find the one-time-only spending requests on the same ballots seeking support for annual municipal and school budgets.
Barre is facing a $48.5 million school budget that, because of such uncontrollable costs as health care, could raise taxes between 14 to 17 cents per $100 of property value even before the separate alternative school bond, which itself could lower current costs for rent and out-of-district tuition.
Some 45 miles northwest, a new Citizens for an Affordable South Burlington group is raising money for fliers and signs opposing its city’s $210 million school plan.
“They are raising taxes on the city budget and the school budget, not to mention there is a bond question on the ballot from the Champlain Water District,” one South Burlington resident posted on Facebook. “We are responsible for paying it all.”
