Charter talk.
On the House floor Tuesday, lawmakers expressed concern about whether it’s constitutional to allow noncitizens in Winooski to vote on school district matters potentially affecting the state’s education fund.
The legislation in question, H.227, would approve proposed changes to Winooski’s city charter. It was scheduled for a vote on the House floor Tuesday but ultimately was assigned to the House Committee on Education to flesh out the possible effects on Vermont’s education system.
The controversy comes after the House approved a Montpelier charter change last week that also allowed noncitizen voting. However, while the Montpelier charter change would allow noncitizens to vote in city elections, it would not allow them to vote on issues involving the unified school district. The Winooski proposal, on the other hand, would allow noncitizens to weigh in on education budgets.
A number of lawmakers said on the House floor Tuesday that this difference explained why they were willing to support Montpelier’s charter change but not Winooski’s.
Reps. Ann Donahue, R-Northfield, Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, and Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, all voted for the Montpelier measure, but said Tuesday that Winooski’s version could potentially be unconstitutional. That’s because it would allow one city to create a voter standard that is not uniform across Vermont on matters related to the state budget, they argued.
“The potential is that they could make a budget decision or assist in making a budget decision that affects the statewide education fund when other noncitizens throughout the state of Vermont do not have the right to vote on school budgets,” Beck said. “I don’t think you can let one group of people impact the statewide education fund and deny that right to others throughout the state.”
After much discussion, Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, made a motion to commit the Winooski charter change to the education committee, in hopes that the issue could be studied further before the full chamber voted on it.
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, spoke up toward the end of the debate, saying that deciding which way to vote on the legislation was incredibly difficult for her.
“I want our folks living in Winooski to vote and particularly in a school district that has been really grossly underfunded for two decades,” she said. “But the constitutional issue here is quite troubling to me.”
“That’s what I have to say,” Sibilia said. “This debate is making me sad, Madame Speaker, because it’s got a lot of important things conflicting for me here.”
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