BURLINGTON — After a tax reappraisal process that frustrated many residents earlier this year, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night that could lead to reforms in how the city assesses properties.
The resolution creates an ad hoc committee that will hold public meetings and listen to taxpayers’ accounts of how the city’s first reappraisal process in 15 years left many residents with significantly higher property taxes than they expected.
The committee will also seek input on how the current process could be improved and report back to the council with their findings by June 2022.
Even before the committee starts its work, however, the resolution suggests changes that would prevent future shocks like the one homeowners experienced this spring.
One of those changes would be doing more frequent reappraisals. One of the reasons tax payments ballooned so much is because property values shifted substantially over a decade and a half, with residential homes rising in value quicker than commercial properties due to the pandemic.
As a result, residential property taxes went up an average of 11%, a VTDigger analysis found, while the average tax payment for commercial properties dipped 4%.
Beyond changing property values, some residents blamed the consultant that assessed properties for the city — Tyler Technology — for doing shoddy work and inflating how much their homes were worth.
The resolution also criticized the administration of Mayor Miro Weinberger, saying it “down-played the impact of reappraisal on residents’ tax bills.” An earlier version of the resolution had an even harsher condemnation of the mayor, though it was revised after input from other councilors.
Councilor Joe Magee, P-Ward 3, the lead sponsor of the resolution, said this was meant to articulate how communication between the city and residents is vital to the reappraisal process.
“As soon as we realize that there is going to be a significant impact from any city policy, it should always be the goal of the administration and city councilors to convey that,” Magee said in an interview.
According to the resolution, the ad hoc committee should consist of up to nine members, including one resident from each City Council district, at least two homeowners, two renters, a commercial property owner, a city councilor and other members who have experience with city government.
When it recommends changes to the City Council, the ad hoc committee should say whether it thinks councilors would have the authority to implement those reforms or whether the city would need to amend its charter.
In addition, the resolution calls for the council’s Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization Committee to investigate whether Burlington’s current property tax system is fair to low-income residents. As they study the matter, the resolution said the community development committee should seek bids from consulting firms.
Legislative reapportionment
Also on Monday night, city councilors and members of the administration expressed concerns about a proposed map that would make significant changes to Burlington’s delegation in the state House of Representatives.
Vermont’s once-a-decade process of redrawing the districts for its 150 state representatives is already underway, and the latest draft in that effort would dissolve all of the state’s two-member districts.
The change would rock Burlington’s political scene and has received backlash from some in Vermont’s largest city.
Right now, Burlington has five two-member districts (though one is mostly in Winooski, where both of the district’s representatives live) and two-single member districts. Under the proposed map, the city would get 10 single-member districts.
But because some representatives in two-member districts live close to one another, the proposed map would knock out three current incumbents — a prospect that did not sit well with some city councilors.
“Where I live, we have two representatives. It works rather well, actually,” Councilor Mark Barlow, I-North District, said. “Without a compelling reason to change it — and I haven’t heard one — I would suggest staying with what’s working for us already.”
But Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District, supported the change to single-member districts, arguing that two-member districts discourage potential candidates from running. For example, Hanson said, if someone supports one of their district’s representatives but not the other, they could unseat the one they approve of by mounting a campaign against the one they do not.
City officials opposed the single-member plan on logistical grounds.
The shift in Burlington’s electoral map would be confusing for voters and create logistical headaches for city workers, said Katherine Schad, the city’s chief administrative officer.
“An increase in the total number of Wards and Districts will undoubtedly require an increased workload for the elections staff in the Clerk/Treasurer’s Office, and may likely require additional staff, volunteer, equipment, and financial resources,” Schad wrote in a memo to the Legislative Apportionment Board.
The proposed map would present “new circumstances where errors, either by elections staff (professional or community volunteers) or by voters themselves, are more likely to occur,” Schad said.
Burlington’s feedback — along with comments from other cities and towns across the state — is expected to return to the Legislative Apportionment Board, which drew the proposed map. The apportionment board is tasked with providing the Legislature a map to kick off its redistricting efforts.
Sears Lane fallout
The fate of a South End encampment that was ordered to close last month remained a topic at Monday’s meeting.
City officials said former residents of the Sears Lane encampment will be eligible for a state temporary housing program that kicks in during the winter season, but Progressive councilors said the city should do more to find housing for campers.
Brian Pine, director of the city’s Community Economic Development Office, told councilors that displaced campers will be eligible for the state’s general assistance housing when the temperature or windchill drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit (or 32 degrees Fahrenheit when there is more than 50% chance of precipitation), per state criteria released last week.
Burlington allocated state funds to house the camp’s former residents in hotels for roughly a month after their removal from the camp. Weinberger said he has asked the state to extend those funds throughout the winter but said he has not heard back yet.
If the state funds are not extended, the city would look at other options to house the displaced residents, Weinberger said.
Hanson and Magee advocated for using American Rescue Plan Act funds to house residents this winter, but city officials said it would be better to save that money for programs that could systematically reduce homelessness.
“My feeling with the process around this money is that the community would rather reinvest it into a longer-term solution,” Kara Alnasrawi, the city’s director of economic recovery and the Church Street Marketplace, told councilors. “We don’t want to be spending it too much piecemeal. We want to have a firmer plan in place with enough public process around it.”
The city is surveying residents about how to spend American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The city has made efforts to include those without housing in that process, Pine said.
Other business
In other business Monday night,
- The council signed off on an agreement that allows South Burlington-based Beta Technologies to clear space for new construction at Burlington International Airport. The electric aircraft maker can now start leveling land and removing ledges as it prepares to build an aircraft manufacturing facility. Beta and the city are still negotiating the lease deal that would allow construction to begin.
Representatives of some companies that lease space at the airport asked councilors not to approve the agreement, saying that Beta’s takeover of airport land would negatively impact other airport tenants. - The City Council unanimously confirmed Meagan Tuttle as Burlington’s new planning director. Tuttle previously served as principal planner for the city and has been its Covid-19 response leader. Weinberger announced Tuttle’s appointment Nov. 3.
