Vermont’s biggest municipalities are set to vote on a collective $100 million in one-time-only spending proposals this March town meeting season.
A year ago, the 28 communities with 5,000 or more residents reduced their special bond requests above and beyond their regular budgets to less than one-tenth their pre-pandemic levels. But those asks are rising again on coming ballots.
Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, will ask voters March 1 to approve two separate articles totaling almost $50 million.
The first calls for the city to pledge its credit for a $25.9 million plan to upgrade Main Street along the six blocks between South Union and Battery streets, with work on stormwater systems, utilities, lighting and parking ultimately to be paid for by future tax revenues.
A $23.8 million bond, for its part, would pay to replace fire trucks and emergency communication systems, repair 10 city-owned facilities and 9 miles of sidewalks, and allocate matching funds for ongoing or upcoming capital projects. Its price tag is down from a $40 million proposal rejected in a December special election.
In the state capital of Montpelier, an annual budget proposal that would raise taxes 6.8% will appear on the same ballot as four bond requests totaling more than $27 million. They include:
— $16.4 million to upgrade sewage treatment systems at the city’s water resource recovery facility.
— $7.2 million to reconstruct East State Street and its water and sewer lines.
— $2 million to buy the 138-acre site of the former Elks Club on Country Club Road for potential housing, recreation and other uses.
— $1.8 million for infrastructure projects, including a pellet boiler at the public works garage, streetlight replacements and intersection improvements at Barre and Main streets.
In Chittenden County, Colchester will reconsider a $16.7 million Malletts Bay sewer project it rejected in 2019. This time, the plan to service 289 properties will be paid for by user fees and grant money, including $5.1 million from the federal American Rescue Plan.
Milton will vote on a $5.5 million bond for a new town highway garage, with an additional $1 million coming from American Rescue Plan money and proceeds from the sale of the old fire station.
Winooski, where all residents will be able to cast local ballots regardless of citizenship status, will weigh a $1.3 million bond to replace its 25-year-old 70-foot ladder fire truck with a new 100-foot model.
“In addition to being able to safely reach higher and more distant locations, the new truck would be able to do more, allowing emergency calls to be effectively handled by fewer staff members,” Interim City Manager Wendy Harrison has written on the municipal website.
Elsewhere in the state, Stowe will vote on a $4 million bond for the town Electric Department, although the cost would be paid for by power users rather than taxpayers.
And Fairfax will consider a $1.17 million addition to its fire station.
Many regular budgets in the same communities are rising, too.
Williston will vote on a $13.1 million budget proposal that’s up 13.6%, with about half the hike paying for nine more firefighters to offset a drop in on-call staff — a problem that made national news when local firefighters responding to a recent emergency could not find replacements, leaving their station empty for almost an hour.
“Inadequate staffing levels are compromising firefighter and civilian safety,” an independent analysis has concluded.
In other news, Barre City will consider a proposed charter change to expand its local option tax to include the sales tax, while the town of Lyndon and its village of Lyndonville will weigh whether the two government entities should explore the feasibility of a merger.
And seven of the state’s most populous hubs — Barre City, Essex, Hartford, Milton, Rutland City, Springfield and St. Albans Town — will vote on whether to allow the local sale of recreational marijuana.
Vermont became the 11th state to legalize marijuana sales in 2020, although the law requires communities to “opt-in” for retailers to seek the proper permitting. Among the state’s larger communities the question first appeared on 2021 ballots in Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Lyndon, Middlebury, Montpelier, Waterbury and Winooski.
