This commentary is by Benjamin Brickner, of Pomfret. He is a practicing attorney and chair of the Pomfret Selectboard.
As towns and school districts across Vermont finalize their budgets, local officials are staring down a familiar question: with healthcare, housing, personnel and other non-discretionary costs out of control, what gets cut?
For Pomfret and its 916 residents, hard choices are inevitable. Road maintenance may be scaled back. Overworked staff may go without needed support. Taxes still rise. Important services take the hit — and with them, the quality of life that defines our community.
After several years in local office, here’s what troubles me: Vermont confronts each cost crisis separately, even as they amplify one another and squeeze budgets year after year.
Consider healthcare costs and their far-reaching effects on seemingly unrelated but personnel-intensive areas like road maintenance, municipal administration and education. Recent efforts to institute drug price caps (Act 55) and reference-based pricing (Act 68) are helpful, but they don’t address actuarial realities in a small state with an aging population.
Education reform faces similar headwinds. Act 73 focuses largely on consolidation. That may reduce the number of school districts, but it won’t solve what motivated reform in the first place. Even consolidated districts remain vulnerable to rising costs like health insurance, which is projected to soon consume one-fifth of school budgets.
Housing costs compound these pressures. Act 181’s recent changes to Act 250, Vermont’s Land Use Law, have altered the regulatory landscape, but they don’t address the labor and material costs that put housing out of reach for many young families, including children of lifelong Vermonters.
The result is familiar: towns with stagnating grand lists, schools with falling enrollment and residents squeezed as essential costs spiral.
The question isn’t whether Vermont should tackle these issues. We must. The real question is whether we’ll approach them as a single, interconnected challenge or continue patching leaks while the foundation shifts. Acts 55, 68, 73 and 181 are sensible in isolation. Collectively, they miss the mark.
What Vermont needs now isn’t more task forces, commissions or disconnected legislation. We’ve tried that, with mixed results. We need a change in mindset.
As lawmakers reconvene in Montpelier, we must think in systems, not silos. Health insurance premiums shape school budgets. Housing affordability shapes demographics. Each policy sends ripples far beyond its intended target. These connections aren’t always obvious, which makes on-the-ground listening essential.
Local officials are often the first to see the cascading effects of well-meaning reform: road crews short-staffed because housing costs outpace wages; school districts unable to hire because health insurance is prohibitive; towns cutting office hours to keep municipal taxes down as education taxes rise. When laws are written without input from those living these impacts, unintended consequences are inevitable.
Vermont can no longer afford that cycle.
Lawmakers should break the silos by consulting with towns and schools before drafting legislation. Ask what pressures they face, what would change if healthcare or housing costs stabilized, and what would help stretch limited dollars.
Voters should connect the dots. You don’t need budgetary expertise to see the patterns. Learn what towns control and what they don’t — and tell your representatives what you see. Informed feedback from constituents is as valuable as any expert report.
Local officials should document the realities. Towns and schools can help lawmakers see the system by presenting data showing how costs rise, what gets cut and who is affected. This gives lawmakers the information they need to craft reforms that stand a chance of working.
Vermont can address education costs, healthcare affordability and housing shortages. We have the tools and the talent. What we need is a clearer understanding of how these problems connect.
In Pomfret, we don’t have the luxury of tackling one problem at a time. We manage interdependent issues by understanding their connections and responding accordingly. Vermont must do the same.
