Updated Feb. 23 at 11:58 a.m.
When Burlington’s new mayor and City Council take their seats in early April, among their first orders of business will be tackling a multimillion dollar shortfall in the budget for the coming fiscal year.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the city has received over $27 million in funds from the federal government, which have helped bolster its budget. Now, all but about $1 million has been spent or dedicated, according to Katherine Schad, Burlington’s chief administrative officer.
Adding the pressures of inflation, the city faces an estimated $9 million shortfall in its fiscal year 2025 budget.
Mayor Miro Weinberger, who is in his final weeks of office, told the council in late January that while it’s typical to face a budget gap, this one is larger than in recent years.
To help address the budget woes, his administration has proposed a three-cent increase to Burlington’s public safety tax, which, if approved by voters, would increase the city’s portion of property taxes by around 4%. According to the city’s website, a Burlington homeowner with a property valued at the median value of $381,400 could see up to a $114 increase in their city taxes. That does not include school taxes, which could add around $800 to a home at that value.
The tax, which pays for about one-third of the police and fire department budgets, last increased in 2020, when the fire department added a third ambulance. Since then, costs related to public safety have increased. As a result of a new police contract, that department’s personnel costs are $1.7 million higher than they were in 2020, and overall public safety costs in the city have risen a total of about $4 million in the past four years.
Schad told the council in January that in addition to the proposal to increase the public safety tax, which could raise a projected $1.8 million, the administration is proposing cuts elsewhere in the city budget. To help inform those potential cuts, the city is conducting a staffing study of many departments outside of public safety, with results expected in May. The budget is typically approved in June. The police department already went through a staffing study, and the fire department is in the midst of completing its own.
The Weinberger administration had to rush to get the tax increase on the March Town Meeting Day ballot in order to avoid calling for a special election, something that has become more expensive in recent years due to the cost of mailing ballots.
While city councilors broadly supported putting the tax increase on the budget — and approved doing so — some expressed discomfort about its potential impact on affordability in the city, especially when combined with the potential for a nearly 14% increase in school taxes in Burlington.
“This leads us to broader questions of the sustainability of our property tax system,” said Councilor Joe Magee, P-Ward 3. Magee is stepping down at the end of his term in March, but he encouraged the next council and administration to push the Legislature to reform the system.
During the mayoral race, the topic of public safety has largely overshadowed talk of affordability and tax rates.
But the two party-endorsed candidates, Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Democrat Joan Shannon, have both acknowledged that affordability is front of mind for many city residents. Mulvaney-Stanak is proposing an overhaul of the city’s tax system — a concept Shannon does not support.
During an interview on Tuesday, Mulvaney-Stanak walked through her proposal to change the Queen City’s property tax-based system to an income-sensitive model. She said it would closely resemble the way the state assesses education taxes. Under her plan, residential property owners living in their primary residence would pay municipal taxes based on income rather than their home’s value, she said.
Mulvaney-Stanak also made the case that there isn’t enough “equity” between residential and commercial property owners, particularly after a citywide reappraisal which hit tax bills in 2021. She said the reappraisal placed a larger share of the tax burden on residential properties and that, as mayor, she would examine how to correct that.
Shannon dismissed the idea of income sensitivity in municipal taxes. She said the state subsidizes the income adjustments in education taxes with other state programs. And she questioned who would pay more within a municipality.
“There’s not much conversation about exactly who pays more and I think that that’s very important to look at because the city really doesn’t have a base of wealthy people to draw from,” Shannon said in an interview on Tuesday.
According to U.S. Census data from 2022, the median household income in Burlington is about $65,000 whereas statewide that figure is around $74,000.
In order to keep Burlington affordable, Shannon said the city needs to “grow its tax base.” That means supporting businesses, because “if our businesses aren’t paying the taxes, that puts more burden on the property taxpayer,” Shannon said. “So we need to make sure that our businesses and our downtown remain healthy in order to save other taxpayers money.”
Beyond that, she said a “baseline problem” with affordability is the statewide school funding system, which she said “is far too expensive and it’s not delivering the quality education that it should be at that price.”
Mulvaney-Stanak, who has been a state representative since 2021, agreed that the city finds itself in an “unfortunate time” with school costs. She urged state action on that front to address deferred facility costs which are being felt throughout the state.
Both candidates said they support the proposed increase of the public safety tax. Mulvaney-Stanak noted she wasn’t sure she would “structure it that way, but I am glad that there is something at least on the ballot to allow us a little bit more of an ability to raise revenue.”
