“My primary objection to the bills … is that together they result in an unnecessary and avoidable $33 million increase in statewide property tax rates,” Scott wrote in a letter to lawmakers explaining his vetoes.
In anticipation of his veto of the budget, Scott summoned lawmakers to Montpelier Wednesday for a special session. Now the administration must come to an agreement with lawmakers by July 1 in order to avoid a shutdown of the state government.
The key disagreement between the legislature and the governor is Scott’s five-year education funding plan, which the governor says would keep property tax rates level by using onetime funds. Scott says his plan would save Vermonters hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five years, but those figures have come into question after review by legislative economists.
The legislature’s budget would use the onetime money to pay down the state’s pension liability for teachers, a move that Senate Appropriations Committee chair Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) said will save taxpayers more than $100 million over the next few decades.
Scott’s standoff with lawmakers over the state budget and school funding is a repeat of last year’s. In 2017, Scott vetoed the budget and a school financing bill after he reached an impasse with lawmakers over his proposal to establish a statewide teacher health plan.
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O.K. Everybody has now made their points and it is time to move forward.
The Governor challenged school boards to keep their increases under the rate of inflation and they did so. The legislature has tried to add new taxes and fees but these have been vetoed and will likely be sustained. He has gotten what he asked for and should be satisfied.
The legislature should now stop playing games and agree to only the 1.5% increase in the residential and non-residential tax rates approved by voters at school meetings. They should also move out of the Education Fund the still over 20 million dollars not part of the K-12 education controlled by school boards and back to the General Fund where these expenditures belong.
Then, use the surplus to first balance revenue with spending in the 2019 budget with the remainder to be used to fill reserve funds and pay off past obligations sooner and go home.
Want to help the school budgets and teachers pension fund, make it illegal for teachers to strike.
John, I like a lot of your thoughts. Except that the legislature did set the tax rates to reflect the votes of the locals at 1.5% There is no extra increase on the property tax beyond what covers the local votes. So there is less posturing than you think. They then used the surplus funds to do exactly what you indicate. Fill the reserve funds and then pay off past obligations. In fact, the revenue and spending prior to the there being a surplus was balanced. It is the surplus that is allowing for the reserves to be filled and the obligations to be paid. I am glad you agree with the budget that passed unanimously in the Senate (7 Republicans) and overwhelmingly in the House (with nearly all the Republicans). The only game now is whether those who voted for the budget will suddenly not do so because of partisan politics and not wanting to embarrass the Governor.
David,
Unless all news reports are wrong, the passed budget had property tax increases for non-residential property of 5.5 cents and a residential property tax increase of 2 cents . This was not in line with what was passed by voters at school meetings and needs to be corrected.
While the budget did take adult literacy, prison education programs and the renter rebate from the Education Fund, there is still over 20 million dollars of non K-12 education spending that needs to be taken out and not added to property taxes. This includes a 7.7 million dollar annual payment to the Teachers Retirement Fund. This payment was added to the Education Fund just last year and needs to be put back to the General Fund.
Progress has been made, but there is still a ways to go and hopefully you can play a role getting us there.