THE FRONT PAGE of the Addison Independent on Dec. 14, 2023

Addison County residents showed strong support for public education on Town Meeting Day, when all local school budgets passed, four out of five by large margins. Voter approval for budgets proposed by Addison Central, Mount Abraham Unified and Addison Northwest school districts boards ranged from 63% to 80% in Australian balloting. 

And 75% of area residents who cast ballots backed a significant increase in Patricia Hannaford Career Center spending — this despite the fact that a yes vote meant a 14% hike in the tuition for students at the career center.

Only voting for proposed Otter Valley Unified Union School District spending was relatively close: About 52% of district voters there supported a budget plan a year after an initial proposal was defeated. 

 And property taxes continued to rise faster than inflation, in part because of higher school spending. 

Vermont lawmakers changed some rules on how state funds are doled out to pay for education. Some changes rejiggered the way students are counted when calculating funding based on student poverty or familiarity with English. The passage of H.480 (now called Act 68) makes changes to the system of Common Levels of Appraisal, or CLAs, ultimately requiring municipalities to begin to assess their properties every six years, rather than when the CLA falls out of whack. And the CLAs, which are ratios the state tax department uses to compare property tax values in all Vermont towns, are seriously out of whack in Addison County (as well as statewide).

The Vermont Department of Taxes uses CLAs to measure how well communities measure their property values. Then, state officials use CLAs to adjust school tax rates to create equity among towns with varying levels of accuracy in how they assess  real estate. CLAs above 100% — a rarity in Vermont right now — result in lower tax rates. 

Lower CLAs — which are now widespread in Addison County — result in upward pressure on school tax rates.

In the fall, local school boards were struggling to make this coming year’s budgets palatable, with changes in state education tax law in mind. One state-mandated spending rule provides that for those districts that raise spending by less than 10%, the state will cap the district’s homestead property tax rate increase at 5%. So all districts are trying to keep spending in check. 

This won’t be easy with health insurance rising for school employees by 16%, most districts hooked into employee contracts that guarantee raises of 11% in some cases, inflation driving other costs higher and COVD-era ESSER funding disappearing.

Much like a math-averse student getting their first dose of calculus, the Addison Central School District board in November got a quick, dizzying tutorial on the possible budget impacts of Act 173 — a major revamp in the way special education services are funded and delivered at public schools. Board Chair Barb Wilson aptly summed up the board’s sentiments after a 70-minute deep-dive.

“It’s very complicated,” she said, as her colleagues nodded in agreement.