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Vt. Voters Support School Spending

Burlington, Vermont - March 3, 2009

*See the latest results below*

The passage of the Burlington school budget appears to be no fluke. Vermonters all over the state supported school spending, despite the down economy.

Most school budgets won't be known until sometime Wednesday, but it appears most communities passed their school budgets.

Burlington's $49 million school budget was the talk of the ballot in many wards throughout the city.

At 9.1 percent, the proposed spending increase was the largest in Chittenden County and among the highest in the state.

"In these times? That's an enormous amount of money," voter Michelle Celeste said.

"It's just not viable," voter Willy Dartt said. "You can't add another 10 percent of 9 point whatever. Everybody's struggling right now."

But those voices were the minority.

Voters approved the school budget by a substantial margin of 57 percent to 42 percent-- increasing the school tax rate for homeowners by an estimated 10 percent.

"We empathize with people's economic situations and we're ever so thankful for their strong support for all of our budget items tonight, and I think it continues to show Burlington cares about kids and invests in kids," said Tom Fleury, the chair of the Burlington School Board.

Burlington voters also passed a $9.7 million school bond.

That bond will fund infrastructure improvements at three Vermont elementary schools for things like new roofs, boilers, and electrical upgrades.

The proposal is a watered down version of a much larger $226 million request.

"The larger bonds that were talked about earlier this year would have been really problematic for the city, but I think a smaller bond amount makes a lot of sense," said Erik Hoekstra of Burlington.

In Williamstown, voters approved a $7.7 million budget and then approved a last minute amendment to increase the budget by another $25,000.

"With the economy taking a dump and everybody worrying about the nickels and dimes, you're going to forget that if we squeeze the children, we're going to end up with a bunch of dumb kids," said Larry Ellison of Williamstown.

Only 17 of 251 budgets were defeated each of the past two years on Town Meeting Day and school officials are hopeful that Tuesday's initial results are indicators of a similar story.

Keagan Harsha - WCAX News

Unofficial results from the Vt. Superintendents Association as of Wednesday afternoon:

Through Town Meeting Day:

• 255 total votes were taken
• 227 budget approved (2 with cuts)
• 21 budgets were defeated
• Still awaiting results from 7 districts
• 1 vote was postponed to a later date

With respect to Act 82 and the 2 vote requirement:

• Superintendents association knows of 10 districts subject to the 2 vote requirement
• 6 of them passed both the first and second question
• 3 defeated both questions
• 1 passed the first question and defeated the second question

Related Story:

Vt. Voters Consider School Budgets