Brian Ames grew up in Putney.
He graduated from the eighth grade at Putney Central School about 50 years ago and has been pretty much living here ever since, running a general contracting business, Ames Custom Carpentry.
On a recent early evening he found himself back at Putney Central, standing at the back of the gym, to listen to local and state officials explain why his taxes jumped more than $5,000 in a single year.
“I’m here tonight to find out why,” Ames said, as his neighbors filed into the gym. “The last five years our taxes have gone up 105%. Before that it took about 20 years for them to double. That type of increase is not sustainable.”
Putney’s property tax bills were sent out at the end of July, and the local social media chat site soon blew up as residents voiced their surprise, anger and frustration with the tax bills, which increased by more than 50% for a lot of people.
MAP: How much homestead taxes went up, by town
The public meeting was called in the Putney Central School gym so people could ask questions and better understand why their property taxes increased so dramatically.
“My wife and I, this Saturday, looked at a home in another state,” Ames said. “I lived here, graduated from this very school 50 years ago, and it breaks my heart to think that I’m thinking that way, but it looks like I’m being priced out.”
More than 100 people eventually showed up for the meeting.
Education spending was up in Putney, just as it was across the rest of the state.
The education tax rate rose about 14% here, which is about the state average. And the town’s municipal tax rate jumped almost 10%.
But on top of that, the town recently completed a property reappraisal, which reflected the post-COVID-19, red hot real estate market.
Vermont’s statewide property tax system is directly tied to home values, and Putney residents found out recently that the houses they’ve been living in for decades, in many cases, are worth more than double what they were the last time a reappraisal was done.
So on top of the high spending for education, which was approved by Putney residents at town meeting, the steep jump in property values also pushed the tax rate up.
My taxes went up 45%, and I’m concerned about the impact on the town. For so many people hurting, really in pain. People who are land poor, can’t afford to pay these taxes.Janice Baldwin, Putney resident
Janice Baldwin says the value of her home went up 85%.
And while she says she supports education, and things like free school lunch, free child care and family medical leave, she’s not sure that she and her neighbors can foot the bill.
“My taxes went up 45%, and I’m concerned about the impact on the town,” Baldwin said. “For so many people hurting, really in pain. People who are land poor, can’t afford to pay these taxes.”
Putney has been a desired destination for people leaving more populated regions during the pandemic and beyond.
“We’ve seen a tremendous influx of people buying properties for the last five years at really high rates,” said state Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, who lives in nearby Brattleboro, and came to the meeting in Putney to answer questions about state tax policy. “Usually we talk about gentrification in the context of urban gentrification, right. And like you hear about that happening in big cities. I think it’s pretty clear that part of what we’re experiencing in Vermont is rural gentrification, right? Like, people are being priced out of the neighborhoods or the towns that they have lived in, or they expect to be living in.”
Kornheiser said lawmakers knew this was going to be a very tough tax season, and they passed tax legislation, overriding a veto by Gov. Phil Scott, that was sure to hurt working families and individuals who could least afford the tax hike.
“It was a really hard vote. It’s really hard to vote to increase taxes at the scale that we increased them this year,” she said. “There was no good answer this year, and I don’t want to pretend there was. We did the best possible thing we could do in the circumstances.”
But while the property reassessment did affect the tax rate this year, there were people in the audience who said their taxes have been going up for years.
I think it’s pretty clear that part of what we’re experiencing in Vermont is rural gentrification, right? Like, people are being priced out of the neighborhoods or the towns that they have lived in, or they expect to be living in.Rep. Emilie Kornheiser, chair House Ways and Means Committee
And meeting moderator Tom Ehrenberg reflected the sentiment that while this year’s tax bill was a wakeup call, there are structural issues in Vermont’s education tax system that have to be addressed
“Even with the appraisal issue the taxes are unsustainable at this point at their rate of increase,” Ehrenberg said.
Kornheiser and Putney state Rep. Mike Mrowicki floated some plans to somehow disentangle the education tax from property values, or figure out a way to get Vermonters with higher incomes to pay more.
But they made it clear that for now, Putney had to weather this perfect storm on their own.
The residents have no recourse right now, and any real change to the education tax system will likely take many years to institute.
“They told us there was a town-wide reassessment, and everybody’s value was going to go up, so that means there’s more than money in the pot, and everyone would see a 14 or 18% rise,” said Christopher Irion, who said his taxes went up 63% last year, and more than 300% in the last five years. “I support education, but I’m on a fixed income. I want to see teachers making twice what they’re making, but I can’t vote for legislators who aren’t going to find a serious solution to this very fast.”
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