On the opening day of the 2026 legislative session, the leader of the Vermont Senate tried to sell fellow lawmakers on a plan he says will deliver property tax relief as soon as next year.
But the proposal is already encountering skepticism within the Statehouse.
The pitch comes as Vermonters brace for an expected double-digit increase in those tax bills— and as a landmark law meant to curb school spending loses political momentum in Montpelier.
In his opening day speech, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said that he hasn’t given up on Act 73, which is meant to transform the way schools are funded and governed. But he said opposition to a key provision in the law — the forced consolidation of school districts — will postpone its implementation.
“I believe in the interim, in order to get to the cost savings in Act 73, we need some kind of temporary containment in the rise in the growth of spending,” Baruth said.
The Chittenden County Democrat said he’ll introduce legislation this week that would force school districts to limit budget increases in fiscal years 2028 and 2029. Baruth told Vermont Public last week that he wanted the legislation to apply to this year’s school budgets as well. He acknowledged Tuesday that districts are too far along in the budgeting process for the Legislature to intervene.
Baruth’s bill would use “allowable growth caps” to limit the budget increases that districts put to voters on Town Meeting Day in 2027 and 2028. While he hasn’t yet disclosed those limits, the proposal has already drawn opposition from key school officials.
Sue Ceglowski, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said last week that increases in education spending are driven largely by factors outside districts’ control. Since school boards can’t unilaterally lower health care costs, for example, or put off critical infrastructure projects, Ceglowski said hard caps on spending could force cuts to core academic services.
“We share the concern about rising property taxes,” she said. “However … hard budget caps do not address rapidly rising employee health care costs. They simply shift the pain onto students and classrooms.”
The Scott administration is more open to the idea. Last month Gov. Phil Scott unveiled a plan to cut this year’s anticipated property tax increase by nearly half, by putting a $75 million general fund surplus into the education fund.
Jason Maulucci, Scott’s director of policy development, said using one-time money to buy down rates — as the Legislature and governor have done for the last three years — is not a sustainable strategy.
“There needs to be an effort on the spending side of the equation at the district level as well, so we’re definitely open to the conversation around what we can do to make sure that property tax rates aren’t growing unsustainably year after year after year while we do our education transformation,” Maulucci said Tuesday.
House Democrats, however, have “deep concerns” with Baruth’s legislation, according to House Majority Leader Lori Houghton. Houghton said the House is prepared to consider allowable growth caps if they pass the Senate. But she said many representatives will be reluctant to tread too heavily on districts as the Legislature attempts to proceed with sweeping education reform.
“I have a real concern of what’s going to be put on the table on top of Act 73."House Majority Leader Lori Houghton
“I have a real concern of what’s going to be put on the table on top of Act 73,” Houghton said.
Baruth may also have to work to convince his own caucus.
Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale said that if the Legislature is going to proceed with allowable growth caps, they need to be paired with policy reforms that address cost drivers in education.
“Just imposing a cap is not finding our own responsibility to help school districts meet that cap without hurting our schools,” she said.
