Property Taxes

More than 100 people eventually showed up for a meeting to voice anger and frustration about taxes — and seek answers.

Gov. Phil Scott warned that, absent intervention, property taxes could spike again next year. Scott’s letter — and reactions to it — have underlined how little agreement or trust exists between the parties involved in trying to solve the problem.

The school board has once again trimmed its spending plans for the year, and scheduled a fourth budget vote for Sept. 17. Early voting has begun.

Nearly every town in Vermont saw homestead education tax increases in the new fiscal year, with a few seeing increases over 30%.

The veto comes three weeks before the end of the fiscal year for public schools in Vermont and sets up a potentially high-stakes negotiation as the clock winds down.

Just after the stroke of midnight on Saturday morning, state lawmakers passed the property tax bill necessary to pay for schools.

Every year, lawmakers must pass a bill that sets the property tax rates necessary to pay for school budgets. For this week’s edition of the Capitol Recap, we explore how lawmakers in the House want to use this legislation to respond to double-digit property tax hikes.

The latest estimates project the average homestead tax bill to go up 15% while the average non-homestead bill will rise 18%. That’s not much lower than the 18.5% tax increases initially forecast.

Property tax rates are currently projected to jump by more than 20% next year due to unexpectedly high budget proposals from local school districts. A plan from Democratic lawmakers would give schools time to revise and reduce their budgets.

The most recent forecasts predict that school taxes could rise an average of 17% next year. So this Thursday, House and Senate lawmakers took testimony from school districts across the state to get a better understanding of the unprecedented rise in spending.