The Vermont House and Senate reconvened this week for a one-day veto session to work through the eight bills vetoed by Republican Governor Phil Scott. Legislators overrode six of those eight bills with a two-thirds majority.
The eight bills included:
- 687 Act 250 and housing, (overridden)
- 121 Data privacy, kids, and social media (no override)
- 887 Property taxes, the yield, ed finance (overridden)
- 645 Restorative justice expansion (overridden)
- 72 Overdose prevention center (overridden)
- 289 Renewable energy standard (overridden)
- 706 Neonicotinoid pesticides (overridden)
- 18 Flavored tobacco ban (no override)
While interest in all of these bills was strong locally, Mad River Valley taxpayers were paying keen attention to H.877, a red-headed stepchild of a bill (apologies to redheads and stepchildren!) that will result in double-digit education tax increases in all six towns in the Harwood Unified Union School District.
There was way too much Legislative hand-wringing about this bill and far too little responsiveness to its impact on local and statewide taxpayers. Legislators caught like deer in the headlights when faced with the mandates of Act 127 (flawed at its core) and the subsequent legislation designed to blunt the impact of the bill. Act 127 allows some districts to raise more money than others for education, to cover the costs of educating students who require more resources. Good goal, incredibly bad, ill-advised, poorly executed, and hastily adopted bill.
Governor Scott is a seasoned politician, able to read the room and the temperature of the state on this morass and vetoed the bill with promises of bringing something to the table that would halve that increase. That plan called for using all of an education stabilization reserve and suspending the state’s universal school meals program ($29 million) for a year.
Despite statewide furor over the double-digit tax increase, that proposal never grew legs and the veto was handily overridden on June 17. And while this may seem to be just Legislative Poker, with the admin and Legislature working to gain the upper hand and boost their public perception, the sad fact is that our elected officials have failed once again -- for another session -- to address our education funding system.
Oh wait! The Legislature did create a study committee. So, expect real change about five tax bills from now.
