If the voters of North Hero vote "YES" on next Tuesday's school budget ballot, our school property tax rate will increase by 34.2% over the current year's rate! BUT, should the voters vote "NO," the school board could come back with a new budget proposal that would increase school taxes by "only" 27.0%. AND, this proposed reduction in the tax rate can be realized WITHOUT cutting any programs for the students.
Here is a simplified version of the story.
Last year, the school board proposed, and the voters approved, putting $100,000 of fiscal 2017's "General Fund Surplus" in a "Capital Repair and Replacement Reserve Fund" for future needs. This fund is untouched; it could easily be returned to the General Fund by a vote of the town. This would add $100,000 to the "Local Revenues" in North Hero's FY 2019 budget. This in turn would result in a smaller increase in the tax rate. When, as and if the contemplated repairs and replacements are required, they could and should be funded by the prospective owners of our school, the new Grand Isle Central School District (North Hero, Isle la Motte and Grand Isle CIUUSD.) Why, you may ask, are we faced with such a huge increase in taxes for the coming year? That's because about half of the FY 2019 34.2% increase is attributable to a mistake made by the state last year. We got too many "Equalized Pupils." That was a windfall; nice while it lasted but it won't happen again. When one removes the effect of this windfall, one sees that the increase over the taxes we should be paying this year drops to 16.7% without the rescission of the Capital Reserve Fund and 10.5% with the rescission.
For this to happen, the town must vote with a "NO" to the proposed budget next Tuesday. A "NO" vote that will not cut programs or compensation of staff. To learn more about this, please do come to Monday evening's 7:00 PM information meeting at the school; I've got a neat spreadsheet with dozens of calculations laid out to measure the tax rate increases!
Bart Wilcox, former town auditor
Jan 24, 2025, 12 to 4:30 PM
"The Farm Boy" (2023) Film Tour - St. AlbansJan 28, 2025, 6:30 to 8 PM
Open Door DinnerJan 30, 2025, 5:30 to 6:30 PM