Dear Community Members,

Please join the MMUUSD School Board for a special meeting on Wednesday, February 28 at 6pm. You can join virtually (https://meet.google.com/qsu-takb-fkq) or attend in person at Camels Hump Middle School. Due to the legislative changes with H.850 we will be approving the revised 24-25 (FY25) budget and approve the revised warning.

A Brief History:

Spring 2022: Act 127 passes. This is the law that created a more equitable approach to the distribution of the Ed Fund monies to schools by changing the weights of students. MMUUSD was disadvantaged by this law.

Fall 2023: Schools across the state use the 5% tax cap (the transition method for Act 127, an essential piece meant to ease the tax burden due to the decrease in $ coming from the Ed Fund) to address the lack of ed funding for school construction which increases school district's budgets but does not immediately cost taxpayers more money due to the cap and avoids a bond.

December 2023: The Tax Commissioner announces that there will be approximately an 18% increase to homestead property taxes across the state. The majority of the blame falls on the increase in school budgets as districts plan to make up the shortfall from Act 127.

January 2024: The House Ways and Means Committee decides to hear testimony from school districts across the state as they plan to find a way to decrease the proposed tax increases. This testimony encourages the House Ways and Means Committee to re-examine the transition model used in Act 127. They propose dropping the 5% tax cap and moving to a .01 cent decrease for every percentage point that districts are disadvantaged.

February 2024: Districts across the state pause their budget process, reduce budgets in anticipation of the change and vote to move the budget approval vote from Town Meeting Day to a later date as proposed by the new legislation. MMUUSD School Budget Vote has been moved to Tuesday April 2, 2024.

February 22, 2024: Governor Scott signs H.850 into law. This law repeals the 5% cap on homestead property tax increases and allows school districts to push their school budget votes out until April,15th.

Finance Committee Memo: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rLk0yLwyJsfth37CYEy2ql72pas7YCCz/edit

MMUUSD School Board Meeting 2/12/24: https://youtu.be/vtaBeIHJvZk?si=Bw1okIYxvJeHHFgb

Budget Infograph: https://www.mmuusd.org/news/what_s_new/2024-2025__fy25__budget_update

District Happenings:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GC0dwRbvyK8lMlQsZ3rd13DzZQy0alvK/view
Information on the original Act 127: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NcmCOf6qqWjRFsfRq0DemxKJ3lKFcbDI/view

Recent News Articles:
https://vtdigger.org/2024/02/14/local-school-leaders-see-immense-challenges-in-proposed-stat[...]es/
https://vtdigger.org/2024/02/21/senate-passes-property-tax-cap-repeal-calls-for-groundbreaki[...]ng/
https://vermontbiz.com/news/2024/february/22/governor-scott-signs-education-financing-bill-h850

Please feel free to reach out to your local school board representatives or legislators with questions or concerns.

May 18, 2024, 8 to 9 AM

May 21, 2024, 6:30 to 6:30 PM

May 22, 2024, 1 to 6 PM