[Copymutt]

Maybe set a precedent that other municipalities can learn from.
Citizens with any degree of self respect live within their means by a big margin.
Any governing authority should be mandated to do the same.
Just my world.

[jackmccullough]

Scott's claim that people don't know what it means when they vote on their school budgets is absurd. He clearly does not believe in local control of the schools, but I doubt that most Vermonters agree.


Still, he apparently had a visit from the Common Sense Fairy yesterday and announced that he will allow the budget to go into effect without his signature, so no veto, no government shutdown.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by jackmccullough

Scott's claim that people don't know what it means when they vote on their school budgets is absurd. He clearly does not believe in local control of the schools, but I doubt that most Vermonters agree.


Still, he apparently had a visit from the Common Sense Fairy yesterday and announced that he will allow the budget to go into effect without his signature, so no veto, no government shutdown.

The manner in which schools are funded is so complex that few voters have any idea what their votes will mean as concerns the tax rate. We approved budgets nearly 4 months ago at Town Meeting and not even our Town Treasurer knows what the tax rate will be still. At Town Meeting itself the school board can't tell anyone how much the tax rate will go up or down based on the proposed budget.

Throw in the fact that 2/3's of households get some amount of State Payment on their taxes and most don't care whether taxes go up because their State Payment will just go up to cover it.

[jackmccullough]

New rule: before someone complains about how complicated school funding is in Vermont they need to explain in detail how the Foundation Plan and the Morse-Giuliani Plan worked.


I'm sure you're right that people don't know precisely what will happen to their tax bill from year to year. On the other hand, it is very clear that voting for an increase in the school budget is likely to lead to an increase in your property tax bill.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by jackmccullough

New rule: before someone complains about how complicated school funding is in Vermont they need to explain in detail how the Foundation Plan and the Morse-Giuliani Plan worked.


I'm sure you're right that people don't know precisely what will happen to their tax bill from year to year. On the other hand, it is very clear that voting for an increase in the school budget is likely to lead to an increase in your property tax bill.

If you want local control of schools in VT, then drop the whole flowing of all the money through the State first. Let each town directly raise the money it needs to fund its schools. People will then know what the impact is of keeping their half empty schools open vs merging with neighboring towns. The waste we're funding is staggering.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Biker53

If you want local control of schools in VT, then drop the whole flowing of all the money through the State first. Let each town directly raise the money it needs to fund its schools. People will then know what the impact is of keeping their half empty schools open vs merging with neighboring towns. The waste we're funding is staggering.

There's that inconvenient state supreme court ruling that makes this challenging. You can't simply use a town's local property taxes to fund education.



It would be difficult politics but what really needs to happen is for the state to take over all K-12 education. The public schools owned by the state and all employee state employees. You get bused to the regional school the state says you use. That totally stops towns from voting to use someone else's money. It also decouples education from property taxes so the state can use a more rational way of funding K-12. The way it's done now is violently anti-business. All that will be left is low paying service sector jobs.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

There's that inconvenient state supreme court ruling that makes this challenging. You can't simply use a town's local property taxes to fund education.



It would be difficult politics but what really needs to happen is for the state to take over all K-12 education. The public schools owned by the state and all employee state employees. You get bused to the regional school the state says you use. That totally stops towns from voting to use someone else's money. It also decouples education from property taxes so the state can use a more rational way of funding K-12. The way it's done now is violently anti-business. All that will be left is low paying service sector jobs.

I know what I suggested can't be done given that ruling, but in solving one problem that ruling created an even larger one.

I do like your suggestion. It is the only way we're going to start shutting down the tiny inefficient schools that neither serve the interests of the kids or the towns. We need to get the emotion out of the "our" school craziness that's killing State & Local finances while doing a disservice to the kids.

[cgregor]

What's really crazy about the "our" school craziness is when we don't want to improve "our" school, yet we fight to keep it under "our" control....

[GeoffD]

The commercial rate is going up and the residential rate remains unchanged. Not exactly a shocking outcome.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The commercial rate is going up and the residential rate remains unchanged. Not exactly a shocking outcome.

Yep, let's make VT even less attractive for businesses and for 2nd home owners, two major drivers of the economy, rather than acknowledge the elephant in the room which are half empty schools everywhere you look. Let the nearby 3 town district keep their 3 high schools open, two which graduated 23 kids this year and one that graduated 18. No need to economize and improve education when we can push the expense on entities and people that can't vote.