Reply to "Upset in Jacksonville"
2024-06-19
Dear friend,
Happy Juneteenth! Thanks to S.206, whose passage this year I supported, June 19th is now a Vermont holiday.
Today we celebrate the events of June 19, 1865. That's when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with the victorious Union Army. One of his first acts was to inform locals about the Emancipation Proclamation. What happened after he stated "all slaves are free"? I find the whole text of Granger's announcement a little surprising -- and not in a good way. You can find my thoughts on it here.
How are you doing?
I'm back from Monday's one-day "veto session" in Montpelier with the following report.
If you've been following news headlines about tax hikes, you might find it surprising -- in a good way.
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Response to “Very upset citizen”: Lower taxes expected locally
I voted on Monday to override Governor Scott’s veto of H.887, the bill that sets tax rates to fund locally voted school budgets across Vermont. The bill attracted headlines, as well as the veto, because it results in a typical statewide property tax increase of 13.8%.
Don’t take headlines at face value. Based on my analysis, the local impact will be softer. Still, I cast my vote with a heavy heart. On a personal note, I closed this chapter as a legislator. Becoming a father at 33 was the most important thing I will ever do. Twelve years later, I’m expecting this August with Alison, my fiancé. (I proposed at our baby shower last Sunday—and she said Yes!)
Voters sent me to Montpelier two years ago to fight for working families—like ours. In not running for re-election this November, I felt that I could do more for the future of Vermont by holding our infant and supporting mama at home.
While I’m excited for baby bliss, my decision also reflects kitchen-table economics. Our grocery bill often tops $200, so I’ve gone big in our veg garden and am pasturing goats, piglets, and hens. I’m swinging a hammer myself on a fix to our crowded mudroom. At the lumberyard, material costs have ballooned by 30%–50% since 2020.
My 12-year-old thinning the blue flint corn that he planted. He's excited to grow another blue food beside blueberries!
I thank Alison every day. She’s growing a new human, and she’s growing her job from part- to full-time. Her employer will help us afford the 16% increases in healthcare premiums that everyone is seeing.
My heavy heart reflected more than my situation. It reflected yours. To quote an email from a Jacksonville homeowner, “I don’t know anyone who gets a 14% raise to pay for these taxes.”
Their subject line read “Very upset citizen in your district,” and they have every right. Worse, there’s no relief in sight next year for this year’s trends. For example—deferred maintenance. Replacing rusting steam pipes is costly, but it’s small compared to the cost of building new schools—now topping $650 per square foot. Inflationary federal policy affecting every consumer spending category is also being absorbed by school business managers.
Let’s also remember that our children are our future and by many measures they’re not doing well. Our public schools, unlike private institutions, are open to all children.
How will we meet our Constitutional obligation to our kids? I voted “Yes” after ensuring that in addition to setting tax rates, H.887 creates the blue-ribbon Commission on the Future of Public Education to plan for the future.
I also voted “Yes” because the Legislature delivered immediate tax relief. Some business owners asked me not to support a new sales tax on “cloud” software and a 3% surcharge paid by short-term renters. My response—Vermonters would see an 18.5% tax hike without them. Nonpartisan analysis predicts that Airbnb guests won’t avoid Vermont. Other destinations charge similar rates.
Governor Scott is making political hay of his veto. I’d appreciate his rhetoric more if he baled and delivered it to my hayloft.
Scott wagged his finger at the Legislature in January to spend less, but he was silent on specifics until June. Scott’s biggest ask, at $47 million, was to drain the education Stabilization Reserve. This would have to be replenished next year, and would have likely resulted in a downgrade in Vermont’s credit rating and an increase in our borrowing costs. I reject it as shortsighted.
As a taxpayer, I’m going to remember in November that the Governor runs Vermont. He makes executive decisions. The Legislature pays for them.
Though I appreciate the Scott Administration’s often-able management, I see room for improvement. For example, his team unilaterally installed a one-day State House cooling system for Monday at a cost of $70,000. I’m on the House committee that should oversee projects like this. Had I been asked, I would have told Phil to skip it. Vermonters are sweating. Legislators can too.
As a fiscal conservative, I’m alarmed, particularly for taxpayers in some districts facing 20% or greater hikes. I also hate that our funding system is so complex that some are voting “No” on local budgets in protest of the statewide process. But let’s talk facts—not rhetoric. Deerfield Valley taxpayers should see stable or even lower taxes this year.
How is this possible? Local voters set school budgets. Tax dollars flow into the statewide Education Fund and then back to schools.
Twin Valley’s budget is up 5.16%, but that’s offset by Act 127 of 2022. This “pupil weighting” bill rights a decades-long wrong by paying districts like Twin Valley and Halifax fairly for higher costs.
A July 1st report due from the Agency of Education finalizes tax rates for each town. Though I hesitate to front-run their complex math, I crunched preliminary numbers. I calculate a rate of 1.4034 for every $100 of a Jacksonville homestead value. That’s a decrease from last year's rate of 1.5405.
Every taxpayer’s situation will be different. I invite anyone with concerns on the impact of any legislation to email me, or call/text 802-275-2881. I remain your Windham-6 State Rep through January and I’m here for you.
With kind regards,
Rep. Tristan Roberts
Halifax, Vermont
P.S. Stay tuned for upcoming "office hours" in the community -- here recently at the Halifax Cafe (Thursday and Sunday, 10 to 1 at 20 Brook Road in W. Halifax. Anytime Halifax School Board veteran Homer "Chum" Sumner (in the Tennessee hat) and neighbors want to give me a hard time about education funding is a good day for me.
Rep. Roberts office hours at the Halifax Community Club