2021 Town Meeting Day ballot coming into focus this week
January 23, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti and Cheryl Casey 
Hunger Mountain Children's Center child care and preschool on South Main Street cares for up to 60 children a day from infants to preschoolers. Photo by Gordon Miller.
The Town Meeting Day ballot that Waterbury voters will consider will come into focus this week as town and school officials finalize budgets and various special articles, and candidates register to run for a variety of local offices.
On the town side as of Friday, however, no candidate had come forward to run for the three-year seat to be filled on the Waterbury Select Board and an open position for a lister had no interest yet, either.
The deadline to register with the town clerk to be on the March ballot is 5 p.m. Monday. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has waived the requirement that candidates get signatures on a petition in order to run. The required forms can be completed by the candidate individually.
Three of the five seats on the select board are on the ballot this year. Two are one-year terms. Incumbent Katie Martin has filed to run for re-election to what would be her second term. She has competition from Noah Fishman and Dani Kehlmann. Board member Nat Fish who holds the other of those seats is not running this year.
Also on the ballot is the three-year seat held by Mark Frier who has moved into the chair role after Chris Viens stepped down from that responsibility in November. Frier earlier this month said he was undecided about plans to run again. He couldn’t be reached for comment for this report.
According to Town Clerk Carla Lawrence on Friday morning, other offices and candidates that have filed to run so far are: Lawrence for re-election as town clerk and treasurer; John Woodruff for a five-year term on the Cemetery Commission; Maroni Minter for a five-year term on the Library Commission. The Board of Listers opening would be a three-year term.
Meanwhile, three of Waterbury’s four seats on the Harwood Union Unified School Board are to be filled by voters on Town Meeting Day. So far, Marlena Tucker-Fishman and Michael Frank have filed to run for the two regular three-year terms. Incumbent and board Chair Caitlin Hollister has decided to run for the one year remaining in the term now held by Frank.
All questions on the ballot this year
At its meeting last Monday, the select board reviewed a draft of the warning specifying that all of the business voters need to address this year will be done by Australian -- or paper -- ballot. The state is allowing towns that usually hold in-person meetings for some or all of their town meeting business to shift entirely to using paper ballots in order to avoid gathering indoors which is not permitted under current public health restrictions.
Waterbury usually considers and votes on all of its town financial items at an in-person morning meeting on Town Meeting Day with voters deciding elections and school-related items by paper ballot.
The draft warning lists the typical questions covering setting property tax payment dates and votes on the town budget. It also includes a lengthy list of individual appropriations to community organizations, regional agencies and nonprofits that in other years are decided by voice votes in person. The ballot will allow voters to vote on each one individually.
The board discussed but didn’t vote to approve the warning because several items still needed to be finalized. It continued its discussions on the budget, coming to a consensus on the tax rate the proposed budget should require for 2021.
Last year, voters in March approved a tax rate of up to $0.55 per $100 of assessed property value. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit forcing businesses to close and town government to scale way back, town officials took steps to trim spending. Ultimately, 2020 tax bills relied on a tax rate of just $0.51 per $100 of property value.
Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk has worked with department heads to try to draft a budget to stay within the same amount of tax revenue as the 2020 budget. That approach would mean not funding capital improvement accounts to the degree needed to have funds in reserve to spend on infrastructure and equipment.
After much discussion, the board agreed to direct Shepeluk to complete the budget based on a tax rate of $0.53 cents per $100 of property value -- less than what voters approved in 2020 but slightly above what the town collected.
Shepeluk will present the final version of the budget for the board’s approval on Monday night.
Will Waterbury welcome legal weed businesses?
One special article the board has included on the draft warning is a question asking voters whether the town should allow businesses related to a new legal marketplace for recreational marijuana to operate in Waterbury.
The measure is the next step after the state Legislature passed a law last year that will allow for the legal cultivation, processing, and retail sales of marijuana in addition to the existing medical marijuana dispensaries already in place in the state. Rules governing the new system are still to be worked out but communities need to vote individually in order to “opt in” for businesses to be established as the system for regulating them comes together over the next year or so.
The draft question is: “ARTICLE 8: Shall the town authorize cannabis retailers and integrated licensees in town pursuant to 7 V.S.A. § 863?”
Board member Chris Viens, a steadfast opponent to legalized marijuana, objected to the item being on the March 2 ballot. “I don’t wish to see Article 8 at all. Period,” he said.
“People have the right to vote no,” board member Mike Bard replied. “I would say let the people talk. I always like democracy.”
Frier said the timing is right for the town to take up the question now. “We have an obligation to let the town residents decide whether or not they want those types of businesses in this town so those who want to get into that type of business have the opportunity to do so,” he said.
Could a ballot item help avoid a court case?
The warning may contain one additional article not yet drafted, Shepeluk said during the discussion Monday, and it appears as if it may signal a resolution to a matter headed to court.
"There's one other article that we're going to have to put on here but I don't have the language tonight and I can't talk about it in great detail," he told the board. "But it has to do with the Hunger Mountain Child Care court case. There's going to be discussions between the parties this week and then I'll be able to come back to the board next week to see if we need an article or not."
Shepeluk was referring to the nonprofit Hunger Mountain Children’s Center’s appeal of its 2020 property tax bill of $17,152.
The center appealed to the Board of Listers and then to the Board of Civil Authority seeking an exemption from paying taxes under a provision in state law that allows municipalities to grant tax exemptions for entities serving the public good. After denials at the local level, the center appealed to state court in December.
The center is the community’s largest state-licensed child care and preschool with the capacity to care for up to 60 children per day, infants through preschoolers. Executive Director Amanda Olney said it presently serves an average of 46 children per day from families in Waterbury and Dubury, Montpelier and Barre, the Mad River Valley, Richmond and Jericho.
The center first was added to the town’s tax rolls in 2016 when it was under construction to expand after Tropical Storm Irene. It was then that the center purchased its property at 123 South Main St. from the state of Vermont from whom it had previously rented for more than 30 years.
The first tax bill during construction was for $2,730.48, Olney said. Once it was completed and the center began operating in the building, the bill jumped to $16,142.
The center in 2019 submitted a grievance which was denied. “At that time we decided not to pursue it further,” she said.
Still, the five-figure bill is a significant challenge to the center’s budget. Olney said the center decided to pursue the tax challenge because it believes it meets the test in state law.
Both the center and the town Board of Civil Authority refer to several court cases to guide their arguments. A court hearing had not been set yet when the question of tax status for early childhood properties came up at the state level.
In his inaugural address on Jan. 7, Gov. Phil Scott discussed childcare as priority for his administration, pointing out that the state has added $10 million to programs assisting lower-income families pay for childcare and early education.
Scott proposed reorganizing the state’s work in child development under the purview of the Agency of Education and he stated: “My budget will propose a property tax exemption for licensed preschool programs.”
Lawyers for both the town and Hunger Mountain would not comment on the tax appeal case late this week. The agenda for Monday’s select board meeting lists an executive session on the matter.
Another pandemic election
Voters can expect voting to happen for the Town Meeting election much like the general election in November happened. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 2 for people to vote in person if they choose. Public health protocols including mask-wearing, distancing, sanitizing, etc. will be in effect. Vermont’s Secretary of State already has called for Vermonters to request early paper ballots by mail to help expedite the process. Ballots will not be automatically mailed to voters as they were for the general election, however.
The select board also is required to hold an informational meeting ahead of the election to review ballot items and answer questions from the community. The board will set the date and time for that meeting on Monday and it is expected to be held via video conference.