Rep. Wood: Adjourned with education changes, and election on the horizon

May 17, 2024 | By Rep. Theresa Wood

The regular session of the 2024 Legislature adjourned Saturday, May 11, at just past 2 a.m.  A variety of bills passed in the last week and are headed to the governor’s office for his decision to sign, let pass into law without his signature, or to veto.  If the governor decides to veto important bills, the legislature has a veto session set for June 17-18 to consider the vetoes or to otherwise act.

I served as part of the three-member House conference committee to meet with three members of the Senate to reach agreement on the fiscal year 2025 budget.  After just over a week of sometimes tense negotiations, we reached agreement on a budget that will provide for the operation of government over the next 12 months beginning July 1.  Both the House and the Senate passed the budget conference committee report, and the governor has given indications that he intends to sign the budget.  A summary of the impacts of the budget can be found on the Joint Fiscal Office website here.  

Given revenue projections that exceeded original estimates, there appears to be a fairly significant amount of one-time revenue that will be available to assist with flood recovery and $25 million of which will be used to “buy down” the education property tax.  While this will be welcome to property taxpayers, it is also a double-edged sword as it does nothing to right-size our education system or create a sustainable financing scenario for education. In fact, over the last couple of years due to surpluses in the Education Fund, the education property tax has been “bought down.” Unfortunately, this is one reason that early information estimated the property tax increase to be around 20% this year.

The “yield bill” also sets aside an additional $13 million for property tax relief in FY25. In the final hours of the legislative session, a bill was passed that sets up an education funding task force that will make recommendations on how to fund and control spending in Vermont. Additionally, a task force to re-envision Vermont’s education system, which will involve making some hard decisions about the number of schools necessary, class sizes, staffing, etc. will also report back to the legislature. 

There has been a great deal of activity at the local and state levels regarding the cost and quality of education, the size and capacity of schools, changes to increase equity in funding and educational opportunity for youth across the state, etc.  What is clear is that we have an education system where spending decisions are decided at the local level and then must be funded at the state level.  We have a court decision that mandates students must have equal educational opportunity, regardless of where they live. The state utilizes a “common level of appraisal” to equalize property values, which also impacts tax rates.

Our current funding system is overly complicated and is due for an overhaul. We have too many schools for the number of students that is continuing to decline, but no individual community wants to close or consolidate their local school. There are no simple answers to these complex issues, but we can no longer kick the can down the road. The two task forces, as well as the 2025 legislature will need to dig deep to resolve these issues. For a snapshot of what individual school districts spend across the state for the current year, please see this school spending spreadsheet.

Finally, representing the citizens of Bolton, Buel’s Gore, Huntington and Waterbury has truly been an honor and a responsibility I take very seriously. I plan to seek re-election for an additional term, and I would be grateful for your support.

State Rep. Theresa Wood, a Waterbury Democrat, is one of two representatives in the Washington-Chittenden district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore. She chairs the House Committee on Human Services. Reach her at twood@leg.state.vt.us.