Education Financing and State Aid for School Construction - Public Forum 10-17-2024

Vermont Legislative Leaders to Discuss Education Financing
Public Forum on October 17th, 6pm at Woodstock Town Hall

Why is this important? The education property taxes in Woodstock, Plymouth and Killington jumped by more than 25% this year, causing real financial distress for homeowners and businesses. Other towns also saw huge increases. The bond vote for a new middle school and high school failed in March of 2024. WUHS/MS is just one of many schools that need to be upgraded in Vermont, but without aid from the state to pay for some of that construction, the cost is just too high for local taxpayers. It was because of these issues that I organized this forum for October 17th.

Two key legislative leaders in Vermont will be talking about the future of education financing and state aid for new school construction on Thursday, October 17th at the Woodstock Town Hall, 6-7:30pm.

Peter Conlon is the Chair of the Vermont House Education Committee and a member of two active task forces: the Commission on the Future of Public Education and the State Aid for School Construction Working Group.

Emilie Kornheiser is the Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means and is the Chair of the Education Financing Subcommittee for the Commission on the Future of Public Education.

Woodstock resident and former legislator Charlie Kimbell will serve as moderator for the discussion. After 45 minutes of presentations, the speakers will take questions from the attendees.

The discussion will be held in the upstairs meeting room in the Woodstock Town Hall which holds approximately 70 people. People can choose to attend via Zoom by following this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87597515680?pwd=rhqlZQZkWNiGgi4eR0WLVq7bDAl7J7.1.

2024 Overview of Critical Legislative Issues

I am excited to return to the Vermont House of Representatives in January to work on the critical issues facing Vermont.  Tesha Buss ably served the Windsor-5 district but she decided not to seek reelection.  I decided to run for “my old seat” because of the urgency of the problems Vermont faces and the need for moderate voices to forge reasonable, sustainable solutions.

It is going to be a rough legislative session – the State has to tighten its fiscal belt, but at the same time we need financial help to build a new school.  The way we pay for education has to change – we cannot afford education property tax increases of 25-35%.  The lack of attainable housing continues to dampen our economic growth and population stability while stressing household budgets.  We need to renovate existing housing stock and build new units.  Health care costs continue to skyrocket with insurance premiums going up by 16-20% every year while we still have a shortage of primary care physicians to take care of the state.  More frequent extreme weather events are not only destructive, expensive and stressful, they are forcing Vermont towns to re-think development patterns and building codes.  I’m ready to dive in, to fully evaluate these issues, and make the right decisions for Vermont and for my constituents.  It won’t always be popular or easy, but I will be candid with voters and stakeholders about the options and their impact. 

Of course these are not the only issues facing Vermont, but I believe they are the most important ones to solve in the next two years.  In the next legislative session I will join other legislators to draft legislation for reasonable, sustainable solutions, as well as advocate for the interests of constituents in other areas.   

On the lighter side of things, my son-in law continues to advocate for a new Vermont flag.  It’s not at the top of the priority list (I’ve told him that) but he’s right that Vermont’s flag is not distinctive from a dozen other state flags with the same blue background and state seal in the middle.  And symbols are important.  What would a new Vermont flag look like?  I’ll be exploring this idea in between the more serious discussions in the Capitol.