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South Burlington residents faced contentious budget questions on the ballot this Town Meeting Day, and voters at the polls Tuesday seemed eager to exercise their right to weigh in.
Couple Wayne Senville and Lila Shapero, who have been Vermonters since 1988 and South Burlington residents for just over 2 years, view casting their ballots as a civic duty. “My responsibility as a citizen is to make sure that my voice is heard,” said Shapero.
“If people are going to be representative of the population, then you really need to have everyone participating,” she said. “Since it’s Town Meeting day, (it’s) our chance to really weigh on what’s happening tax wise, what’s happening in terms of the school budget and any other items that are on there that are money related.”
Those money-related issues were some of the most notable ballot items for voters, especially budgeting and bond allotments. This year, the city is proposing a budget of almost $65 million, with roughly $21 million of it raised through property taxes. Also on the ballot is a proposed South Burlington School District budget of roughly $71 million . And officials with the Champlain Water District are asking voters to consider financing a new water storage tank and other upgrades via bonds and leftover bond proceeds.
Like Senville and Shapero, longtime South Burlington homeowner Nectar Rorris said he feels a “duty to vote” but expressed frustration with budget increases and spending. “Everything goes up for no reason,” he said.
“The big guys spend more and more,” he said. “It makes it tough.”
Rorris had a few other gripes with Town Meeting Day, such as his belief that elected officials should have shorter stays in office, around one or two terms. The city should get some “new blood in there,” he said.
Another voter, who declined to give his name, had similar complaints and thinks Vermonters should stop reelecting the same people. He said he voted no on every bond proposal.
Former local school board member Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who is running uncontested for a South Burlington City Council seat, was a little more enthusiastic about local government. She said she first got involved once her two kids were enrolled in the South Burlington school system before running for a school board seat in 2004, which she held for 15 years.
Most folks funneling in and out of the polls Tuesday declined interviews with reporters. Not so for Phil George, city resident and founder of the Leonardo’s Pizza chain. The 83-year-old had a short yet sweet explanation as to why he chooses to stay mostly out of city politics these days, except for annual meetings: “I don’t like to stay too committed. I’d rather ride my Harley.”