Camryn Brauns and Jacob Miller-Arsenault reported this story on assignment from Shelburne News. The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.
Voters packed the gymnasium at the Shelburne town center on a crisp, sunny Town Meeting Day morning that felt more like mid-April than early March. The basketball court was strewn with booths and tables as people of all ages rushed back and forth to decide on a myriad of issues — chief among them, budgets.
With property taxes increasing across Vermont, town and school budgets are becoming an even more contentious source of debate.
“In general, Vermont has become less and less affordable. Property taxes have been rising so significantly compared to salaries,” said Erin Fischer, a paralegal who’s lived in Shelburne for over 10 years. “There need to be more sustainable sources of income.”
Fischer and her husband recently purchased their second home in the area, and the couple had cause for concern for the tax hikes.
Allyson Myers, a 52-year-old marketing director at Lake Champlain Chocolates and Shelburne homeowner since 1995, added that rising taxes are part of what contributes to affordable housing challenges.
“In part, (housing is) not affordable because of the taxes we have to pay because of the services we have,” she said.
Elissa Schuett, a 44-year-old researcher who has two elementary school children, argued for the school budget increase, citing the importance of providing schools with resources.
“I’m not going to say no to kids and the demands of the school and what teachers need to teach,” she said.
Katie Kennedy, a 59-year-old clinical psychologist who has lived in Vermont for 29 years, said she always votes to support the school budget.
“If we don’t have a good school budget, we aren’t going to be able to do the most important thing, which is to educate children,” she said.
Tim Keefe, a 60-year-old certified public accountant who has lived in Shelburne for 14 years, blamed legislators for the school tax rate problem.
“They kicked the can down the road, and now we are dealing with it,” he said. Keefe said Shelburne residents don’t currently make enough money to fund such an extensive school budget.
He added that a 21% property tax increase in Shelburne is unrealistic for the average resident. “Anyone getting raises is in single digits, not double digits,” he said.
Alicia Simmons, a 47-year-old mother of three kids in the Shelburne school system, said that residents “can’t continue to see such huge increases,” referring to the school budget.
One 84-year-old resident named Lewis, who refused to provide his last name, left the gymnasium with a few curt comments. “Property taxes are killing us,” Lewis said, adding that he and his wife have had to pay more in total property taxes than their home mortgage.
“At (our) age, it is hard to start over,” he said later.
Although Shelburne residents were divided on budget issues this Town Meeting Day, they still value their civic duty.
For 62-year-old Wallace Robinson, a social worker for the Howard Center, voting isn’t merely a choice — it’s an obligation. “I love the opportunity to vote,” he said.
Resident Holly Merrill, who works for a mortgage company, was more explicit.
“You can’t bitch if you don’t vote,” she said.