Wren Gomes and Ephraim Schramm are students at Saint Michael’s College. This article is published through a collaboration between The Winooski News and a journalism course at Saint Michael’s College.
WINOOSKI — The Onion City passed two updated budgets for fiscal year 2027. Both the city and school budgets come with changes for residents.
City budget
The $11.9 million municipal budget will increase the tax rate by 7.92%, bringing the current rate from $0.7836 to $0.8457. The previous year’s growth rate was 3.16%.
Taxpayers in a median Winooski home can expect to pay around $340.04 in taxes next year, excluding the education fund. Most of this money will go towards salaries and benefits for those working within the city, Mayor Thomas Renner said during this year’s budget presentation.
“We only propose what we think is necessary and needed,” Renner said. “We hope residents who are struggling will understand that we’re trying to provide services that will help the entire community.”
One such service includes an additional, full-time fire captain, which will have the highest budget impact of $138,439.
Renner said that adding this captain will spread out the amount of coverage in the firehouse.
“If (residents) needed to call the fire department, they want somebody to be there when they call,” he said.
Three bond votes passed on March 3, with one funding extensive renovations for the police department and City Hall. The overall cost is $950,000.
The other bond votes address replacing the Cascade Garage elevator and expanding the sidewalk on East Spring Street. The city will move on the process as quickly as possible, according to Renner.
“We deserve nice things in Winooski as well,” he said.
Among other matters, the budget doubles the City Council stipend and increases the liveable wage to $22.50 an hour.
School budget
The Winooski School District budget increased by roughly $1.5 million compared to last year. But spending per student decreased by 2.4%, and homeowners’ education property taxes are estimated to decrease by 1% despite the overall budget increase.
The main driver for this year’s increasing school budget is the rising student enrollment of 7.6%, which brings in more state funding to account for more resources, services, educational support and transportation, according to the Winooski Newsletter in collaboration with the Winooski School District.
Residents may see a school tax decrease because increased state funding will offset the costs.
Ten staff positions will be cut, although they will mainly happen through retirements and voluntary departures.
The district also increased its annual capital spending by $75,000 with the intention to maintain school buildings and avoid more expensive repairs in the future.
The budget also allows for new benefits for students, such as free public transit and expanded leadership opportunities, according to the school district.
Another goal of the school district is to purchase a building on Normand Street, next to the school campus, using $380,000 of last year’s budget surplus to better support students with exceptional needs, rather than having them attend specialized schools outside of the district.
These specialized schools can be costly and limited, as many programs are already at capacity and have waiting lists, according to the School Board Update written by Nicole Mace, a School Board Trustee.
Purchasing the property would support the creation of a specialized program in Winooski, improving services for students with special needs, strengthening their integration within the Winooski community and reducing future costs, according to Mace. The investment would not increase property taxes.