Democrats should clean up mess they made

Vermonters worried we are about to be taxed out of our homes come July are now being told not to expect any sort of relief for at least three years while they study the issue. News flash: we can’t afford the bill this year. Fix your mess now.

Vermont’s current property tax explosion crisis is driven by the fact that we spend more money per public school student that almost every other state in the Union by a long shot. After this year’s spending spree, we might just be number one. The official weighted student average is $23,299, but if you divide the total $2.5 billion education budget by the 80,000 preK-12 kids in the system the number is over $30,000.

This latest $200 million budget gap that is the reason for the 20 percent year-over-year average property tax increase is primarily the result of over spending on:

• The $30 million unfunded mandate to expand the free and reduced meals program for low-income students to universally include free food for the wealthiest kids as well. Yeah, that was dumb and unnecessary.

• Poor financial planning that irresponsibly used one-time COVID-19 emergency money for ongoing expenditures. Yeah, that was dumb and avoidable.

• Jacking up per-pupil spending with a new weighing system (Act 127). That was just a power-money play to pay off the teachers’ union at the expense of the taxpayer. Repeal it today.

• Salaries and benefits resulting from the overstaffing of a system — Vermont has the highest staff to student ratio in the country; more than twice the national average — that has lost roughly 25 percent of its students over the past two decades. Simple bureaucratic bloat.

And general inflation. Thanks, Joe Biden.

What’s the solution? Here’s my proposal:

First, short term, cap individuals’ property tax increases to a level no greater than inflation, currently 3.5 percent. If what that generates, plus the other revenue streams to the education fund, doesn’t cover the cost of school budgets, the delta should be made up through cuts to other programs — unfunded education mandates such as the $30 million free meals programs or cuts to general fund programs with the revenue shifted to education. I’d suggest starting with all those programs that use taxpayer dollars to subsidize electric vehicle purchases, solar panel installations, etc. Those are luxury programs, not basic government services.

Second, no new taxes. We are taxed enough already and taking even more of our money — just out of different pockets as the Democrats are doing — is not tax relief. It’s making the mess that much bigger.

Then, long term, restructure the system to first establish an education budget amount and a tax rate Vermonters can afford, and then figure out how to spend that amount in the most efficient and cost-effective way to achieve superior student outcomes. Every other state in the Union except one has figured this out how to spend less on education than we do, and a lot of them are getting better student outcomes to boot.

Every independent school in Vermont operates this way, and they get better results for less money. How about we learn from them instead of trying to shut them down.

A big reason we are in this mess is because our lawmakers created a public education financing system where we throw everything the special interests say they want into the shopping cart, and then tell the taxpayers to pay for whatever the cash register rings up. This dynamic must end. Unfortunately, it is the dynamic that Democrats in Montpelier, under the influence of the Vermont NEA and superintendents’ and principals’ associations are doubling down on.

The multi-year study process they are opting for in lieu of meaningful reform is not being set up to control costs and provide property tax relief. It is going to “figure out the policy, vision and the system of where we are going and then how do we fund it.”

That’s no different from what we are doing now. It’s the problem. It’s the reason for the mess. Clean it up.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics, including three years as Vermont Republican Party chair and nine years as president of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.