DUMMERSTON — Voters easily passed town and school budgets for fiscal 2015 at Tuesday's annual Town Meeting, but then got bogged down over an article seeking to double the town's contribution to the Farmland Protection Fund.
It was about 10 degrees outside, and the Dummerston School gymnasium was nearly empty when Moderator Cindy Jerome started the meeting at 10 a.m., but the room filled up fast.
First up was the $3,234,642 school budget, which represents a $36,170 increase from this fiscal year, or very close to 1.13 percent.
“Outside influences” are responsible for the increase, said School Board Chair Amy Wall.
By that, she meant things like changes in the state's base rate that puts Dummerston School $300 per pupil over the $16,466 per-student spending “cap,” the equalized pupil number, and the “great equalizer” - the statewide grand list appraisal that tries to level the quality of education for all of Vermont's students.
Even though 65 percent of Dummerston residents qualify for property tax assistance - the “income sensitivity” provision of Acts 60 and 68 - much discussion centered on the high cost of funding education, the wisdom of tying funding to the property tax, and the fact that “maybe six people in the state understand the school funding formula,” according to one resident. She called the formula “a Rubik's Cube of complexity.”
School Board member Dan Normandeau said that Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Business Administrator James Kane has been in his job for 35 years - he is retiring as of this year - and sometimes even he doesn't quite understand the formula.
“I've heard him say more than once that numbers come out of the state that even he doesn't understand,” Normandeau said. “It doesn't need to be that complicated.”
Normandeau told residents to put pressure on elected officials to make changes in the way education is funded in Vermont. And when Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney, arrived at Town Meeting, he told him the same thing.
“I hear what you're going through,” Mrowicki said. “The financing system needs to be tweaked. What worked 10 or 20 years ago is not working now.”
Mrowicki acknowledged that some legislators want to consolidate school boards and unions in a plan called “school governance,” which reportedly is gaining traction. He said the House Education Committee was in “a mad rush to put something out there.”
“They're talking about the towns up north that are their own supervisory union,” Mrowicki said. “They're talking about gathering these together. But that's what we do here already, and we do it well. I haven't seen any data that says it saves money or improves the quality of education.”
Dummerston resident Ruth Barton told Mrowicki that “school governance is a slap in the face to anybody who has ever served in the state of Vermont.” She said it challenged local control of the schools.
“I don't think that anywhere in Vermont, towns will give up their school boards or local control,” Mrowicki said.
When it came time for the town portion of Town Meeting, Dummerston residents moved quickly to approve stashing money away for the purchase of a fire truck in 2017-2018 and to buy a one-ton truck this year. The town budget was $421,088, of which $235,865 will be raised by taxes.
Add to that the highway budget of $479,838, of which $357,838 will be raised by taxes, and $125,000 for the Capital Fund.
There was an additional $15,000 to be raised as Dummerston's share of infrastructure repair.
In terms of taxes, this represents only a $11,303 raise from last year, said Selectboard Chairman Zeke Goodband.
The Farmland Protection Fund brought on the most discussion. The warning had the amount at $2,500, but resident Bill Schmidt asked for a raise to $5,000.
The discussion centered around the need to preserve agricultural land and how that gets weighed against the financial difficulties of town residents - and also whether this is the town's responsibility, or if funds ought to be raised by private donation.
After 90 minutes of vigorous debate, the doubling was defeated by paper ballot, 57 to 44.