Rep. John Moran

Moran: Property tax payers are ‘overburdened’

On Feb. 21, the Vermont House passed “An Act Relating to the Education Property Tax Rates and Base Education Amount for Fiscal Year 2014,” which I voted against, raising the statewide homestead property tax rate 5 cents and the nonresidential rate 6 cents.

Proponents of the bill argue that they are merely supporting decisions by local school boards to increase budgets. However, rates are based on property-tax contributions to the education fund, and property owners are being overcharged in two ways.

First, programs that do not directly relate to K-12 education have been billed to the fund over the years, thus raising the burden on all property-tax payers.

Second, as about one-third of education funding comes from sources other than property taxes. Such sources include dedicated statewide revenues and general fund transfers. Any shortfalls, such as the outstanding $27 million in the general fund, are picked up by property owners.

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