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January 26, 2023
CVSD adopts $96 million spending plan
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School district towns will see tax hikes COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
The Champlain Valley School District adopted its $96 million budget at its last district meeting and has warned a vote for Town Meeting Day. The fiscal year 2024 budget, totaling $96,119,804, amounts to a 7.5 percent increase in expenditures from last fiscal year, driven by several factors including a general increase in health care, salaries, as well as in the district’s special education budget, among other things. “One factor that is certainly affecting this budget is the consumer price index — the last time that I pulled the report was November and it was still at 7.1 percent,” said Gary Marckres, the district’s chief operations officer. “Everything is getting more expensive.” School tax rate increases are included in all the district’s participating towns except for St. George; residents there will see a 1 percent decrease, or a $20 decrease per $100,000 of assessed home value. Both Hinesburg and Charlotte will see a 5 percent increase, or a $79 increase per $100,000 of assessed value, while Shelburne will see a 6 percent increase, resulting in a $101 increase per $100,000 of assessed value. Williston will see a 2 percent increase, or a $37 increase. One of the largest expenditure increases in the budget is for special education, which saw a 12 percent increase from the previous year. The school district has had staffing trouble with its special educators and intensive care educators in recent years. Part of the 12 percent increase includes the hiring of two new special educators at Champlain Valley Union High School. See CVSD on page 12
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Ella, Sonnet, Lucy, Olive and Theo hold up Martin Luther King, Sacagawea, Ruby Bridges and her teacher Barbara Henry. See story on page 2.
Charlotte approves a $3 million budget Spending increases 30 percent, grand list surpasses $1 billlion mark LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
At the Jan. 23 Charlotte Selectboard meeting, members finalized the town’s 2024 budget along with several other articles to be voted on Town Meeting Day on March 7. The selectboard also decided that all the articles be decided by Australian ballot if the governor signs off on the bill that will allow municipalities that option. Voters will be asked to approve a municipal budget of $3,093,908 — a nearly $478,000 increase over last year — along
with two separate articles for the library and the fire and rescue budget. Property taxes will raise $1,500,587 of the total, with $1,593,321 is expected to be raised by non-tax revenues. Some of the highest expenses came from employee benefits, which total $373,069 — a nearly $182,998 increase from last year with health insurance nearly doubling in cost from $127,063 to $233,000. Voters will be asked to allocate $965,806 to Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services — a nearly $75,000 increase from last year — and voters will need to approve a $324,356 library budget,
a nearly $40,000 increase. All three budgets leave residents with an estimated tax rate of $0.2423, which is close to the $0.2422 residents saw this year — meaning residents can expect to pay nearly $242.30 for every $100,000 in property value. Although the tax rate looks the same, because the town has also undergone a townwide reappraisal of property, which is required when the common level of appraisal drops below 85 percent, “there is a potential that the amount that you will pay See CHARLOTTE BUDGET on page 12