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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the MARCH 7, 2024
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VOLUME 48, NO. 10
Smith, Scanlan, Fitzgerald, win seats at table COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Mike Scanlan, Laurie Smith and Elizabeth Fitzgerald were elected to the three open seats on the South Burlington City Council Tuesday night, according to official results, capping what has been a competitive race for the five-member body. Smith, a planning commissioner and Queen City Park resident, bested his opponent, Linda Bailey, by about 450 votes. Smith had 2,405 votes to Bailey’s 1,952. Smith was endorsed by much of the city council, including his new colleagues, Andrew Chalnick and Tim Barritt. A Vermont resident for nearly 50 years, Smith campaigned on his experience working in municipal government, including as a member of Shelburne’s Development Review Board, an auditor for a South Burlington Fire District and as a current member of the city’s planning commission. “Now the hard work begins,” Smith said. “The city council has a tremendous amount of work to do as we address the many concerns that are facing us in these challenging times. Balancing growth, environmental protections, housing, the pressures on our school system and more will require collaboration and careful consideration if we hope to find a sustainable path forward. I will work to ensure that we remain focused on containing costs and minimizing tax increases as we plan for a vibrant, resilient future.”
A voter checks in at the polling place Tuesday afternoon in South Burlington for Town Meeting Day. Voters shot down the school budget, narrowly passed the city’s municipal spending plan, and elected three new city councilors.
See CITY COUNCIL on page 11
See SCHOOL BUDGET on page 11
PHOTO BY STEPHANIE MANNING
Voters shoot down school budget LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
In a 2,856 to 2,072 vote, South Burlington residents shot down the district’s proposed $71 million budget — a blow to school board members and officials now faced with potentially deep cuts to spending in what has already been a historically turbulent year for school budgets across the board. The district’s second vote, which asked residents to allocate nearly $2.27 million in
surplus from fiscal year 2022 to the district’s capital reserve fund, passed 2,798 to 1,111. “This has been a truly unprecedented year for school budgets with the passage of H.850, repealing the 5 percent cap of Act 127 occurring so close to Town Meeting Day. Accompanied by the drop in the common level of appraisal and a 23.25 percent tax rate increase, the budget has not passed,” said school district superintendent Violet Nichols. “As we are now in a position to revise our budget, the changes implemented by the state with
H.850 allow us to make alterations that are not as significant as originally projected but the budget will need to be reduced.” The board will evaluate options and introduce revote options to the community during a board meeting on Wednesday, March 6, she said. The $71 million budget represented a nearly 14 percent increase in spending over last year that, in an eleventh-hour shift by
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