Cover to Killington Town Report

Cover to Killington Town Report

The snow storm that might have been has gone south of Killington. Unlike the last couple of very sunny days, today Killington is bathed in overcast. It appears that the snow storm threatened by the local weathermen has missed us again; dropping it's load of snow on the south coast of New England, instead of in the mountains.

The Killington Town Report arrived in mail boxes earlier this week. Town Meeting Day is set for Next Tuesday, March 7th. The meetings are held at the Sherburne Elementary School located on School House Road. The festivities begin at 9:00 AM with a School District Meeting, followed at 10:00 AM with the general Town Meeting.

Act 60/68 is assured to continue to drive controversy at the meetings. According to the town report, the total K thru 12 spending will increase 5.2% ($111,439) from a budget of $2,122,013 in 2005/06 to $2,223,452 in 2006/07. Almost all of the spending increase is associated with increased spending in the Middle and High Schools, which are under the control of the "Woodstock Union High School" According to the state formula, Killington will have "134.34 Equalized Pupils" enrolled in K-12 in 2007, down from "139.21", a 3.5% reduction.

The "Education Tax Rate" paid by Killington residents will increase from $1.726 to $2.104, a 21.9% increase. Businesses and second home owners will see an education tax rate increase from $1.6639 to $1.8651, a 12% increase. As you can see from these numbers, the "Education Tax Rate" is basically decoupled from the school budget, even though state officials proclaim that there is "local control". How a 5% spending increase begets a 12% to 21% tax increase is not something that can be easily explained or defended. I know that I follow this stuff pretty closely, as it has a major impact on my business, and I can't figure it out. (For completeness, it should be noted that the municipal Town Tax Rate will also increase from $0.2936 to $0.2944, a 0.27% increase.)