Town and School Budgets Finalized
By Nancy Wood,
January 26, 2012, page 4.....

The Charlotte Selectboard, CVU School Board and CCS School Board all finalized their budgets for Fiscal Year 2013 during meetings this week. Even with belt tightening at the schools, taxpayers can expect modest increases in education tax rates next year. Partially offsetting that will be a substantial reduction in the tax rate for the town. The school budgets will be voted by Australian ballot on Town Meeting day, March 6, and the Selectboard budget will be debated and voted from the floor at Town Meeting.

Selectboard Budget
At the January 23 meeting, the Selectboard approved expenditures of $2,820,412 for FY2013, an increase of 4% ($119,992) over prior year. In addition, they are asking the voters for approval of construction of a sidewalk on Ferry Road at a cost not to exceed $77,000. With the sidewalk, the projected tax rate for town services would be $0.1349, which is 3 cents (18%) less than the current year. Tax exemptions for the Grange Hall and veterans (approved in prior years) and for the Charlotte Volunteer Fire & Rescue Services (CVFRS) property and the Friendship Lodge Road (if approved this year) would add a small fraction of a cent to this rate.
Increased revenues and an anticipated surplus account for the significant decrease in the tax rate. Revenues are projected to be 21% higher ($221,769) in FY13 than were projected for current year. The current year actual revenues are expected to be $245,000 higher than projected. In both cases, the increase is primarily due to an approximately 50% increase in rents for the leased lots at Thompson’s Point. The increase goes into effect now, creating the surplus in this fiscal year. The Selectboard intends to carry over the surplus to next year to reduce the tax rate.
The budget proposal includes special funds of $60,000 for repairs and maintenance of town buildings, $180,000 for the Fire and Rescue Capital Fund (towards a new ambulance two years from now), $30,000 for Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $0 for the Conservation Fund and $5,000 for the Trails Fund.
New in the budget are detailed line items for CVFRS. The fire and rescue budget is level funded with last year, but the Selectboard has authorized, and the members of CVFRS have approved, a change in how the town-funded portions of fire and rescue services are paid. Starting February 1, Town Treasurer Mary Mead will manage the funds, using the town accounting systems for paying the CVFRS bills

Selectboard Warning for Town Meeting
The articles approved by the board for the Town Meeting Warning include $77,000 for a sidewalk on the north side of Ferry Road between the Old Brick Store and the Little Garden Market (with crosswalks at the Post Office and library), property tax exemptions for the fire station and the Friendship Lodge on Church Hill Road, an article to hear the report of the West Charlotte Wastewater Committee, an advisory motion for the Selectboard to explore creation of a capital budget and the creation of a capital project reserve fund, and finally, an article favoring a United States constitutional amendment that provides that money is not political speech and corporations are not persons.
On the sidewalk issue, the board had changed its earlier position. Responding to forceful arguments by David Miskell, Robin Reid, Robert Mack and others at the January 17 meeting, the Selectboard removed a line item for a sidewalk from the highway budget and placed it as a separate article in the Warning to be debate and voted from the floor. Reid said it is more than a budget issue; she expressed concern that building sidewalks in the Village would be another step away from being a rural community to suburbanization of Charlotte. She and others indicated that there was a perception that the Selectboard was avoiding public discussion by putting sidewalks in the budget, and requested that there be a separate article so voters will know specifically when it would be debated. The Selectboard argued that even as part of the budget, the sidewalk issue could be debated at length, and the voters – through the amendment process – would have ample opportunity to remove it from the budget.
There was also a request to have it voted by Australian ballot, but the Selectboard indicated that Charlotte doesn’t usually put items of this type on the ballot. It would preclude discussion and amendment during Town Meeting.
Members of the Sidewalk Committee have indicated that they will be ready to provide information during the discussion at Town Meeting and to answer questions that are raised.
Other business at the January 23 Selectboard meeting
Gas pipeline: The town has been invited by Vermont Gas to participate in a series of meetings about the proposed natural gas pipeline from the Burlington area south to Addison County. Two of the 11 routes being studied go through Charlotte: one along Route 7 and the other along the VELCO right of way. Jenny Cole was appointed to represent the town at the meetings. Vermont Gas expects to begin a public process in March.
Ambulance update: Chair Charles Russell reported that a new engine is being put into the 2006 ambulance. The cause of its problems may have been the mangled bit of metal found lodged in a piston. The old engine is no longer under warranty, so it isn’t clear yet who will pay the $15,000 to $18,000 cost to replace it.
Fritz Tegatz was interviewed and appointed to the Conservation Commission. Tegatz said he moved to Vermont because he was impressed with the common sense approach to environmental regulation here, compared to the Los Angeles area of California where he used to live.
Sarah Shays’ application for a Highway Access permit was granted.

CVU School Board Budget
by Lorna Jimerson, Charlotte Representative

The CVU Board finalized the 2012-2013 budget proposal for the high school at its January 23 meeting and public hearing.
The board is proposing an operating budget of $21,425,188. This is an increase of 1.5% over last year’s approved budget. To partially offset the resulting taxes, the board is allocating $100,000 of its fund balance and $155,000 from the federal Education Jobs grant. (This is the second half of grant money from this source.)
The proposed budget makes cuts and other adjustments of over $500,000 from the “baseline” budget. (The baseline budget is the total of costs of continuing all programs and maintaining all staff that currently exist.) To accomplish this, the board needed to reduce or eliminate some programs, which, of course, result in reduced time for some staff.
CVU spending per “equalized pupil” will be $12,804 next year. (This year, it is $12,125.) Part of this increase is due to an anticipated drop of enrollment.

CCS School Board Budget
by Nancy Wood and Rowan Beck
(Updated January 26, 2012)

The final FY13 budget meeting and public hearing for Charlotte Central School was Tuesday night, January 24.

After presenting the budget and listening to comments by the public, the board passed a proposed budget of $6,945,915, which is a 3.05% increase over the current year. However, revenues are also expected to increase, so the expected net education spending is $6,057,722, an increase of less than one percent over current year. The estimated homestead education tax rate would be $0.9361, an increase of 2.08% over current year.

CCS Proposed Budget $ 6,945,915(3.05%)
Less CCS Revenues $888,193 (22.84%)
Net Education Spending $ 6,057,722 (0.66%)

# of Equalized Pupils 432.48 (-1.5%)
Spending/Eq. Pupil $14,006 (2.08%)

Only a handful of Charlotte residents turned out for the hearing. Mike Krasnow reiterated his request for a commitment to reduced fees for the adult co-ed intergenerational basketball pick-up basketball program that meets at the school twice each week.

Before the vote, School Board Chair Lynne Jaunich stated that she was “not opposed to the increase as long as it could be justified, flag programs that are not aiding in the best possible outcome for our students. It has to be all about the kids. I don’t want to do things just because they have always been done that way.” Edorah Frazer agreed, saying, “Let’s question the status quo; it can only bring good things.”

Clyde Baldwin was the only board member who voted against the proposed budget. In earlier meetings he had spoken out about programming cuts affecting the students. The proposed budget eliminates 1.0 classroom teacher, .2 guidance counselor, .2 Spanish teacher, .15 Art teacher and .1 physical education teacher. There are also savings expected associated with upcoming retirements.

Prior to discussion and the board’s vote, Jaunich gave a brief overview of the past four months of the budget process. One of her key points was that five factors are drivers of the education property tax. The school budget is one of the factors; the others are the CLA (common level of appraisal), the state education tax rates, the base education amount and enrollment.

The CLA is the state’s estimate of how close a town’s property appraisals are to actual fair market value. This year’s CLA for Charlotte has been set at 1.0137, which indicates that Charlotte’s appraisals, in the aggregate, are assessed at 101.37% of fair market value. The CLA is multiplied by the statewide homestead tax rate to arrive at a base rate for Charlotte residential property taxes.

The statewide education tax rates have not been officially set by the Legislature for this year, but the homestead rate is expected to be $0.89 (a 2 cent increase over the current year rate). This rate would provide an estimated base education amount of $8,723 per student to the school, an increase of 2.09% over current year. (Again, not yet set by the Legislature.) However, since the projected spending per equalized pupil for FY13 is $14,006, the base tax rate would be increased proportionately, bringing it up to the projected $0.9361 for CCS. Similar calculations are used to arrive at the tax rate for CVU, a portion of which is paid by Charlotte taxpayers.

Enrollment is the fifth driver of the tax rate. Current enrollment at CCS is 451 students, which is projected to decrease to 442 next year. This includes 20 students in the EEE (Essential Early Education) preschool program. The equalized student count (432.48) used to calculate the tax rate is arrived at by a formula that takes the EEE students into account.

CCS has experienced a steady decrease in enrollment over the last decade. In 2000, there were more than 540 students at the school. The board displayed a chart at the meeting that shows a continuing decline to 400 in 2016.