Town Meeting Day in Vermont is over and the results show most communities passed school budget and financial bonds.
Preliminary results show that voters across the state passed proposed school budgets with two districts rejecting fiscal plans. Middlebury College Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson says a couple of factors led to the acceptance of the budgets.
“There is a sense that, number one, a lot of school districts worked hard to contain costs this year. And then I think number two is that the state legislature is working hard on education reform and property tax reform perhaps. So I think a lot of voters are adopting a wait and see attitude about how that will all turn out,” mused Johnson. “It’s hard to say what the bigger factor was but I do think there is this combination of things that is showing the voters that their elected officials are paying attention to what they said last year when they rejected a number of those budgets.”
Voters in 29 towns, including Burlington, Middlebury, Rutland City and St. Johnsbury were asked to approve capital bonds for projects such as water and wastewater infrastructure improvements. Again, Johnson.
“What is notable is not just that those infrastructure bonds passed, it’s that they largely passed by overwhelming margins. That was true in Burlington. It was true in Middlebury. It was true in St. Albans where they approved a $4 million bond. Voters are overwhelmingly understanding that there needs to be some upgrades to water infrastructure both because of aging infrastructure and in light of the flooding that we’ve had that has caused a lot of trouble in the last couple of years. So I think they’re recognizing that this is going to be an expense, but it’s an investment that the state needs to make,” Johnson said.
In Vermont’s largest city four of 12 city council seats were up for election. The incumbents in the Central District, Progressive Melo Grant and North District Democrat Mark Barlow, ran unopposed and were reelected. Democrats won in the East and South Districts.
Vermont Progressive Party Director Josh Wronski notes that means the council will retain its status quo.
“We had three candidates running. One was unopposed: Melo Grant. So we’re excited that she won her reelection. And then there were two Democratic seats that were opening. One was in the South District. That’s a district that we’ve never won in the entire history of our party existing. And then in the East District it’s kind of the battleground and there was over a 40 percent drop from last year in the number of people who voted. And this cycle we lost that district by about 100 votes, which given the turnout that was not surprising,” Wronski explained.
Burlington Democratic City Chair Andy Vota said housing, affordability, public safety and climate were the key issues in Burlington’s election.
“We have some big challenges in front of us in Burlington. We’re in a housing crisis. Our police department needs to continue to be rebuilt along with other related services to make sure that we can achieve the goals of a comprehensive approach to public safety. And I think that they need to hit the ground running to continue working on these important issues,” Vota said. “And we’re really looking forward to continuing to make progress on these issues and continuing to work in partnership with the mayor and the rest of the council.”
In Burlington’s South District Democrat Buddy Singh won over Progressive Jen Monroe Zakaras 73 to 26 percent. In the East District Democrat Allie Schachter won with 53 percent of the vote over Progressive Kathy Olwell’s 46 percent.
Burlington’s school budget and all the city’s bond and charter questions passed.
In Rutland’s mayoral race, incumbent Mark Doenges defeated alderman Henry Heck.
