SUNDERLAND, Vt. – The Taconic & Green School Board is pleased to release its Annual Report. The document includes line-by-line details on proposed spending for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2022, answers to frequently asked questions, updates from each of the five operated elementary and middle schools, and projected tax rates the nine communities served by T&G: Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Sunderland, and Weston.
The T&G Board will review the background information during a public Zoom Informational Hearing, hosted by the T&G School Board at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. The final vote by the public on the proposed spending and other warned articles takes place Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Due to the pandemic, registered voters will be sent ballots by mail that must be returned to their designated Town Clerk Office by Election Day.
A hard copy of the T&G Annual Report can be picked up at your Town Hall or the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union. The document also can be requested by contacting the BRSU at 802-362-2452 or by email at info@brsu.org, or regular mail at BRSU, 6378 VT Route 7A, Sunderland, VT 05250. The material also is available online at the BRSU website, www.BRSU.org. T&G is one of three school districts in the BRSU.
The annual report shows T&G’s proposed education spending will decrease by 0.7% to $33,248,629 for FY22. To calculate the education tax rate, this level of spending goes into a state of Vermont formula that factors in the number of T&G’s equalized pupils, the projected state property yield, and the final year of the Act 46 tax incentive.
The resulting Homestead Equalized FY22 Tax Rate for the T&G School District is $1.547, which is 5.6 cents lower than the previous year. This tax rate is then adjusted one last time by each town’s Common Level of Appraisal to balance the market value with local property appraisals. The one exception to the $1.547 T&G Equalized Tax Rate is Sunderland, which at $1.216 remains protected by an Act 46 provision that limits increases or decreases to 5%. The limitation protection for Sunderland expires at the end of FY22. The step-by-step process for calculating each community’s final education tax rate for FY22 shown in the Annual Report.
“Setting an overall budget and computing the final education tax rate for each of our nine towns is never an easy assignment,” says T&G Board Chair Herb Ogden, “And it’s only been complicated this year by the uncertainties created by the pandemic. I’m pleased that this Annual Report is based on the latest information available to make sure the taxpayers are well equipped to make an informed decision on their vote. We ask for their support.”