SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – On Monday, June 17, the board of the Springfield School District made the decision to use the $800,000 the community approved to go into the tax stabilization reserve, to reduce the 2024-2025 tax burden on Springfield property taxpayers.
Increasing the local revenue in the fiscal year 2025 budget with this interfund transfer of $800,000 from the tax stabilization reserve to the general fund reduces the estimated actual homestead tax rate by $0.0405 (four cents), which reduces the estimated tax increase from 8.56% to 5.77%. This is far less than the 18%, 20%, or 25% being anticipated by Montpelier. The transfer also reduces the estimated tax increase on a homestead with a $100,000 assessed value from $124.20 per year to $83.73 per year, or about 23 cents per day.
Although the state legislature overrode the governor’s veto of H.887, known as the yield bill, that largely sets the state’s educational tax rates, there is still some uncertainty as to what the final tax bills will be for local primary property taxpayers.
To aid income-sensitized payers in a tax credit that lags one year, Section 2(4)(A) of the bill adds a one-time additional tax credit for income-sensitized payers for the 2024-2025 tax year.
The bill also adds new sources of revenue for the Education Fund by repealing the cloud tax suspension, and imposing a new surcharge for short-term rentals of 3%.
Based on information the board has been made aware of, they chose to use the entire $800,000 reserved earlier by the electorate to lower anticipated local property taxes.
The Board is committed to working with the community to keep Springfield’s tax obligation stable, while navigating an ever-changing political landscape and implementing a first-class modern education for our students.
The board has instructed administration to begin work on the fiscal year 2026 budget as soon as possible, and reach out to the community in an attempt to constitute the budget review committee immediately, in order to keep the community engaged in the budget development process.
If anyone is interested in serving on the budget review committee, please complete an application form that is found in the “News” section on the main page of the district website, www.ssdvt.org.
For more information, contact Sherri Nichols, superintendent, at 802-885-5109 or snichols@ssdvt.org; or Troy Palmer, board chair , at 802-885-7805 or tpalmer@ssdvt.org.