Vermont Standard
KILLINGTON — Voters will choose a new Selectman for a
three-year term at Town Meeting day this March.
Incumbent Bernard Rome, will no longer seek office, and
Kenneth Lee is on the ballot to fill that seat. The annual Town Meeting has
been warned for Tuesday March 4 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Town Office to
vote by Australian ballot for elective town officers and on 10 other articles.
Lee has served on the Planning Commission since 2002, and
had been the town’s representative to the Rutland Regional Commission for the
past two years. It is also possible that someone else may be nominated at Town
Meeting to be added to the ballot.
The 2014 town budget calls for an expenditure of $4,103,573,
to be funded by non-property tax revenues of $1,181,804, including an estimated
local option tax of $700,000, estimated federal and state payments of $120,000,
collected penalties and interest of $100,000 and various other state grants,
user fees, and fees for services by the town such as town clerk fees. The
balance — $2,921,769 — would come from property taxes. Unlike last year, when
$523,260 was transferred from undesignated funds to cover flood recovery and
some capital account expenses, no such transfers are proposed this year.
The net result, of the proposed town budget for 2014, is an
increase of the tax rate from 0.2889 to 0.2941, about a half of one percent.
An informational meeting has been scheduled for Monday March
3 at 7 p.m. at the Killington Elementary School.
Any changes of note to Killington’s overall tax rate
(municipal and education) would come from the school budget of $1,579,954 to be
presented to the voters on Monday, March 3 at 4:30 p.m. at the Killington
Elementary School. That budget outlines an increase in spending to be raised of
$28,733, which together with the municipal rate increase of close to
half-a-cent brings the town’s estimated combined homestead tax rate up to
2.0079 from 1.8313 last year.
The new rate would increase residential property taxes by
$353 on a home appraised at $200,000.
The adoption of a July 1 through June 30 fiscal year,
effective for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2015 is one of the more
prominent issues facing Killington’s registered voters this year.
The Selectboard has proposed to change the fiscal period
from a calendar year to a fiscal year starting on July 1, so that voters can
look at a proposed budget before it is implemented. Currently, the General Fund
Statement of Revenues and Receipts is presented to Town Meeting in early March,
and town officials manage a proposed budget for the upcoming year for the
months of January and February that is not formally approved until Town Meeting
day — a situation the Selectboard and Town Manager, Seth Webb want to remedy.
Article 4 asks the voters to approve the issuance of
municipal bonds not to exceed $1.4 million to pay the cost of repairing and
rehabilitating town highways. Funds would be used for major roadway paving
projects for Killington Road and West Hill Roads and gravel road work for
Hadley Hill, Lombard Hill and South View Path. The bonds would also pay for
walkway, bridge and culvert work.
Voters will also be asked to approve the spending of
$169,000 appropriated from property taxes to fund renovations of the current
Teen Center into a town museum that would be operated by the Sherburne
Historians and maintained by the town.
The Town Report has been mailed to the town’s 883 registered
voters and reports will also be available at the Killington Town Office at 2706
River Road in Killington.
Last year, 462 of 910 registered voters cast their ballots.
— George Calve
Comment: What is not mentioned here is Article 11 which would establish a 5 member select board.
Article 11. "Shall the voters elect two additional selectboard members for terms of two years each pursuant to 17 V.S.A. § 2650(b) at the next town meeting."
Notice how it does not mention a 5 member select board. In my estimation the wording is intentionally ambiguous to snare the unaware voter into voting yes without realizing what is being voted for.
This issue has been voted down recently. There is no need for a 5 man select board in our town. Generally towns that have 5 man boards are multiple times larger, with thousands of residents. Usually the rational for a 5 member board is to spread the work load among a greater number of people. In Vermont the basic form of government requires the select board to run the day to day operations of the town. It can however choose to delegate that responsibility to a Town Manager which is what our town has.
There are very few towns with a five man select board and a town manager.
We are a town of about 900 people. How much government do we really need?
I know this article was put in at the behest of one of the current board members. His mantra is "its all in the way you present things" and I agree with him. If you present something as innocuous without revealing its true nature and consequences people are more likely to agree with you. This is the case here.
There is no pressing need for a 5 man select board so why present it for a vote unless you have an underlying agenda which is not readily apparent.
My take on this is that a board saturated with 5 like minded members is harder to turn around than a 3 member board. When the golf course mess and the frivolous 1% tax spending needed to be addressed it took 2 election cycles to elect a board which properly addressed and corrected the problems. If we had a 5 member board it would have taken 3 or more election cycles.
VOTE NO ON ARTICLE 11
When I did the research in 2012, of the 41 towns that had Town Manager form of Government, only 3 had a 3-member board and 38 had a 5-member board.
Of the 28 towns with a Town administrator (not Town Manager form), only 7 have 3-member boards and 21 have 5-member boards.
Of the 237 towns that have Selectboards, only 114 are 3-member boards and 123 are 5-member or more boards (at least 2 have 7-member boards).
We might as well have the accurate information when we make statements.
Using your same logic, 3 towns divided by 237 is 1.3%.
Vito To Chris