House Appropriations hears JFO outline of foundation formula, property tax and homestead exemption in education transformation bill

MONTPELIER — On April 7, 2025, the House Appropriations Committee heard Joint Fiscal Office staff describe the education funding provisions of the education transformation bill (H-454), including a proposed foundation formula that would deliver a state “educational opportunity payment” (EOP) to each district, revisions to pupil weights, changes to how property taxes are classified and collected, and a replacement of the current property tax credit with an income-based homestead property tax exemption.

Julia Richter, Joint Fiscal Office analyst, told the committee the EOP “would be calculated by multiplying a base amount that would be in statute and increased by inflation by a district’s pupil count adjusted for certain pupil circumstances, [pupil] weight.” The base amount included in the draft discussed by Ways and Means last week is $15,033, Richter said.

The bill would apply weights to pupils for economically disadvantaged students, English learners and a new special education weighting based on the cost of disabilities; those weights would determine funding under the EOP. Richter said the proposal would repeal current-law tax-capacity pupil weights and replace them with weights that directly affect funding. She also said Professor Colby’s modeling — used by drafters — did not support grade-level weights, so the draft excludes higher weights for particular grades.

The draft would also keep…