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H.397 amendment includes one‑time education fund transfers to Barre and Milton for TIF overpayments
Summary
The committee reviewed language directing one‑time transfers from the Education Fund to compensate two municipalities for past education property tax overpayments tied to insufficient retention of tax increment from their tax increment financing (TIF) districts: $437,028 to the city of Barre and $184,451 to the town of Milton.
May 8, 2025 — The H.397 amendment draft reviewed by the Senate Government Operations Committee includes specific, one‑time transfers from the Education Fund to compensate two municipalities for past education property tax overpayments tied to their tax increment financing (TIF) districts.
The amendment text, read aloud to the committee, directs the following transfers: $437,028 from the Education Fund to the city of Barre, to be paid no later than fiscal year 2026, to compensate for overpayments of education property taxes in fiscal years 2016 through 2020 due to insufficient retention of tax increment; and $184,451 from the Education Fund to the town of Milton for overpayments of education property taxes in fiscal years 2017 through 2023.
Committee members asked who first identified the overpayments. Samantha Sheehan, identified herself as representing the League of Cities and Towns and said the towns had conferred with the auditor and that the auditor subsequently audited and confirmed the overpayments. She said the issue was brought to the legislature by the senators who represent the affected communities.
A committee member noted the language was added at the request of senators from the affected communities and that the transfers were being included because the municipalities had no vehicle to recover the funds otherwise.
No committee vote on the transfers is recorded in the transcript excerpt.
