Joint Fiscal Office outlines how Vermont’s statewide education fund, yields and property tax credits work

Julia Richter, an education finance analyst at the Joint Fiscal Office, gave a 40‑minute overview of Vermont’s current education funding system at a Ways & Means Committee tax workshop, focusing on how the statewide Education Fund, property yields and the property tax credit work.

“The whole presentation is focused on the statewide Education Fund,” Richter said, adding that the session did not cover federal education grants but rather statewide dollars administered through Vermont’s statutory formulas.

Richter said school boards set local budgets that voters approve, and the General Assembly sets the statewide yields and rates annually to “fully fund all education expenditures.” She described the funding timeline: school boards prepare budgets in the fall, the Department of Taxes publishes a December 1 letter with preliminary estimates, voters decide local budgets (commonly on Town Meeting Day), the Legislature sets yields in the yields bill during its session, and the Department of Taxes calculates final spending‑adjusted property tax rates by June 30.

Richter said roughly 80% of Education Fund appropriations consist of the aggregated education payments (the sum of districts’ education spending), and that more…