Joint Ways and Means–Senate Finance hearing lays out how Vermont’s Education Fund and property taxes work

At a joint hearing of the Vermont House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, Julia Richter of the Joint Fiscal Office gave a primer on how the statewide Education Fund is financed and how education-related property tax rates are set.

Richter said the statewide Education Fund pays the bulk of public education costs and that the single largest appropriation line is the aggregated “education payment” — the sum of districts’ education spending. She summarized that education payment accounts for roughly 80 percent of Education Fund appropriations and that personnel costs are the largest component of that spending.

The presentation explained the two broad revenue buckets that fund the Education Fund: nonproperty revenues (including the state sales and use tax, a portion of the meals and rooms tax, a portion of purchase and use tax, lottery proceeds and other dedicated receipts) and property-tax revenues. “For the record, I am Julia Richter with the Joint Fiscal Office. I work on education finance,” Richter told lawmakers before outlining the mechanics.

Richter reviewed the…