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Vermont House passes H.887 to lower projected property tax spike, creates commission to rework education finance
Summary
After hours of debate and multiple floor amendments, the House passed H.887, the annual education 'yield' bill, which lowers this year’s projected homestead tax increase, reinstates an excess‑spending threshold, adds revenue (repeal of cloud‑software exemption and a 1.5% short‑term rental surcharge), and establishes a commission to study long‑term education finance reforms.
The Vermont House passed House Bill 887 on third reading after extended floor debate over revenue choices and cost‑control measures for public education. The bill, a Ways and Means committee product intended to reduce an otherwise much larger rise in homestead property tax rates, combines immediate revenue changes with provisions to stabilize the education fund and a commission to recommend longer‑term reforms.
Representative Kornheiser (member from Brattleboro), speaking for the Committee on Ways and Means, said the bill responds to the December 1 projection from the Department of Taxes and the Joint Fiscal Office that prompted concern across school districts. Kornheiser said education spending pressures — including the end of federal ESSER pandemic funds, rising health‑care and transportation costs, and inflationary increases — would otherwise produce a much larger statewide tax increase. To blunt that effect the bill sets the homestead property tax yield at $9,846 and the dollar yield at…
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