Citizen Portal
Sign In

Senator from Chittenden previews two-year cap on education spending growth amid Act 73 overhaul

Senate · January 7, 2026

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The senator from Chittenden reviewed Act 73 and previewed a bill to impose a two-year curve limiting growth in education spending, arguing the current practice of 'buying down' property-tax-driven school budgets is unsustainable and shifts over $2 billion in costs onto the general fund.

The senator from Chittenden delivered a floor statement urging colleagues to contain the rapid growth in education spending and previewed legislation to cap that growth for two years. He framed the measure as an interim step while committees work on longer-term changes to Act 73 and district mapping.

The senator said the state has been "buying down the rate" — using general-fund resources to lower property tax rates set by local school district budgets — and called that practice "ungodly expensive." He cited a recent five-year rise of roughly 40 percent in education costs and said the state now spends about $2,000,000,000 a year to educate about 79,000 students. "We are headed in an upward direction that is completely unsustainable," he said.

The senator previewed a bill to be filed that "will place a 2 year limit 2 year curve on the growth in education spending." He told members the bill will go to the Finance Committee for fiscal parameters and the Education Committee for policy; he invited committee-driven adjustments on duration and numeric targets and described the bill as "a starter for the conversation." The senator emphasized that he supports public schools and does not want to "impoverish the rest of government" by shifting costs away from other services such as mental health, housing and roads.

He reviewed the background of Act 73, explaining it started as a foundation formula and included an expectation of district mapping and consolidation to make the formula uniform across the state; he said that mapping work is on a longer timeline and that interim containment is therefore necessary. He also noted healthcare cost spikes as a driver of school budget growth.

Next steps: the senator said the measure will be filed this week and referred to Finance; members should expect more material and outreach via committee processes and inbox communications as the bill is considered.