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Senate education committee hears how 'excess spending' threshold can double‑count district spending and raise homestead tax rates
Summary
The Joint Fiscal Office director explained Jan. 28 how Vermont’s excess spending adjustment works: amounts a district spends per weighted pupil above an annually calculated threshold are counted twice when setting homestead property tax rates, with only limited exemptions for pre‑July 1, 2024 voter‑approved bonds. The committee asked for district‑level lists and data.
The Senate Education Committee on Jan. 28 heard a step‑by‑step explanation from the director of the Joint Fiscal Office of how Vermont’s excess spending adjustment affects homestead property tax rates.
The presenter, identified in committee as the director of the Joint Fiscal Office, told members the excess spending adjustment makes “a double tax on the amount that a school district spends per weighted pupil above the excess spending threshold.” She said the FY27 threshold is calculated by taking the average per‑weighted‑pupil spending in FY25, indexing it for inflation using the NIPA index for two years, and multiplying that result by 118 percent; the director stated the numeric threshold used in discussion was 16,470.
Why it matters: the adjustment is applied by adding any per‑pupil amount above the threshold back into the numerator used to set the…
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