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Committee pauses after debate over Ways and Means amendment that would split Stowe's extra local-option tax 50/50
Summary
A House Ways and Means amendment would let municipalities assess an extra 1% local-option tax and, for Stowe, direct half of that additional percent to a new municipal transportation special fund and half to the town; sponsor and members debated voter expectations and whether to take a straw poll; discussion was paused for floor business.
The Government Operations & Military Affairs committee took up a House Ways and Means amendment that would affect Stowe's charter and change how an extra local‑option tax is distributed.
Tim Devlin summarized the amendment, saying the change would allow municipalities to assess additional local‑option taxes and that the first 1% would remain governed by existing law (the usual 25% to the state and 75% returned to the town), while the newly proposed second 1% would be split 50/50 between the town and a new local option municipal transportation special fund. "Any local option tax collected in excess of 1% 50% shall be paid to the local option municipal transportation special fund ... and 50% shall be paid to the town," Devlin read.
Committee members asked for detail about how the special fund would work. A committee speaker who described the Joint Fiscal Office's (JFO) view said the fund would hold the revenues and allow the legislature each year to appropriate funds through existing programs administered by VTrans — primarily Town Highway Aid and existing grant programs for town highway structures and Class 2 roadways. The speaker said routing the funds through a separate special fund would avoid subjecting that money to statutory inflators that apply to existing programs.
Jed Lipsky (Speaker 8), who identified himself as the bill sponsor, acknowledged some constituents might not have expected the revenue split and noted turnout was low in Stowe (he cited 19%). "I was slightly forewarned about it ... I feel that all citizens on deck, we are to get 50%," Lipsky said, framing the change as a statewide effort to address transportation needs.
Rep. Coffin (Speaker 9) expressed opposition to raising the local rate at all and said the amendment made Stowe an outlier. "I wasn't no this morning because of the extra 1%, because it would make Stowe an outlier and then could possibly lead to the entire state ending up at 8%, making us a higher tax state again," Coffin said, urging caution.
Members also discussed committee procedure — whether a straw poll on the Ways and Means appended amendment would bind votes on the underlying bill as amended — and several members said abstention remained an option. The chair paused committee business to allow members to return to floor votes and said the committee would reconvene to finalize a position.
No formal committee vote on the amendment was recorded at the paused session.
