Originally published on Vermont Digger in August 2015
Education spending generally receives the lion’s share of attention when it comes to the expenditure of local tax dollars. The obvious reason is that education spending has a far greater impact on property taxes. But, when it comes to the future of Vermont town government, it’s the cost of non-school line items that will drive the shape of local government in the years to come.
New England’s form of town government, and Vermont’s particular brand of it, will face challenges that very few in Montpelier and beyond are thinking about at this moment. Yet now is the time to think about them though the actions necessary to address the challenges are far from clear.
The crux of the challenges facing local town governments is this – the demand for greater accountability will naturally increase as town governments spend more on essential town functions and services (we see a similar situation with education spending, but because of the unique importance of education, it feels like a totally different conversation). Continue reading “Municipal Budgets will Drive the Future of Town Government”