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).
The cost of municipal services seems almost inconsequential as compared to education costs, but has a different effect on the mind of the average resident. If I give someone a dollar, or even five dollars, I might not care that much about how the money is spent. But, if the same person who asked for five dollars now asks for 10 dollars, then I’m going to be far more interested in why the extra money is needed and how it will be spent.
Many of our mostly volunteer local officials are not equipped with the requisite management skills to live up to the demands of greater accountability, to say nothing of the additional time commitment. Moreover, many local officials chafe at the thought of greater accountability because Vermonters have not traditionally demanded nearly as much transparency as people might want today and may want in the future as 10 dollars become 15, and so on.
There is no reason to believe that the cost trend will abate. For example, the cost of commodities such as road salt is up and down over time, but the long-term trend is decidedly steep in an upward direction. Recent salt prices have been a challenge for both the state and local communities as described in this November 2014 articlein Vermont Today. From 2013 to 2014, the state contract price for salt increased by 40 percent. Local communities have experienced the same impact. Similar trends have occurred with the price of other commodities such as “hard-pack” for the roughly 75 percent of Vermont’s road surfaces. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, crushed stone prices have nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
The increased amount and cost of labor, as well as the frequency of severe weather events only exacerbates the problem with keeping our rural roads in good order. Towns are also buying very expensive equipment these days, whether it’s new highway equipment or fire trucks, each of which can cost well into six figures. Ferrisburgh recently purchased a new fire truck for $397,000 and where I live in Pomfret, the town authorized the purchase of a new pumper for up to $347,000. Barre residents recently approved the expenditure of $800,000 for a new aerial fire truck.
Some of the questions that run through my mind are – What is the future of Vermont’s local town government? Will towns necessarily need to band together to consolidate government services as Royalton, Sharon and Tunbridge are now considering with joint ambulance service? Similar situations already occur with police and fire service, are highway functions next? If so, what does that mean for local select boards that exist only to manage the affairs of a single town? Will the Legislature need to create avenues for the creation of new government forms? If so, how does that affect the Vermont brand and the character of Vermont towns that we have all come to hold dear?
These are not particularly fun questions to entertain, but they are important and we should not shy away from facing them. Our Legislature, and Vermont’s next governor, will have a great many other priorities to consider, but these questions are like staring down the tracks and seeing an oncoming locomotive. That train will be here before we know it. The good news is that many towns already recognize the challenges and are taking the initiative. In the meantime, Montpelier should be thinking about what it needs to do to facilitate the process.