Burlington mayor to pitch 'public safety tax' hike to city council

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – The Burlington City Council Monday is wading into which ballot items should go before voters on Town Meeting Day next month, including a proposed tax increase the mayor says is needed to fund public safety improvements.

Councilors are weighing whether to put a 3-cent tax increase for public safety on the Town Meeting Day ballot to help plug a $9 million budget shortfall.

It would mean an increase of $150 per year for a home valued at $500,000. That’s in addition to an increase of more than $1,000 for the same-priced home for the school budget. To keep the tax increase to three cents, the mayor is proposing doubling the gross receipts tax on hotels from two to four percent along with cutting $3 million from the city budget.

“We need to own this together and we need to look at a time where a lot of the federal ARPA funding is starting to wear off. And as in business, government sometimes needs to tighten the belt as well. We are not happy to just kind of fall on our visitors to take care of a shortfall,” said Hans van Wees with Hotel Vermont in Burlington. He says the proposed tax will potentially create competitive disadvantages for businesses — and along with ongoing public safety issues — deter people from staying downtown. He points to the fact the General Fund has expanded from $78 million in 2021 to $101 million. “That is a huge increase. So, to have to grow again — and then dealing with a large shortfall — to have that fall on for large part on visitors, I think it’s kind of saying we don’t care about them.”

Councilor Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, says it’s important to put a tax increase on the ballot that will pass. He says he would be in favor of leaning on hotels a little more. “If there was a way for us to lean on those items a little bit more than having to go to property owners to increase their taxes, I would be open to considering that. But for the most part, I think the mayor has done a great job to put forward a fiscally responsible budget and will ultimately be supporting some increase our public safety tax,” he said.

The majority of councilors say they would support the measure going on the ballot.

Another contentious proposed ballot item would give the council the authority to further expand the type of fossil fuels that could be subject to the existing carbon pollution impact fee which went into effect in January. This is expected to be a close vote, with several councilors saying they want to see how the existing ordinance works before changing it.