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Vermont Mayors Outline Legislative Priorities

The Vermont Mayors Coalition was formed in 2013 by the eight mayors in the state to advocate in the legislature on issues of common interest. They were in Montpelier Tuesday to announce their priorities for this session.

The state’s eight mayors declared two policy priorities for the 2015 legislative session: education funding reform and waterway protection from stormwater runoff. They say maintaining and improving the public education system while dealing with the continuous rise in property taxes is the most significant challenge facing the state. They also want the legislature to address stormwater runoff into lakes and streams.  Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger says the mayors have been advocating on these two issues for several years.  “The platform that we announced focused on education reform that accomplishes both improved educational outcomes and greater  equity within the education system than what we have today as well changes the clearly unsustainable cost trends that we’ve seen in the education system for the last really 30 years. The legislature also has an opportunity this year to make progress on another issue that is really threatening Vermont’s future, threatening the future of the cities that I represent and the other mayors represent, which is finding a way to protect our waterways to keep them clean  from stormwater runoff.”

Winooski Mayor Mike O’Brien says focusing on education financing and the impact on property taxes is a no-brainer.  “If nothing changes on the education funding side the pressures that we’ve been feeling for the last several years will just continue to expand. The question is how much can taxpayers absorb to pay for education funding and are there ways to gain control of the ever increasing costs of education in the state?”

Montpelier Mayor John Hollar noted that the mayors looked at a variety of issues. These two are the most important to the cities.   “The rise of education spending is having a pretty significant impact on our communities in terms of housing affordability, business growth and just simply crowding out our ability to raise revenues to pursue other initiatives. So we see this as something that we really need to get our hands around and address.”

Hollar adds that their second issue — stormwater runoff — also has fiscal implications.  “If we don’t address the pollution in Lake Champlain in an adequate way that addresses the concerns of the EPA, we’re likely to see more stringent requirements on our wastewater treatment plants which could have tremendous costs on our communities. This is one of the few areas where the EPA has jurisdiction. Their view is if we don’t enact something that satisfies and addresses the pollution problems of Lake Champlain they’re going to clamp down on the area where they do have control. That’s something we want to avoid. So we want the state to take a more responsible approach and address the wide range of sources causing the pollution problems  in Lake Champlain.”

Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras’ focus is runoff issues; he says the state has the ability to advance their goals for pollution control.  “One of the keys is to rely less on modeling and more on measurement. If we have determined that we want to affect phosphorus loading in Lake Champlain then the best way to do that is to invest where the phosphorous is actually having the worst impact. And the best way to determine that frankly is by measuring the phosphorus in the water and not rely on modeling. Because if the modeling is flawed we won’t drive down the algae blooms and won’t improve the water quality of the lake or of the tributaries of the lake.”

The coalition includes the mayors of Vergennes, St. Albans, Montpelier, Barre, Rutland, Newport, Winooski and Burlington.

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