Feed the hungry
Team USA
Business group donates $10K to food shelf
Local skater wins gold at international event
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POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the JANUARY 18, 2024
otherpapersbvt.com
VOLUME 48, NO. 3
Chittenden schools ask legislators for fix CLA impacting ‘dramatic’ tax rate hikes LIBERTY DARR AND COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITERS
PHOTO BY COREY MCDONALD
Tiffany Harrington speaks outside of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facilty on Saturday.
In South Burlington
School district officials are calling on the Legislature to take immediate action to help alleviate potentially devastating school tax rate increases expected for South Burlington and towns that make up the Champlain Valley School District, driven largely by the state’s newest common level of appraisal estimates that are compounding the implications of Act 127. In a letter to the state delegation, school district members and city councilors in South Burlington say that the impact of Act 127 “paired with a drastic decrease in the CLA this year has result-
ed in an unprecedented proposed homestead tax rate increase of more than 18 percent in South Burlington.” “With budgets finalized in the next week and voters considering their options on Town Meeting Day, state relief is needed now,” the letter reads. The top brass with the Champlain Valley School District is drafting a similar letter, expected to be sent this week, that will ask for assistance from the state, according to Gary Marckres, the chief operations officer with the district. Board chair and House Rep. Angela Arsenault also says she has been involved in several See CLA on page 12
Protestors rally outside prison Sizeable tax increase anticipated for SB COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
More than two dozen people rallied outside of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility on Saturday as part of a weeklong campaign timed with the start of the legislative session to advocate against building a new facility. The prison, the only women’s prison in Vermont that is nearly 40 years old, is in very poor condition. State lawmakers have considered allocating millions of dollars to build a new facility elsewhere in the state. But protestors with FreeHer, a prison abolition group, who gathered outside of the facility
in South Burlington on Saturday, said that that money could be better spent on state mental health resources, and for the people already doing that work. “What could we be doing to better serve people and ultimately to rehabilitate society? When people are incarcerated, they are often in conditions that are extremely inhumane, and then they come out, and a lot of the times they don’t have a lot of opportunities or resources available to them,” Natascha Deininger, a Plainfield resident and member of the FreeHer campaign, said. “I think one of the things that we want to do is we want to get people to start thinking
differently about incarceration and really see it as something that doesn’t have a great track record,” Deininger added. The prison, located on the corner of Swift and Farrell streets, has a well-documented history of poor living conditions. Reports from SevenDays and VTDigger, as well as testimony from advocates and whistleblowers, have detailed unsanitary health and living conditions for the inmates there. The Department of Justice in 2020 identified several ADA violations that need to be corrected, and the facility has See PRISON on page 16
School board adopts $71 million budget LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
The South Burlington School Board received what officials called “crushing” news last week: with the new state education funding formula known as Act 127 and a new common level of appraisal for the city, residents can expect a more than an 18 percent tax rate increase. The budget passed Wednesday totals $71 million and includes $2 million in extra penalty-free
spending made possible by the same law that is causing headaches for school budget-crafters across the state. If that budget fails, superintendent Violet Nichols said, the district could face cuts of up to $6.6 million, including reductions to athletics, co-curriculars and visual and performing arts. South Burlington schools, like many across the state, are facing See BUDGET on page 9