2025 Town Meeting Warning and Budget Primer

As we approach the 2025 Town Meeting, it's been brought to my attention that some folks are a little bit overwhelmed by the annual budget and by the articles in the Town Meeting warning. It's a lot of information and a lot of big numbers, and it can be hard to wrap your head around it if you haven't been attending Town Meetings for decades or diligently attending the Selectboard meetings since October, when budget planning began in earnest. In addition, the warning is crafted around statutory and other legal requirements, not readability by the average citizen.

If you have questions about Town Meeting, the town budget, or (once it's finalized and posted) the warning, please contact me at townclerk@calaisvermont.gov, stop by the Town Office, or leave me a message at (802) 456-8720. For more information about Town Meeting 2025 in particular, see our Town Meeting 2025 webpage. 

 

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  • ARTICLE 1. To elect a Moderator for the ensuing year.

Town meeting begins with the election of the Moderator, the person who will run our Town Meeting. The Moderator needs to have a thorough understanding of Robert's Rules of Order and needs to hold firmly to those rules to keep the meeting running smoothly and fairly. Gus Seelig has served in this role since 2001. Any registered voters present at Town Meeting may nominate a candidate of their choice.

 

  • ARTICLE 2. To provide the opportunity to ask questions regarding the reports in the Town Report.

This article allows voters to ask questions or comment on aspects of the Town Report that may not otherwise come up in the course of the meeting. Voters who are unable to attend may instead contact a Selectboard member or a Town Office Staff member before or after Town Meeting Day if they have a question they would like answered .

 

  • ARTICLE 3. To elect the following town officials from the floor:
    • Trustee of Public Funds 3-year term (expires 2028)
    • Cemetery Commissioner 5-year term (expires 2030)

The Trustees of Public Funds is a three-person group of officials that manages the Calais Cemetery Fund's T. Rowe Price account. They meet throughout the year to evaluate account performance and to decide whether or not to make adjustments on how the investments are allocated. Trustees serve three-year terms that expire on a staggered basis. Steve Killoran is completing his third full term.
Cemetery Commissioners manage the eight Calais cemeteries. They work with our sexton, Joseph Mangan, to maintain the cemeteries and help folks through the process of purchasing plots, submitting burial fees, and laying to rest of loved ones. Sage Kennedy is completing her first five-year term.
As with the Moderator position, any legal voters present at Town Meeting may nominate a candidate of their choosing from the floor.

 

  • ARTICLE 4. Shall the voters approve total highway and general fund expenditures of $1,783,039.10 of which it is estimated $1,441,614.10 will be raised by taxes and $341,425.00 will be raised by non-tax revenue?

We'll talk about the nuts and bolts of the budget itself on another day, but as far as understanding an Article, this one is pretty simple. The first number ($1,783,039.10) is how much money the town has budgeted to spend between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. The second number ($1,441,614.10) is how much the Town needs to raise in property taxes. These numbers are different because we have the third number ($341,425.00): "non-tax revenue." This includes the fees collected by the Town Office for various licenses and services (the portion the Town gets to keep, as some monies go to the state), money given to the Town by the State for highway projects, Current Use*, and any other sources of revenue that the Treasurer feels confident the town will receive. The Article describes the two sources of revenue as an estimate because the non-tax revenue numbers can fluctuate (by a very small amount), and the Treasurer will use the best estimate available to generate the necessary tax revenue amount at tax time.

*Vermont's Current Use Program is a tax-incentive program that allows landowners to receive lower property tax rates in exchange for keeping their forests and agricultural lands from being developed. The state pays the remainder of the tax rate so that towns don't lose money on the program.

Treasurer Kari Bradley's Budget Report

The proposed budget for FY2026 (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026) calls for a 4.7% overall increase in spending from the current year. The increase in general government and highway department expenses comes to 5.3%. Note that the impact on tax rates will be less if there is even modest growth in the town's grand list. Also note that town taxes make up approximately 30% of the property tax rate with State education tax comprising the rest.

From the beginning of this year's budgeting process, we knew there would be two key drivers: medical insurance and capital expenses. In the fall, Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that premiums for our insurance plan would increase 23%. We responded by changing carriers to MVP Health Care who offered 11% lower premiums than Blue Cross. We also considered a change in the numbers of part-time and full-time positions but settled on maintaining the current seven benefits-eligible positions. Though we only have five employees actually participating in the plan, medical insurance premiums and HRA reimbursements now make up nearly 10% of our town budget. Like many organizations in Vermont, we are doing our best to respond to the distressing trend in medical insurance inflation and continue to provide this important employee benefit.

The proposed budget also accounts for our capital investments. These include new highway department vehicles (a road grader and two dump trucks), the Curtis Pond dam and the East Montpelier Fire Department station and fire truck, consistent with our multi-year capital plan. We have little flexibility in adjusting debt service payments, although the Selectboard did decide to use a portion of our Highway Equipment Fund to pay off our mower early and remove an additional payment from the budget. Last year we paid off a loan for work on the Town Office. Capital expenses comprise 13% of expenses in this budget which reflects the priority we place on sustaining our equipment and infrastructure.

Otherwise, the FY2026 proposed budget is similar to our current one. The most significant changes include:
• Most full- and part-time employees will receive a 4% wage increase, consistent with our negotiated labor contract with our Road Crew.
• We propose to reduce office staffing and hire a part-time Road Commissioner.
• We do not expect that a single audit will be required since federal reimbursements won't meet the threshold requiring one.
• We increased the allocation for Washington County Sheriff patrol time in response to concerns about speeding traffic.
• We boosted allocations for various reserve funds after reducing them last year.
• We increased the amounts budgeted for highway materials including gravel, sand, and chloride but reduced some garage expenses based on data from the past five years.
• We included $30,337 as our match for a grant-funded project to rebuild the roadbed on Kent Hill Road near the WEC power station.
• Among the special articles, our Cemetery Commission and Kellogg-Hubbard Library are requesting modest increases, but the East Montpelier and Woodbury Fire Departments budgets are slightly down in total.

If you have questions or comments about the proposed budget, you can contact Treasurer Kari Bradley at 802-456-8720 or attend a Selectboard meeting. The Selectboard will offer time to discuss the proposed budget on February 24 at the start of their regular meeting. The Selectboard believes this is a reasonable and responsible budget and recommends you vote in favor. Thank you.

 

  • ARTICLE 5. Shall the voters appropriate the sum of $46,946 for the operation and maintenance of the cemeteries?

State statute says that a town may vote sums of money for purchasing, caring for, and improving its cemeteries. Some of the money that the Cemetery Commission uses to care for the cemeteries comes from the Calais Cemetery Fund, a perpetual-care allotment funded by the purchase of town burial plots and managed primarily by the Trustees of Public Funds. However, this fund is not yet large enough for the interest it generates to cover the entire cost of maintaining Calais's many cemeteries. This means that the Cemetery Commission still requests an annual sum from the taxpayers.

 

  • ARTICLE 6. Shall the voters appropriate $34,881 for library services provided through the Kellogg-Hubbard Library?

Kellogg-Hubbard is not a municipal library; it's a public non-profit that serves Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, Montpelier, and Worcester. While anyone may enter and use the library, only residents and taxpayers from the listed towns may apply for a library card without paying an additional fee. (Residents of other towns may have a library card if they pay an additional fee.) Every year, representatives from the library come to a Selectboard meeting to talk about events and services offered over the prior year, projects undertaken by the library, and how the requested monies will be used. Please contact the Town Office if you have additional questions about the proposed Kellogg-Hubbard library appropriation.

 

  • ARTICLE 7. Shall the voters appropriate the total sum of $29,199 to meet the amounts requested by the following organizations in the Calais and Central Vermont areas, which organizations provide social services for the benefit of Calais residents, such amounts being reasonably necessary for the support thereof: (etc.)

Local social service organizations may apply for an appropriation request to be on the Town Meeting warning. Using an application created by the Town, the organizations provide information about what they do, who they serve, and how the Town of Calais benefits. Once the Selectboard has approved their placement on the Warning, the organization may submit a simpler annual reapplication in following years. All applications are due by December 1 so that a Social Services Appropriations Committee has time to review the applications before the Selectboard reviews and signs the Warning. This year, a committee consisting of Chris Andresen, Barbara McAndrew, and Anne Winchester reviewed the requests and forwarded their recommendation to the Selectboard. At Town Meeting, voters may a) approve the requested appropriations, b) deny the requested appropriations, or c) increase or decrease the appropriation amounts before voting to approve the article. You can find the list of organizations that have applied this year, the amount they requested, and links to their website at www.calaisvermont.gov/appropriations

 

  • ARTICLE 8. Shall the voters establish a reserve fund under the control and direction of the Selectboard in accordance with 24 V.S.A. § 2804, to be known as the "East Montpelier Fire Department Facilities Reserve Fund" for the purpose of Calais's contribution to the maintenance of the East Montpelier Fire Department building?

Calais doesn't have its own fire department. Instead, it contributes to the budgets of the East Montpelier and Woodbury Fire Departments in exchange for services. Members of these departments are the first responders to fire and ambulance calls from Calais residents. The Woodbury Volunteer Fire Department maintains a capital reserve fund as well as a truck replacement fund, which Calais makes regular payments into. These funds provides resources for major equipment purchases and investments, such as the new firehouse. This year, it became clear to our Selectboard in the long-term capital planning process that it made sense for the town to start building a reserve fund for its contributions to the EMFD. The town would make annual contributions to the EMFD capital fund so that when the EMFD needs funds for larger projects, Calais won't have to borrow money to cover its share.

 

  • ARTICLE 9. Shall the voters raise and appropriate the sum of $1000 to fund the East Montpelier Fire Department Facilities Reserve Fund?

Vermont statute requires that the creation of a reserve fund and the funding of a reserve fund be listed as separate articles in an election. Once voters have approved the creation and initial funding of a reserve fund, the fund can be added to the regular annual budget or combined with similar articles for future appropriation requests.

 

  • ARTICLE 10. Shall the voters establish a reserve fund under the control and direction of the Selectboard in accordance with 24 V.S.A. § 2804, to be known as the "Town Garage Reserve Fund" for the purpose of maintaining and improving the Calais Town Garage?
  • ARTICLE 11. Shall the voters raise and appropriate the sum of $2,500 to fund the Town Garage Reserve Fund?

Calais created a reserve fund for the Town Hall and Town Office in 2014. In 2019, the fund was split into a fund for each building. However, the Town has never voted to create a reserve fund for the Town Garage, and, perhaps consequently, the Garage is the building most in need of maintenance and upgrades. This fund would be used to pay for smaller projects at the Town Garage and to save for larger renovations in the future.

 

Article 12. Shall the voters establish a reserve fund under the control and direction of the Selectboard in accordance with 24 V.S.A. § 2804 to be known as the "Cemetery Fence and Infrastructure Fund" for the purpose of replacing fences and other cemetery infrastructure beyond normal maintenance?
Article 13: Shall the voters approve a $2,000 appropriation to the Cemetery Fence and Infrastructure Fund?

The Cemetery Commission recognized this year that projects such as fences and other infrastructure repairs are what cause the most dramatic fluctuations in their budget requests from year to year. They proposed the creation of a reserve fund so that when the need for more costly projects arises, they can continue to request a more consistent amount from voters at the annual meeting and pull any additional required funds from their reserve fund.

  • ARTICLE 14. Shall the voters authorize payment of property taxes in two (2) equal installments due on or before 4:00 p.m. on a date that falls not less than 30 days after the tax bills are mailed but not earlier than September 1, 2025, and with the second installment due on or before 4:00 p.m. on Monday, November 17, 2025?

The process of preparing property taxes begins well before these due dates. On April 1, the town Grand List, which is a database of all of the properties in town, their assessed values, and their owners, "freezes". After April 1, property owners are alerted to any major changes in the assessed value of their property. If a property owner challenges the Listers' work, a Hearing with the Listers is held and a final assessed value is decided. Then the town Listers go through all their data, make any changes or corrections as needed, and come up with the total assessed value of all taxable town properties.
Next, the Treasurer determines the tax rate based on the total amount needed for the approved budget divided by the total assessed value of the town taxable property. (It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.) The Treasurer double- and triple-checks the math and reaches out to a few other people who are clever with numbers to be certain everything is correct and then takes it to the Selectboard for approval. Once the rate is set, tax bills can be printed. The Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer prepare them to be mailed out, a process that takes a couple of days.
If a property has changed hands since the April 1 Grand List freeze, all attempts are made to mail the tax bill to both the previous and the present owners, though the owner as of April 1 is the person legally responsible for the taxes. (Buyers and sellers should have worked out at the closing of the property transfer who will pay what portion of the tax bill.) Some tax bills are paid by escrow companies and banks, which contact the town around tax time so that the Treasurer can send them copies of the tax bills.
Taxpayers must be given at least thirty days from the date bills are mailed to the first due date. Because of all of the steps involved in tax bill preparation, it's not always possible to set a date for the mailing until late in the summer, which is why this Article doesn't set a specific date for the first payment.
If a taxpayer finds it difficult to make two large property tax payments within two months of each other (September and November), for the purpose of household budgeting, they are welcome to make advance payments anytime throughout the year. Advance payments will be applied as credits toward their tax bill when they are mailed in late summer.

  • ARTICLE 15. Shall each property tax installment payment be made via one (1) of the following options:
  1. by delivery to the Town Treasurer by 4:00 p.m. on or before the due dates
  2. by U.S. Postal Service, with postmark on or before the due dates 
  3. by credit card payment via www.calaisvermont.gov by 4:00 p.m. on or before the due dates; or
  4. by ACH direct debit by or before the due dates?

The Town provides a variety of tax payment options for residents. For various security purposes, the Town Office does NOT accept cash payments for taxes. This year, the Treasurer has recommended adding the option of ACH payments, which are payments that transfer directly from taxpayer bank accounts to the town bank account and do not require additional fees. Mailed checks must be POSTMARKED by the due date; all other payments must be RECEIVED AT THE TOWN OFFICE by the due date.