[Riley.]

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure on property taxes on, say, a $250K house in or close to Stowe? I do realize that might put the house in Morrisville, or even that maybe you could not find a house in Stowe for $250K, although I've occasionally seen that price range listed in the real estate magazines.
We live over the hill in Franklin County, and given the reported tax increase we will see this year, and given the fact that we both love Stowe, I'd rather pay those dollars to a town that actually offers something.

[tkln]

I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a single family house in Stowe for that price, though I have seen them as well, there's probably a reason why they're so cheap. Definitely doable in Morrisville.

To give you an idea, our condo (in Stowe) is assessed at $145K, our taxes are running almost 3K a year now.

The town lists the current tax rate ($1.9420 for residents) on their website, and there is also the grand list which has the assessed value of all the properties in town. This used to a searchable database, unfortunately now it's listed by name of owner only, so not nearly as valuable as it used to be.

[Riley.]

Thanks tkln.....appreciate the info. Sounds about right, I guess, for the value of the condo. Our home is valued at 181K (I think it's worth more than that, but for tax purposes, that's what they list it as) and we pay $4K a year based on our income.
I've heard the offset for income sensitivity (which I would depend on when I retire next year) is decreasing yearly and may even be discontinued. I do not understand the formulations used to come up with each family's tax burden, and frankly, I've grown weary of being bullied at town meeting because they do not want to fully explain to the voters how a number was reached and being told that if I want to be fully informed on these matters, I need to attend select board meetings and school board meetings. If you can't do that, you are on your own with the "town report" that gets mailed to you one week before town meeting - last year there were several calculation errors in that report, brought to light by a mathematically inclined voter. (we are forced to go to town meeting in Fletcher if we want a vote. No Australian Ballot here. You can tell I am not happy about this and as I move to retire, I have a big decision to make about relocating.

[tkln]

I'm seeing news in our paper that there are some proposals out to change the education funding to come more from income tax as opposed to property tax, which would be great. Of course, who knows how long it would take, if it even got any traction.

I'll be honest that I very rarely go to meetings myself but I try to keep up with the news as much as I can. Does your local paper cover any of the major issues? That's where I get most of my info.

Stowe does have Australian ballot but not for everything - I forget how it's split up. Waterbury doesn't have it, not sure about Morrisville.

Hopefully there will be some changes this year from the legislature that will help shed light for your retirement plans!

[harry chickpea]

Frying pan > fire.

Small towns like Fletcher are very much participatory democracy, where the more you participate the more your voice and concerns are heard. Australian ballot is convenient and easy, but it also makes it easy for a cadre of elite (read high income citizens with lots of land or large businesses) to take control and dictate THEIR desires.

Unless you have a pension or substantial investments, you might want to reconsider retiring in the state. Peter Miller is vocal about the problems. Here is one of his commentaries: COLD WEATHER

[timberline742]

Peter Miller is a cool guy. Love chatting with him when I stay there. He rents rooms as an AirBNB now.

[Riley.]

Originally Posted by tkln

I'm seeing news in our paper that there are some proposals out to change the education funding to come more from income tax as opposed to property tax, which would be great. Of course, who knows how long it would take, if it even got any traction.

I'll be honest that I very rarely go to meetings myself but I try to keep up with the news as much as I can. Does your local paper cover any of the major issues? That's where I get most of my info.

Stowe does have Australian ballot but not for everything - I forget how it's split up. Waterbury doesn't have it, not sure about Morrisville.

Hopefully there will be some changes this year from the legislature that will help shed light for your retirement plans!

yea, that's what they are saying....the state may change how they fund education. I'd agree that it could be a long haul and not sure I'm inclined to wait and see.


We don't have a local paper, and the local newsletter has been only sporadic over the last couple years, so not much news or town info is disseminated unless you go the meetings I mentioned.


As for the participatory democracy mentioned below, we're lucky if 100 people out of the 1800 voters in town show up to town meetings, and it's true that that's exactly what you get, the small cadre of "fill in the blanks" (actually, mostly teachers, friends of teachers, other people who work at the school, and kids who went to the school who can now vote) always votes in the ever-bloated school budget. It's really a no-win. I figure, maybe the shock of the proposed 20+% increase will light some fires and more people will show up. It's a very tough situation to be in when you love the area.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by pamjedlicka

yea, that's what they are saying....the state may change how they fund education. I'd agree that it could be a long haul and not sure I'm inclined to wait and see.


We don't have a local paper, and the local newsletter has been only sporadic over the last couple years, so not much news or town info is disseminated unless you go the meetings I mentioned.


As for the participatory democracy mentioned below, we're lucky if 100 people out of the 1800 voters in town show up to town meetings, and it's true that that's exactly what you get, the small cadre of "fill in the blanks" (actually, mostly teachers, friends of teachers, other people who work at the school, and kids who went to the school who can now vote) always votes in the ever-bloated school budget. It's really a no-win. I figure, maybe the shock of the proposed 20+% increase will light some fires and more people will show up. It's a very tough situation to be in when you love the area.

Frankly, if people are that complacent, they are getting what they deserve. In the past there was more participation. The Sweets, Hoopers, Spauldings, Kneelands, Lancasters, and more were always in attendance and town meeting was as much a social event as business. I can understand the paper going out of business. Perhaps a website with community news is in order? I know the historical society is active and put out a nice calendar this year. I don't think it would be hard to convince them to have one member in attendance at meetings to give a public summary.

[tkln]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Frying pan > fire.

Australian ballot is convenient and easy, but it also makes it easy for a cadre of elite (read high income citizens with lots of land or large businesses) to take control and dictate THEIR desires.

Your POV is interesting. I find that town meeting excludes quite a few residents - not by design of course, but by the current reality of life. I can't take the day off from work to go. I know a lot of people who can't get child care for that day - they too miss town meeting. There's been a huge drop off in attendance and a lot of towns are trying to figure out how to increase it - changing days/times is one idea that has been discussed. As it stands now, a lot of decisions are made by a small group who can attend the meeting during the day.

[Riley.]

Town meeting in my town indeed excludes quite a few residents. I am one of the lucky few who actually gets admin time from my job to attend, although management always looks incredulous when I tell them I have to show up at the meeting if I want to vote on the budgets. The 'teacher' cadre takes care of themselves and always votes to approve the school budget and the many who oppose the spending increases, they don't show up. We tried polling people to make a change in the date or time, but nothing. I think it would work better if we had a meeting on a day everyone could make it and then an Australian ballot vote on $$ matters, which runs all day and theoretically everyone could pop in and vote. I managed to get enough signatures one year to actually get a vote on whether we would go to Australian ballot but the measure did not pass. I was told by several people that the town clerk (at the time) and the select board chair (and still) were campaigning against it behind the scenes. Oh well. I tried.