After months of working to find spending cuts and new revenues, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak on Monday presented the city council with a $112.6 million budget for the fiscal year that begins in two weeks. And by a 10-1 vote, the council approved the spending plan, with Councilor Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7) casting the lone “no” vote.
The final budget differed little from what the mayor initially proposed in May, but new additions include $150,000 for additional police and private security in Burlington’s Central District, which includes the Old North End and downtown neighborhoods, and $1 million dollars for marketing and promotion of downtown and waterfront events.
Council Progressives proudly touted the budget as one that manages to avoid “austerity” while keeping spending increases under the rate of inflation. For Mulvaney-Stanak, it was the third straight year facing a multimillion gap between spending and revenues. But, she said, her administration has found cuts that have brought staffing levels back down to where they were a decade ago.
“This budget process reflects a lot of engagement by committee departments, our city employees, our city unions and all of the city councilors who built this budget together,” Mulvaney-Stanak said.
The fiscal year 2027 budget is an increase of $5.5 million from the $107.1 million budget the council approved last year. Councilors also unanimously approved a 6 percent increase in municipal property taxes to fund the budget. This means the owner of a home valued at $365,000 — the median value in Burlington — will pay $3,211 next fiscal year, an increase of $191.
Since the fiscal year 2023 budget, the amount of municipal property taxes paid by the median homeowner in Burlington has grown by $844, according to the city.
One area of disagreement leading up to the budget vote concerned the city’s gross receipts tax. The levy on meals, alcohol and entertainment was raised from 2 percent to 2.5 percent in 2024 to balance a budget shortfall, and Mulvaney-Stanak’s initial budget proposal this year called for keeping the increase in place. Some Dems wanted to rescind the increase, while Progs argued it’s become a necessary revenue source.
In the end, Progs agreed to eliminate the category of admissions for ticketed events — such as concerts, sports games, plays or movies — from the tax entirely. That will cost the city an expected $105,000 in revenue over the next year, according to the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Katherine Schad.
The Prog caucus also successfully advocated to set aside funding in the Burlington Police Department’s budget to further train police officers on Vermont’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy, immigration law and constitutional rights. The police department recently determined its officers did not violate state law or department policy when they helped with crowd control during a March 11 federal immigration raid on a South Burlington home. That finding frustrated activists.
The budget includes a multifaceted plan to grow revenue and cut costs to close the $11 million gap. The city will raise $3 million in revenue from a 5-cent increase to the police and fire splinter tax and save another $2.5 million by reigning in over-budgeting. A supplementary $1.1 million was found through one-time funding sources. The city plans to bring in an additional $1 million by aggressively going after delinquent taxes and other fees owed the city, which includes a newly created position to focus on collections.
Mulvaney-Stanak found another $3 million in savings through “solidarity budgeting” that pushed department heads to find ways to cut back. The administration was able to avoid the painful layoffs that marked last year’s budget process by eliminating 13 vacant positions entirely and holding open another 14 positions.
Traverse said prior to the meeting that Dems had achieved their short-term goals in the negotiating process, leaving further long-term goals to be pursued over the next fiscal year. Councilor Allie Schacter (D-East District), who represented the Dem caucus in negotiations with the mayor’s office, highlighted the council’s willingness to seek compromise..
“I’m grateful for the good faith collaboration that unfolded between us, and I think this budget is a model of what we can accomplish when we roll up our sleeves, take care to find common ground and dig into the hard work of moving our city forward together,” Schacter said.
Both the mayor and Dems agree that the city will likely face a similar fiscal dilemma next year. Traverse and other Dems have argued deeper cuts will be necessary to bring down city spending to sustainable levels.
Mulvaney-Stanak’s solution was to propose a new budget director position, included in this year’s plan, to “identify new, innovative ways to make our budget more efficient, and identify new revenue sources,” she said in a council memo. The new hire would report directly to Schad.
Litwin, who was alone among councilors in voting against the budget, harshly criticized Mulvaney-Stanak’s proposal. It was not a “future-focused budget,” he said, and deeper cuts would be needed in the future.
“We’ve heard before that this administration wants to use a multi-year budgeting process, and yet I just don’t see that happening here,” he said. “I think we’re a very small city, and we simply may need to pause some of the programs and services that we provide.”