Cassandra
Montpelier has two new city councilors and a third incumbent who eked by her win by four votes, along with a newly approved local options tax. And both its city and school budgets passed at Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day election.
District 2 incumbent City Councilor Pelin Kohn is keeping her seat, having beat out her challenger, Marc Gwinn, in a 439-435 vote.
Ben Doyle (District 1) and Jim Sheridan (District 3) both ran unopposed, and each garnered seats on the council.
Montpelier voters passed a 1% local options tax, expected to bring in up to $600,000 in revenue annually, with 1,705 yes votes, and 588 voting no. Article 13, a nonbinding resolution about Palestine and Israel, did not pass.
The city and school district budgets both passed, as did a vote for a $2.2 million ladder truck for the Montpelier Fire Department, and $464,222 to help fund the Kellogg Hubbard Library. Voters also approved $3,705 for Mosaic Vermont, and $23,500 for the Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice.
The amount raised by taxes in the city budget came to $12,278,226, a 4.77% increase on the property tax rate; it passed with 1,890 yes votes, and 385 no votes. The budget for the Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools $32,634,264 budget passed with 1,548 voting for it and 704 voting against it.
School directors Tim Duggan and Jake Feldman, both running unopposed, were reelected for another three-year term each.
Voters rejected Article 13. Perhaps the most contentious item on the Montpelier ballot, Article 13 asked voters to approve a pledge affirming a commitment to “freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people,” and “to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.” With 887 voting yes on the Article, and 1,181 voting against it, the item did not pass.
