BRATTLEBORO-When Emilie Kornheiser first ran for state representative six years ago, I was so excited for the chance to have someone with her background representing Brattleboro. She has many years of experience working with local youth and families and has a deep understanding of what people need to thrive in Vermont.
During her time in office, I have been so pleased and impressed with the way she has advocated for Brattleboro.
One of the biggest challenges our town is facing right now is that our students are really struggling. In my time on the Brattleboro Town School Board and the Windham Southeast School District Board, I have seen how the big issues affecting our community - the housing shortage, opioid epidemic, and Covid impacts - are most deeply felt by our children.
Our schools are using evidence-based strategies to address these challenges and help students succeed. This year was particularly challenging for school budgeting, as student needs are as high as at any point since 2020, but federal funding to support those needs ended, and health care costs continue to rise.
Our school district worked hard to craft a budget that minimizes impact on taxpayers as much as possible while still maintaining the high level of educational and social supports our students desperately need.
Our WSESD communities voted overwhelmingly in support of the budget we presented. But the school budget is only one factor in how our tax rates are determined. Another big factor is the yield - the amount of tax revenue that the state has to disburse to school districts to pay for those budgets.
Emilie and her colleagues could see that some changes to the yield were needed to diminish the tax burden. By creating a yield bill that increases tax revenue from cloud-based products and short-term rentals, they were able to reduce our tax rates by 33% from the ones initially projected when we passed our school budgets.
I am excited to support Emilie Kornheiser's candidacy because she understands the root causes that underlie the crises our town is facing. Investing in meeting the needs of Brattleboro children is one of the best ways we can strengthen our community for the future.
Robin Morgan
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].