By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Selectboard, the Brandon Budget Committee, and the Brandon town managers held a public meeting on Thursday, January 30 at the Brandon Town Hall to outline the proposed 2025-2026 town budget for Brandon voters in advance of Town Meeting, which will be held this year on Monday, March 3.
In light of last year’s budget travails—the proposed town budget was rejected twice at the ballot—the Board had said that it wanted to give voters an opportunity to learn about the proposal for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 (FY26) and to ask questions of its authors.
Ordinarily, the Selectboard presents the proposed budget at Town Meeting and residents vote on it the next day, leaving little time for reflection or discussion. The hope here, according to the Board, was to give voters more time to digest the proposal.
Board chair Doug Bailey opened the presentation by thanking the 5-member volunteer Budget Committee (Jan Coolidge, Gabe McGuigan, Karen Rhodes, Barry Varian, and Tricia Welch) for the work they did to help craft the proposal. Mr. Bailey also thanked the other members of the Selectboard (Vice-chair Heather Nelson, Brian Coolidge, Ralph Ethier, and Tim Guiles) for their efforts, along with Town Manager Seth Hopkins and Deputy Town Manager Bill Moore, all of whom were in attendance.
The Selectboard, Budget Committee, and town managers met every other Monday from September until December to put together the proposal that will be offered to voters next month.
“I’m more confident than in any other year about the end product because of the work we all did,” said Mr. Bailey, who has been on the Selectboard and the Budget Committee in past years.
Mr. Bailey added, “Not everyone is getting everything they want, but the process was fair.”
Vice-chair Heather Nelson outlined the process that was used, noting that the 5-person advisory Budget Committee had been selected from 11 applicants. Together with the Committee, the Board went line by line through last year’s budget to determine which expenses should be eliminated, reduced, maintained, or increased. They also invited the town department heads to discuss their departments’ budgetary needs. All these meetings were open to the public.
2.25% increase in spending over the current year
For FY26, the Selectboard is proposing a total town budget of $3,403,965, which represents an increase of $75,084 or 2.25% over the current year’s budget of $3,328,881. The amount specifically to be raised by taxes will increase by 1.4% to $2,876,645. This amount includes $50,000 that the Selectboard will request from voters as a separate appropriation to establish a Capital Fund for future capital expenses.
The town portion of the property tax bill will account for 31% of a homeowner’s total tax liability for FY26. The school portion will account for 62%. The Brandon Fire District, which is an independent entity from the town and covers the Fire Department and the Water Department (but not sewer), will account for 4%. Appropriations will account for 3%, if all of them are approved by voters.
For a home in Brandon that is assessed at the average value of $186,000, the town portion of the property-tax bill will increase by $1.78 per month, or a total of $21.95 for the year. The town has provided a municipal-tax calculator on the town website that will calculate a homeowner’s FY26 municipal tax based on their home’s assessed value.
Note that the calculator uses the assessed value of a home (as seen on a tax bill) and not the fair-market value. Also note that the calculator provides only the municipal portion of the tax bill. The school portion of the tax bill is determined by the state.
Police Department
One of the Board’s biggest challenges for FY26 was the Brandon Police Department (BPD), which was the subject of several well-attended budget meetings in the fall.
The proposed FY26 budget increases BPD’s budget by 9.41%, from $856,400 to $937,000. Yet, even with this increase, the budget was not enough to provide 24/7 on-duty police coverage and still required that officers work some shifts on call, which means that they can be called for service even after they have returned home for the night.
Four BPD officers have resigned over the last month, three of them after the Selectboard approved the proposed budget. One officer, Aidan Alnwick, who handles Guinness the K-9 officer, had already signaled that he was going to leave in January. Officer Alnwick left BPD for the Middlebury Police Department. The other three officers are now with Rutland City Police. BPD now has only Chief David Kachajian and two full-time officers.
During the budget meetings, the Selectboard heard from members of the Budget Committee, Brandon Fire Chief Tom Kilpeck, Brandon Rescue Chief Andy Jackson, and members of the public that the town needed to address BPD’s budgetary constraints in order to maintain BPD at its then-current size. Chief Kilpeck and Chief Jackson said multiple times that the town was in danger of losing officers.
An attempt last July to provide 24/7 on-duty coverage with only 6 officers was quickly scrapped when it became apparent that the cost of overtime was unsustainable. BPD had already exceeded its entire annual overtime budget in a single quarter.
Town Manager Seth Hopkins had drafted three proposals for the Selectboard to consider, one that decreased funding for BPD, one that held it steady, and one that increased it. The Board ultimately voted to increase it by over 9% to $927,000, but Mr. Hopkins and Chief Kachajian estimated the actual cost of 24/7 coverage to be $1.2 million. No member of the Board was willing to advocate for such a large increase. Two members, Mr. Coolidge and Mr. Guiles, even advocated for a decrease.
On Thursday, Ms. Nelson acknowledged that such a large, sudden jump in the budget would be difficult for voters to accommodate and suggested that the Board work toward 24/7 coverage incrementally.
Mr. Coolidge, when asked to explain his opposition to increasing BPD’s budget, said that he did not trust Chief Kachajian to manage an increased budget effectively and that Brandon didn’t need 24/7 on-duty coverage. Mr. Coolidge had asked at a previous Selectboard meeting that the Board be allowed to conduct exit interviews with the departing officers to try to probe into the specific reasons for their resignations, suggesting that perhaps there were factors beyond money that prompted them to leave.
Some attendees also asked what the town’s plan was to get BPD back to full staffing. Mr. Bailey conceded that it would be a long process, because officers have to be licensed in Vermont and this usually requires that they be sent to the VT Police Academy, which could accommodate only so many recruits from Brandon at any one time.
$50,000 Capital Fund appropriation
Mr. Coolidge also voiced disapproval of the $50,000 appropriation for a new Capital Fund. Appropriations have been controversial on the Board for the past few years, as they are commitments to raise taxes beyond the town budget. There has been a feeling among some on the Board, like Mr. Coolidge and former Board Chair Tracy Wyman, that appropriations are “smoke and mirrors,” misleading people into voting for higher taxes without realizing it.
There was also concern that the $50K Capital Fund was unnecessary because the 1% local option tax, which brings the town over $250,000 per year, is already a capital fund.
Thanks given to the Board & Budget Committee
Several attendees thanked the Board, Committee, and town managers for the work they did to prepare the budget and keep the community informed.
Some attendees also pointed out the positive difference between this year’s and last year’s budget processes. Last year’s process ended with accusations of both insensitivity and arrogance toward the Selectboard from members of the Budget Committee and the public. By contrast, attendees on Thursday said they felt that this year was more transparent and respectful of outside opinions.
