What's on the ballot in Tuesday's Essex Westford school budget revote

Essex Westford School District was one of the school budgets that Chittenden County voters rejected this spring. After some adjustments , the new budget faces a revote on May 7.

On Tuesday, residents of Essex Town, Essex Junction and Westford will get a chance to vote on a general fund budget of $93,929,553. This is amount the district proposes to use to operate the 10 schools in the consolidated district for the next school year. Voters did approve the Center for Technology Essex budget on April 9.

This revised budget is $4.5 million less than the original ask and is a 4% increase in education spending over the current budget. The property tax impact on residents is expected to be an increase of: 14.6% for Essex Junction; 12.3% for Essex Town and 9.6% for Westford.

Here's a comparison between the two budget votes:

• April 9 vote: $97,820,207 school budget; represented a 10.1% spending increase; yielded as high as 22.8% increase in education property taxes for residents.
• May 7 vote: $93,929,553 school budget; represents an 3.9% spending increase; yielding as high as a 14.6% increase in education property taxes for residents.

In Chittenden County, South Burlington and Milton school budgets also have yet to be approved by voters. South Burlington residents will vote for a third time on May 7 and Milton has their third vote planned for June 4.

Contact reporter April Barton at abarton@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1854. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aprildbarton .

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: What's on the ballot in Tuesday's Essex Westford school budget revote