The votes are in and counted in the capital city, and incoherence is the order of the day.
First, a big tip of the hat to our founder and new City Clerk, John Odum. We knew things were going to be weird for a city clerk race when John’s opponent started putting up yard signs, which upped the ante for both campaigns from the beginning. At the end John came out on top with a very close 1204-1086 victory, and you know what that means: time to get up and go to a real job tomorrow, John!
In other races, though, it’s very hard to make sense of what the people are saying. The race that got the most attention wasn’t an election for any office, but ballot issues 10 and 11, to establish local options sales and rooms & meals taxes for the city of Montpelier. The Council put them on the ballot and almost every downtown merchant fought against them. You can’t go through downtown without seeing the anti-tax posters in the store windows. (And I want to express a big thank-you to Miller Sports, Onion River Sports, Rite-Aid, and any other community-supporting businesses who did not oppose the local options taxes.)
The sales tax went down by a margin of about 2-1, the rooms and meals tax failed by a smaller margin, just under a couple of hundred votes.
The anti-tax forces were led by Thierry Guerlain, who started a group called Vibrant and Affordable Montpelier, and who was also on the ballot for City Council for District 2. Guerlain’s anti-tax, anti-city-government message was apparently popular, as he also defeated twelve-year council veteran Nancy Sherman by over 200 votes, 574-371.
So this would make you think that the anti-tax message carried the day, huh? Well, maybe not so much. Although the proposals to tax commuters failed, every single spending proposal passed, most of them by wide margins, more than 2-1. Whatever anyone else is saying about whether Montpelier city government is spending too much money, Montpelier voters clearly do not agree.
So to sum up: the anti-tax guy who claims he wants to take some of the burden off property tax payers gets elected; the only proposal on the ballot that would actually reduce burdens on property tax payers is defeated; and all the spending proposals, which will only add to our property tax burdens, pass.
By replacing outgoing mayor Mary Hooper with John Hollar, who ran unopposed, and Nancy Sherman with Thierry Guerlain, Montpelier’s city council has taken a sudden turn to the right. We’ll see if what the voters get is what they actually want.
A couple of things were going on here, I think. On the local options taxes, a lot of liberals are also fans of downtown shopping and local business. The opposition from downtown merchants was probably enough to sink the tax proposals.
As for electing Guerlain, I think he benefited from a general desire to shake things up a bit at City Hall — a feeling that the current Council had been a little too passive. VAM successfully presented itself as a nonpartisan/bipartisan group,with some fairly high-profile centrists and even a few libs signing on. I doubt the voters really expect a “sudden turn to the right.” If they get a government that’s more efficient without cutting desired services, they’ll probably be satisfied and VAM may gain more traction. If the new Council turns out to be more openly conservative or tries to fundamentally change direction, I suspect the voters will turn against them.
On the other hand, specific spending issues are much harder to turn down than broad tax questions. Montpelier voters are liberal enough that they can’t turn down specific requests for things like the connector bus, the library, and youth theater program.
My read: Montpelier remains fundamentally liberal, but with some reservations over perceived stasis at City Hall.