Burlington's Fiscal Year 2023 Budget

Neighbors,

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend.
 
Last week, the City Council unanimously approved the City’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget, which continues our strong record of carefully stewarding taxpayer resources while making substantial new investments in public safety, racial justice, and infrastructure, and also makes progress toward becoming a Net Zero Energy City. 
 

This budget will give the City the resources it needs to support the community through recovery from the pandemic on many fronts.  And, despite challenging inflation pressures which are pushing up municipal costs, Burlingtonians will continue to receive full municipal services and peoprety tax payers will experience an decrease of approximately 4% as a result of a reduction in the State education tax rate.

Police Department Rebuilding Plan

This year’s budget funds a robust rebuilding plan to hire officers back to the 87-officer authorized cap of the Burlington Police Department.
 
The three-year plan invests $1.2 million to keep current officers in the Police Department and attract new officers by offering a competitive contract, signing bonuses, and incentives such as housing stipends to live in Burlington, education, and childcare.
 
Our FY 23 budget also funds additional non-sworn public safety personnel to expand our public safety presence, and to give the City the ability to some mental health calls and non-criminal incidents with alternative resources and expertise. 

• Expands the number of Community Service Officers (CSOs), who perform foot patrols and respond to quality-of-life complaints, from 10 to 12.
• Expands the number of Community Service Liaisons (CSLs), the City’s social workers, from 3 to 6.
• Funds seasonal Beach and Parks Patrol employees, who work on the Marketplace, waterfront, bike path, and beaches.
• Funds two permanent and up to seven seasonal Urban Park Rangers.
• Continues the City’s funding of the Street Outreach Team (Howard Center).
• Reserves $400,000 for the creation of a Crisis Response Team Program inspired by the CAHOOTs program in Eugene, Oregon. Burlington’s committed funding should leverage funding from the State and other sources to develop a strong, resourced program.

Funding for the Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Department

Since creating the Racial Equity Inclusion and Belonging Department in 2019, the City has dramatically increased its investment in the department to $1.8 million in FY 23, making Burlington’s department the most substantial in Vermont.
 
Funding at this level will allow the City to:

• Continue anti-racism training for all employees.
• Continue Burlington’s new annual tradition of hosting an outstanding Juneteenth celebration.
• Continue developing and implementing numerous policy initiatives, like BIPOC homeownership programs.
• Expand efforts to eliminate racial disparities in public health outcomes.

Streets, Sidewalks, and Infrastructure

With voters’ support of the Capital Infrastructure Bond on Town Meeting Day 2022, the City will continue addressing the backlog of investments in our streets and sidewalks. The FY 23 budget allows for Burlington to continue investing in transportation infrastructure at much greater rates that we have done historically, including:

• $1.5 million of traffic calming infrastructure, bike infrastructure, and intersection improvements that improve pedestrian safety.
• $1.6 million for sidewalks, combined with additional transportation projects, will rebuild three miles of CIty sidewalks (3x our historical average) and $2.5 million for street paving, that combined with State work, will renew over five miles of roadways (2x our historical average).
• $40 million for the Champlain Parkway that will add 1.5 miles of shared use path, new crosswalks, raised intersections, transit prioritization at signalized intersections, pedestrian signals, transit shelters, and other multi-modal accommodations in the South End.

Net Zero Energy City and Climate Emergency Initiatives

We are as committed as ever to reaching our goal of becoming a Net Zero Energy City by 2030, and the FY 23 budget will continue fighting the climate emergency and moving us forward.
 
These initiatives are largely funded through Burlington Electric Department revenues, federal grants, and the Net Zero Energy Revenue Bond, including:

• More than $2 million for customer strategic electrification incentives and programs, such as rebates for heat pumps, e-bike, e-mowers, and home charging stations.
• $1.5 million for energy efficiency incentives and programs; adding EV charging infrastructure and continuing to replace our City fleet with electric and hybrid vehicles.
• Continuing to replace our City fleet with electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, with at least seven vehicles planned for FY 23.

The City’s aggressive efforts to address the climate emergency by electrifying everything continue to garner national attention.  If you would like to know more about these efforts and why electrification is such a significant strategy check out this recent article by the MIT Sloan Sustainability Institute and this Land Matters podcast about Burlington by the Lincoln Land Institute.

I hope that all Burlingtonians have a safe and enjoyable summer. I look forward to seeing you around town soon.

Warmly,

Miro Weinberger
Mayor