On March 2nd, Middlebury residents gathered in Middlebury Union High School Auditorium to participate in the annual Town Hall Meeting Day. A cherished Green Mountain State tradition since 1762, the local town hall usually takes place in the first week of March, with community members voting on local issues.
Town and school district budgets and ballot items remain essential issues at the town hall. On Monday night, Articles One through Four were taken to vote, while Articles Six through Eight were left for Tuesday night, the second night of voting.
Middlebury voters showed unanimous support for all four articles on the 2026 Town Meeting Warning. Key approvals included the adoption of the Town Officers’ reports (Article One) and the FY2027 General Fund budget of $15,998,046 (Article Two). Voters also authorized the Selectboard to reallocate $350,000 from the Cross Street Bridge Reserve Fund to support the Ilsley Library Project (Article Three) and finalized the property tax collection dates for the 2026/2027 fiscal year (Article Four).
The ballot for the following day, March 3rd, featured three additional measures. Article Six secured $1.5 million for the critical replacement of the Foote Street Water Main. Article Seven called on the Vermont General Assembly to prioritize legislative action on H.433 during the 2026 session. Finally, Article Eight finalized the leadership for the coming year with the election of eleven town officials, including key representatives for the Selectboard and the Ilsley Library Board of Trustees.
Laura Asermily, a townsmember from Middlebury, was in attendance and remarked on the importance of this patriotic tradition.
“I always look forward to town meetings. It is a very important civic opportunity for us to come together and understand our town’s priorities and give feedback,” Arsermily said.
This year’s Town Hall commenced promptly at 7:00 pm.
The evening opened with Article One, highlighted by a tribute to Selectboard member Brian Carpenter. Another Selectboard member, Dan Brown, dedicated the 2025 Town Report to Carpenter in recognition of his nearly two decades of public service to Middlebury. Carpenter accepted the honor with a humble smile and a nod as the assembly rose for a standing ovation.
The meeting moved swiftly to Article Two, with a proposal to increase the 2027 Fiscal Year Budget (July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027) by 9.9% to $15,998,045. This larger budget will require a 9.97% increase in the municipal property tax rate, taking it to $1.0226 per $100 in property value.
The tax rate increase is not insignificant, as most general fund revenue comes from local property taxes. Over 10,000,000 dollars of the budget is to be raised by local taxes. The spending plan also calls for a 2.15% increase in the district's education property tax rate, which is currently $1.62 per $100 in property value.
The Middlebury Town Manager, Mark Pruhenski, noted that the major drivers of the budget are the Public Safety and Public Works Departments, as well as technology (IT) upgrades to support the town’s cybersecurity, hardware and software needs. Pruhenski also discussed the difficulty of maintaining the services the community has come to depend on and the tax burden on constituents, explaining that the Selectboard did its best to manage both with care.
Janet Smith, a new resident of Middlebury, voiced her concern for the tax rate increase, drawing a laugh as she expressed her awe at the lack of outrage by her new fellow town members.
“A nearly 10% tax increase where I come from is huge! I mean, people didn’t pass out or anything when they saw that number. Do you see another 10% tax increase coming along next year?” Smith said to the crowd.
To Smith’s question, Pruhenski said he saw some challenging years ahead, but hoped that there would be no more double-digit increase in property taxes.
Despite the budget passing, some community members wanted further explanation of where all the money was being allocated.
At the end of the town hall, Asermily expressed her wish for greater clarity and dialogue surrounding the increasingly large budget.
“I’d love to hear a little bit more from our department heads about, you know, the world that they’re doing that informs the budget. I don’t think we really got that tonight, except with the library. Maybe an opportunity to hear from some of our committees, like the Energy Committee, who have displays out here,” Asermily said.
Community members also voiced concerns about Middlebury College’s reduction in annual gifts to the town, housing and population issues, and the increase in the Middlebury Police Department’s budget.
State Sen. Ruth Hardy of Addison County gave her constituents an update on news from Montpelier. Hardy outlined last year’s major education reform bill, Act 73, and explained how the Finance Committee in Montpelier is doing all that it can to reduce school costs and property taxes. She also discussed Act 55, a healthcare bill to lower insurance rates, and the state government’s fight to keep costs low amid the national government’s cuts to subsidies.
Towards the end of the evening, the town hall shifted to discussing Article Seven. Middlebury was among only eight other towns to vote Tuesday on a petition to ask the Vermont Legislature to take action on H.433. The bill, if passed in Montpelier, would secure universal primary care in Vermont through Green Mountain Care, a publicly financed health care program available to all Vermont residents.
Jack Mayer, a Middlebury resident and pediatrician, co-authored the petition and expressed his fervent belief in the right to primary care at the town hall meeting.
“This petition is merely asking for this measure to be debated, for us to have a conversation about the question of whether we are going to provide primary care for every Vermonter, to do it out of public funding instead of relying on a dysfunctional and failed insurance and for-profit system that we have for providing healthcare in place now,” Mayer said.
Hoping to set an example for other states, Mayer sees a step towards universal healthcare as essential to meeting the needs of Vermonters, who can increasingly not afford preventative healthcare. He also noted that a lack of primary care often leads to increased emergency room visits and irreversible health conditions.
“Healthcare is, as we are finding out, sadly, not a commodity. It’s a human right, and we in Vermont are now at a tipping point. Of 33 major industrialized countries in the world, 32 of them have some form of universal national health insurance. Our country is the only one that does not. This is criminal,” Mayer said.
At the conclusion of his campaign to convince the people of Middlebury to support H.433, Mayer struck a historical tone, saying, “I just want to close with something that Winston Churchill said about Americans, which he said, ‘Americans always do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.’”
