Burlington proposed budget calls for tax, utility fee hikes

A Burlington homeowner with a $200,000 assessed house would pay about $140 more a year if Bob Patterson’s proposed tax rate increase is adopted, before any higher water, sewer or sanitation charges are added.

Patterson, Burlington’s new city manager, unveiled a budget proposal Monday that would raise the city’s property-tax rate by 7 cents, from 48.36 cents to 55.36 cents per $100 of assessed value. The plan would also lift water and sewer fees by 5 percent and add $1 a month to sanitation bills, a combination that reaches across the bills families open each month instead of landing in one line item.

The city is tying the request to several pressures at once. Patterson said the proposal reflects the cost of moving curbside trash and recycling out of the general fund, higher utility costs, voter-approved bond payments from 2024 and inflation-driven pressure on police and fire spending. Roughly 4 cents of the proposed tax increase would cover debt service on Burlington’s $68.5 million in bonds, while the remaining 3 cents would help cover general cost growth.

The bond bill itself was not a surprise. Burlington voters approved two general-obligation bond questions in 2024, after the Burlington City Council set the referendum in motion in June of that year. City materials said the package would add about 5.7 cents to the tax rate if fully issued. General-obligation bonds are backed by the city’s taxing power and require voter approval, which made the debt part of a long-planned financial transition rather than an unexpected hit.

The sanitation change also follows a longer shift inside city government. Burlington’s Solid Waste Division provides weekly curbside garbage collection, yard-waste collection and bulk-waste collection, and local coverage has described the new fee as the culmination of a two-year plan to move curbside trash and recycling costs out of the general fund. That means residents who rely on city collection will see the cost more directly on their monthly bill.

Patterson said the higher tax rate, combined with expected growth in the city’s tax base, would produce about $50.8 million in the next fiscal year, more than half of Burlington’s anticipated general-fund revenue of $95.1 million. Each penny on the tax rate is worth roughly $917,000, so the 7-cent increase would generate substantial new revenue.

The proposal marks a sharper turn from June 2025, when Burlington adopted a budget with no property-tax increase even as it raised water and sewer fees and other sanitation-related charges. Renters could also feel the change if landlords pass along higher property-tax or utility costs in future leases, especially in buildings where those expenses are bundled into rent. For Burlington families, the central question is no longer whether one bill will rise, but which city services and debt obligations justify asking households to pay more all at once.