Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to collect the Town General, Highway, School Taxes and State Education Taxes on real property and all other taxes levied through the Treasurer under the provisions of Title 32 VSA Chapter 133 and fix the dates of payments as November 7, 2025 and May 1, 2026 and to require payment to be received by the Town Office by close of business on those dates.

This permits the town to collect taxes due twice a year (11/7/25 and 5/1/26)

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to pay the Town Officers in accordance with Title 24 VSA, Section 932 as follows:

Select Board $1,000.00 per year

Town Treasurer $13,000.00 per year

Listers $28.99 per hour

Constable $25.76 per hour

Town Clerk $36.53 per hour

Moderator $100.00 each time serves

This permits the town to pay our elected officials. 

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of Eight Million Three Hundred Fifty Two Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Nine Dollars and Fifty Four cents ($8,352,359.54) which includes the specified sums of money to operate each department; and to raise by taxation the amount up to Seven Million Two Hundred Sixty Seven Thousand Six Hundred Fifty Nine Dollars and Fifty Six cents ($7,267,659.56) which is the necessary sum to defray operating costs for FY 2025-2026.

Culture and Recreation $ 470,000

Town Hall Building $ 171,738.56

General Government $ 1,416,093.50

Planning and Zoning $ 175,041

Town Clerk $ 194,340

Town Highways $ 2,013,310

Cemetery Maintenance $24,000

Sanitation $27,045

Welcome Center $87,080.54

Ambulance Department $1,566,929.54

Health Officer $2,450

Fire Department $703,814.49

Communications – Dispatch $506,451.24

Constable $10,850

Town Police $473,270.67

Select Board Contingency $454,845

Irene Bond $55,100

Total $8,352,359.54

This article is to approve the budget presented for fiscal year 2025-2026. This amount increases the property tax rate by 6.9%* The article also breaks down what each category or department will receive. Here’s a link to the budget.

*% updated on 2/27 to reflect newest updates to Grand List

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of One Million Four Hundred Thousand Five Hundred Seventy Three Dollars and Fifty Five Cents ($1,400,573.55), which includes up to One Million Four Hundred Twenty Three Thousand Seventy Seven Dollars ($1,423,077) from user fees and up to Forty Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($42,500) from other revenues, to pay the current expenses and debt of the sewer department for FY 2025-2026.

This permits the town to pay for the ongoing operations of the sewer department with user fees, interest, and late payment fees.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of Seven Hundred Thirty Five Thousand Two Hundred Twenty Six Dollars and Seventeen Cents ($735,226.17), which includes up to Four Hundred Eighty Seven Thousand Eight Hundred Forty Five Dollars and Thirty Seven Cents ($487,845.37) from user fees and Two Hundred Forty Seven Thousand Three Hundred Eighty Dollars and Eighty Cents ($247,380.80) from other revenues, to pay the current expenses and debt of the water department for FY 2025-2026.

This permits the town to pay for the operations of the NEW water department with user fees, interest, and late payment fees starting in July 2025 through June 2026.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of up to One Hundred Eighty-Three Thousand Eight Hundred Six Dollars and Fifty Four Cents ($183,806.54), from user fees and from other revenues, to pay the expenses and debt of the water department from April 2025 through June 2025.

This permits the town to pay for the operations of the water department from when we close on the purchase of the water company through the end of the current fiscal year.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of Nine Hundred Dollars ($900) and pay each of the Trustees Three Hundred Dollars ($300) for the purpose of paying the Trustees of Public Funds for services rendered and approve the expenditure from the income of the Trust Funds for that purpose.

This permits the Town will pay the Trustees of the Public Funds a stipend that comes out of the trust funds they manage. The Town controls a number of public trust funds, whose benefactors wanted them to be managed by elected officials and not employees of the town. These are charitable funds for scholarships, maintaining cemeteries, etc.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to appropriate the sum of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500) for the purpose of having the Public Trust Funds audited and approve the expenditure of One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500) from income of the Trust Funds to pay for the Annual Audit.

This permits the Town to pay for the Public Trust Funds to be audited. The cost is taken out of the income of the trust funds.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote, pursuant to Title 24 V.S.A. section 2804, to create an Infrastructure Reserve Fund whose purpose is to fund infrastructure within the Town of Woodstock.

This permits the town to create a specific fund to deposit the 1% local options tax earmarked for infrastructure.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to have all revenue received by the Town from the 1% local options sales tax (passed on March 2024) deposited into the Infrastructure Reserve Fund.

This permits the town to deposit the local options tax into the newly created fund.

Shall the voters of Woodstock establish a reserve fund to be called the Discretionary Reserve Fund to be used at the discretion of the Selectboard in accordance with 24 V.S.A. § 2804.

This permits the town to create a fund for the Selectboard to use at their discretion.

Shall the voters of Woodstock, in the event that after the yearly audit the Undesignated Fund Balance exceeds 15% of the current fiscal year budget, grant the Selectboard the authority to transfer the surplus funds over 15% to fund the Discretionary Reserve Fund.

This permits the town to transfer surplus funds into the Discretionary Reserve Fund created in the previous article.

Shall the voters of Woodstock authorize the elimination of the office of Town Lister in accordance with 17 V.S.A. §2651c(b)(1) and replace it with a professionally qualified assessor or assessors who shall have the same powers, discharge the same duties, proceed in the discharge thereof in the same manner, and be subject to the same liabilities as are prescribed for listers or the board of listers under the provisions of Title 32.

This permits the town to eliminate the elected position of lister in favor of appointed assessor. Currently, the only requirement to become a lister is residency in Woodstock. An assessor will have to meet professional requirements.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to eliminate the elected Auditor positions in accordance with 17 V.S.A. §2651b and enter into a contract with a public accountant or auditor’s firm licensed in this State to perform an annual financial audit of all funds of the Town except the funds audited pursuant to 16 V.S.A. § 323.

This permits the town to eliminate the position of elected auditor and instead use a professional auditing firm.

Shall the voters of Woodstock vote to provide notice of the availability of the annual report by making formal announcements in a publicly warned meeting and posting on the Town’s website at least 30 days before the annual meeting instead of mailing or otherwise distributing the report to the voters of the town pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 1682(a).

This releases the town from having to mail the Town Report to each resident and instead post it on the website and make physical copies available.