BRATTLEBORO-My husband and I are lifelong residents of Brattleboro. We thought about moving out of town when we were in our early 20s.
We purchased a book, The Best 100 Small Towns in America, which ranked Brattleboro at No. 5. We decided after visiting a few places in the book that Brattleboro would be a great place for us to stay and settle down to raise a family. Brattleboro is close to the city and ocean, and we have the mountains right in our backyard for hiking and mountain biking.
We now have two children: a 19-year-old daughter, who has a great job at a local bank, and a 17-year-old son, who has one year left at Brattleboro Union High School. Our son has taken two years of forestry, which he really enjoys, at the Windham Regional Career Center. He was just connected with a local forester, which may lead to a future career in forestry.
We are now looking at three years in a row of double-digit property tax increases, leaving us with a tax bill of over $10,000 a year. We are very sadly at the point of knowing we cannot afford to live in Brattleboro or Vermont anymore.
This breaks my heart, because my whole life is here.
Leaving means abandoning everything we have worked so hard to create. We would be leaving the best friends I have had in my life. We would be leaving my family, who are also lifelong residents of Brattleboro and the surrounding areas; leaving our home.
And the hardest of all, we would be leaving our daughter, who has now started to build a life of her own in Brattleboro with a great job and partner. It may also mean leaving our son, who may have an amazing opportunity doing a career he would enjoy.
We have gotten really involved with going to Selectboard meetings to be more informed of what is happening and try to make our town a better and more affordable place to live. My husband joined Representative Town Meeting (RTM) three years ago. I joined last year to have a voice in what happens with our town budget and other town matters.
As RTM members ourselves, we see this system is not serving our town. We hear from friends who are not RTM members who are also struggling to afford the high taxes here. We need to have the input of all eligible voters on our budget.
I am voting for the elimination of RTM and to replace it with Australian (secret) ballot, and I urge you all to do the same.
Jennifer Smith
Brattleboro
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