Montpelier voters will decide on 15 measures on the Town Meeting Day ballot on March 4, including three measures relating to the Montpelier Roxbury School District.
Town Meeting Day is held at Montpelier City Hall on the first Tuesday of March. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Vermont law makes Town Meeting Day a holiday for employees of the state and allows other employees in the state to take unpaid time off to attend.
At the Town Meeting, voters elect local officials and cast votes on ballot measures concerning the city budget and other policy issues.
Three of the measures on the ballot were placed on the ballot through successful citizen initiative petitions. The initiatives were designed to do the following:
- Article 9: appropriate $464,255 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, a free non-profit library that serves Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, Montpelier, and Worcester;
- Article 10: appropriate $3,750 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year to Mosaic Vermont, a nonprofit organization that supports victims of sexual violence; and
- Article 13: advises the mayor and city council to adopt a pledge to join others “in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.”
The other measures, placed on the ballot by the Montpelier City Council, relate to the city’s budget, taxes, and salaries for the city council and the mayor:
- Article 2: authorize the city to spend $12,278,226 for the payment of debts, expenses, and taxes in the 2025-2026 fiscal year;
- Article 3: appropriates $4,080 as compensation for the mayor during the 2025-2026 fiscal year;
- Article 4: appropriates $12,240 ($2,040 each) as compensation for council members for the 2025-2026 fiscal year;
- Article 5: levies a 1% city sales tax with the first $50,000 in funding to be appropriated to Montpelier Alive and the next $100,000 to be appropriated to infrastructure projects in the 2026 fiscal year;
- Article 6: authorizes the city to levy a special assessment of $51.50 per $100,000 of value on properties within Montpelier’s Designated Downtown not used entirely for residential purposes, expected to generate $62,000 in revenue, with funds used to improve the downtown streetscape and downtown marketing;
- Article 7: authorizes the city to borrow $2,200,000 for the replacement of the aerial ladder fire truck;
- Article 8: appropriates $134,150 to the Montpelier Community Fund to support local non-profit organizations and individual artists for the 2025-2026 fiscal year;
- Article 11: authorizes $23,500 in expenditures for Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice; and
- Article 12: modifies the City Council’s authority to enter tax stabilization contracts for industrial, commercial, and alternative-energy properties, with conditions on valuation, term limits, public hearings, and eligibility criteria.
Voters will also elect the following local officials:
*one council member each from districts one, two, and three for two-year terms;
*one commissioner for the Green Mount Cemetery for a term of five years; and
*one parks commissioner for a term of five years.
Voters will also elect the following Roxbury School District officials:
*a school district moderator, clerk, and treasurer, each for one-year terms; and
*two Montpelier School Directors for three-year terms, one Roxbury School Director for a three-year term, and one Roxbury School Director for a two-year term.
The three ballot measures relating to the Montpelier Roxbury School District would do the following:
- Article 3: approves a $32,634,264 budget for the school district for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, with an estimated per pupil spending of $14,796.81, a 7.58% increase from the prior year’s budget;
- Article 4: appropriates $9,700 as compensation for School Directors, with $1,500 for the Chair, $1,200 for the Vice Chair, and $1,000 for each other director; and
- Article 5: authorizes the Board of School Directors to retain any audited fund balance as of June 30, 2025, in a reserve fund for school operations.
In 2022, Montpelier voters approved all 15 measures on the Town Meeting ballot. In 2023, voters approved 15 measures. In 2024, voters approved 10 of 11 Town Meeting measures.
In 2025, Ballotpedia is covering local ballot measures that appear on the ballot for voters within the 100 largest cities in the U.S., within state capitals, and throughout California. You can review the coverage scope of the local ballot measures project here. Ballotpedia also covers electoral system-related ballot measures, like ranked-choice voting, outside of the largest cities.
Additional reading: Vermont 2025 local ballot measures