Act 60 (Vermont law)
Encyclopedia
In June 1997, the Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 legislature
Vermont General Assembly
The Vermont General Assembly is the legislative body of the U.S. state of Vermont. The Legislature is formally known as the "General Assembly," but the style of "Legislature" is commonly used, including by the body itself...

 passed Act 60, known as The Equal Educational Opportunity Act.

It was drafted in response to a Vermont Supreme Court
Vermont Supreme Court
The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont and is one of seven state courts of Vermont.The Court consists of a chief justice and four associate justices; the Court mostly hears appeals of cases that have been decided by other courts...

 decision, in the Brigham vs. State of Vermont case, which stated that Vermont’s existing educational funding system was unconstitutional, favoring towns with higher real estate values over those with less.

Common Level of Appraisal

The property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...

rate in each town is adjusted by the common level of appraisal (CLA) for that town's school district. The CLA helps to equalize how much towns pay, essentially by adjusting the appraised value of a house by looking at recent sale prices in town in comparison to the appraised values. If the appraised values are below the sale prices, the CLA raises the tax rate, and if the prices are below the appraised values, the CLA lowers the tax rate. This is done so that properties that have not been reappraised in several years are not able to pay lower taxes than a similarly valued home that was more recently reappraised.

Act 68

In 2003, Act 68 was passed amending Act 60, to relieve some of the burden placed on local school districts.
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