OUR GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION
The NEK Taxpayer Alliance is born out of financial necessity. For years, neighbors across the Kingdom East School District (KESD) have collectively said “No More” to skyrocketing school budgets.
Yet, despite taxpayers’ repeated warnings, runaway spending is triggering an immediate affordability crisis. KESD spending continues to climb while household budgets are pushed past the absolute breaking point. As tax bills outpace our community's ability to pay—forcing families and neighbors on fixed incomes into impossible situations—a group of concerned residents has stepped up to act. We must move past the frustration of broken promises and demand real answers from KESD and state leadership today.
THE STRUGGLE FOR A REVOTE
Each year we are told, “Just vote for this budget and work with the school district and Montpelier to find a solution.” Time and again, that approach has gotten us nowhere.
Our defining moment came when two of our founding members took direct action to give local voters a choice. Following a razor-thin budget approval, volunteers worked tirelessly to gather hundreds of physical signatures from neighbors across the district. The goal was simple: exercise our legal democratic right under Vermont law to petition for a formal budget reconsideration revote, ensuring the community’s voice was genuinely heard.
THE BUREAUCRATIC ROADBLOCK
Despite our community leaders’ success in obtaining a massive response in a short time frame, the bureaucracy brushed aside the communities' concerns. Just one day before the official 30-day filing deadline, school district officials, attorneys, and state administrators declared the hard-earned petitions invalid and out of compliance.
As detailed by The Caledonian Record, technicalities were used to dismiss the paperwork and silence another public vote. This frustrating hurdle proved exactly why an organized, permanent alliance is required to safeguard taxpayer rights.
WHY WE STAND TOGETHER
We refuse to let a technical roadblock stand. We will no longer tolerate KESD leaders ignoring or delaying our demands for public records, nor will we sit idly by while hundreds of us voice our concerns to Montpelier, only to go completely unanswered.
We will not allow the bureaucratic machine to silence our communities' financial realities. This experience taught us a hard lesson:
The NEK Taxpayer Alliance is building a permanent, structured network of informed voters to ensure that local spending priorities are transparent, fully accountable, and focused entirely on our classrooms—not creating an ever-expanding bureaucracy.
Fighting to keep families, seniors and others on a fixed income from being priced out of their homes by runaway property tax increases.
Demanding that school funding directly prioritizes classroom learning, academic achievement, and student success over administrative overhead and non-academic programming.
Bringing long-term fiscal sanity to the KESD budget so our towns remain affordable, vibrant communities for generations to come.