BARRE, Vt. -
As people across Vermont voted Tuesday, the majority didn't mind approving significantly higher school budgets.
But that wasn't the case in Barre.
"The voters had their say," said Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon.
Lauzon says he's happy that voters rejected a school budget that would've grown by more than 10%.
"You can't put a 12% increase, you can't put a 6% increase on the backs of voters who have already supported you more than they probably should have," said Lauzon.
State leaders say about 90% of all proposed budgets passed.
Because of the extra spending, Governor Peter Shumlin says a 5-cent property tax increase is more than likely coming.
"The fact that so many budgets passed I would argue that local communities have said that they want to spend more money on schools," said Shumlin.
A tax that wouldn't just be put on people who approved budgets, but all property owners.
People that want to keep local taxes down as much as possible can still do so in places that rejected budgets.
School leaders must now put together a new proposal that must be voted on before July.
As for 2014, Shumlin had a message for school leaders.
"Community by community we need to do a better job of holding down cost because taxpayers just can't take it," said Shumlin.
We asked Vermont's secretary of state how turnout was Tuesday, and he said at this point he didn't know how many people actually turned out to vote.
