Burlington once paid Vermont more than $100,000 for supplemental State Police patrols downtown. The latest deployment works differently: state officials say Vermont is paying and Burlington will not receive a bill.

For more than a year beginning in 2022, the arrangement was straightforward.

Vermont State Police troopers patrolled downtown Burlington. Burlington paid for them.

Under a written agreement, troopers worked overtime details around Church Street and City Hall Park, with the city covering overtime and travel costs from its police budget.

By the time the arrangement ended Dec. 30, 2023, Burlington had paid more than $100,000.

The city did not renew the agreement.

State Police are now back in Burlington.

This time, the financial arrangement is different.

State funds are paying for the latest deployment

Gov. Phil Scott directed State Police back into Burlington in late July. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak was not notified beforehand and learned about the deployment through news coverage.

Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison later described the arrangement as a cooperative deployment rather than a contract.

According to Vermont Daily Chronicle, Morrison said the troopers are being paid with state funds and that Burlington “will not be sent the bill.”

As of Aug. 5, the deployment had logged 285 trooper hours and resulted in no arrests.

That creates a sharp contrast with the 2022–2023 arrangement.

Then, Burlington contracted for supplemental patrols and paid the state.

Now, Vermont is providing the personnel and absorbing the cost.

Burlington patrols already showed up in the State Police overtime problem

The expense is not merely theoretical.

On Dec. 17, 2025, the Department of Public Safety presented its budget-adjustment request to the House Appropriations Committee. DPS Director of Finance and Administration Richard Hauser walked lawmakers through a projected shortfall in the State Police overtime line — the only State Police line item the department sought an adjustment on.

In the committee’s recorded hearing, Hauser put a number on the Burlington piece: just over $100,000 of the overtime shortfall was attributable to supporting Burlington patrols.

That establishes an identifiable cost to the State Police budget from the Burlington deployments.

Reporting on the November–December 2025 operation was less clear about whether Burlington also contributed money.

WCAX reported that costs were being covered by both the state and Burlington.

Another contemporaneous account reported that state taxpayers were covering the State Police costs and quoted Burlington Interim Police Chief Shawn Burke saying Burlington was not expected to pay for supplemental patrols provided by several state agencies.

The later DPS budget testimony establishes that Vermont itself incurred more than $100,000 in Burlington-related overtime costs. Public records reviewed by FYIVT do not establish whether Burlington later reimbursed any portion of the 2025 expense.

The Legislature added State Police personnel money

The FY2026 budget adjustment increased the State Police personal-services appropriation by $865,762, from $83.28 million to $84.15 million.

The General Fund portion increased by the same amount, according to the Legislature’s FY2026 Budget Adjustment report.

The department’s budget spreadsheet, presented on screen during the Dec. 17 hearing, shows where the entire increase sits: a single line item — 500060, Overtime — for $865,762.

That does not mean $865,762 was spent on Burlington.

The legislation does not identify Burlington as the reason for the increase. The documented Burlington portion is the $100,000-plus overtime pressure described by DPS officials.

Burlington has also doubled its own public-safety tax revenue

The state assistance comes as Burlington residents are themselves paying substantially more for police and fire services.

| Fiscal year | Police/fire tax rate | Projected revenue | |---|---:|---:| | FY2024 | $0.0785 | $4,438,711 | | FY2025 | $0.0985 | $5,548,665 | | FY2026 | $0.1085 | $6,441,613 | | FY2027 | $0.1585 | $9,217,067 |

Dedicated police and fire tax revenue has roughly doubled in three years.

Burlington voters approved a three-cent increase in March 2024, followed by another five-cent increase in March 2026.

The latest increase raises roughly $3 million annually.

State Police are not an unlimited resource

Vermont State Police provide primary law enforcement to roughly 200 communities covering about 90 percent of Vermont’s land area and half its population.

Burlington is not one of those communities. It maintains its own municipal police department.

VSP has also struggled for years with dozens of vacant trooper positions.

That does not establish that a particular rural patrol went uncovered because a trooper was assigned to Burlington, and FYIVT found no public record proving such a direct diversion.

It does establish that the state is supplying additional law-enforcement hours from an agency with its own staffing constraints.

Other state agencies are operating in Burlington too

Scott’s broader Burlington public-safety plan has also involved enforcement personnel from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Liquor and Lottery.

FYIVT could not locate a public reimbursement agreement showing Burlington pays those agencies for that enforcement activity.

Vermont law allows the Public Safety Commissioner to enter contracts and collect reimbursement for supplemental security and traffic-control services. The authority is spelled out in 20 V.S.A. § 1871.

That was essentially the model Burlington used several years ago.

The current State Police deployment is not.

Six years after Burlington cut its authorized police force, the city has increased its own public-safety taxes, rebuilt portions of its police budget and again has State Police walking downtown.

The difference is who is writing the check.

In 2022, it was Burlington.

For the latest State Police deployment, Vermont officials say it is the state — and Burlington will not be billed.