MONTPELIER — The Senate advanced Montpelier’s annual property tax rate legislation, expected to increase the average education tax bill by 1.1%.

The relatively modest increase pales in comparison to last year’s average rise of 13.8%, but the legislation relies on about $118 million to buy down rates.

While the state frequently uses surplus funds to lower property taxes, the practice creates additional upward pressure on rates the following year. Some lawmakers have criticized the process.

They include Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the chamber’s tax writing body.

“I think we should be saving money for the inevitability of next year when we may be in a worse situation,” she told her colleagues in committee last week, “and won’t have as much money around.”

But legislative leaders — and Gov. Phil Scott — have said that after back-to-back years of higher-than-typical property tax increases, policymakers need to do all they can to flatten further spikes.

Property taxes are a primary source of revenue used to pay for public education. School budgets passed this year are projected to increase education spending by about 5.5%. Total education fund appropriations are expected to surpass $2.4 billion next fiscal year.

Even a 5% increase in the average property tax bill in South Burlington would raise the amount owed by about $500, said Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden Southeast, who argued for using the available funds this year to buy down rates.

“That’s real money in people’s pockets,” he told senators in the finance committee.

The cash to offset property taxes next fiscal year would come from extra money in the education fund and a general fund transfer of $77 million.

The decision to buy down rates comes as lawmakers continue hashing out a wide-ranging education finance and governance reform bill they hope will help slow future growth in education spending. The legislation, which would set in motion a new funding formula and significant school district consolidation, is the largest piece of education policy in at least a decade. The Senate Finance Committee is taking up the bill this week, and lawmakers will need to negotiate the differences between the chambers in a conference committee later this month.

The property tax legislation advanced Tuesday, known as the yield bill, H.491, still requires final Senate approval, a vote that is expected this week. It would then go to the governor for his signature.