Senate Democrats on Saturday declared soaring property taxes to be their No. 1 priority when they return to Montpelier, pledging to move Gov. Phil Scott’s ideas for fixing the problem to the top of their agenda in January. In a morning caucus at the Statehouse, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) told his badly weakened majority that compromising with the governor is the new name of the game this legislative biennium. “Given where the votes are now, no one is going home without a Phil Scott-approved tax plan,” Baruth told colleagues. The meeting was the first public gathering of Democratic leaders since the November 5 election that stripped them of their supermajority in the legislature.  Democrats lost 18 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate as voters angry at an average 14 percent hike in property taxes embraced Republicans and their promises to make the state more affordable. Baruth said it was “the worst election I’ve been through” and the message he took from it was clear. “Vermonters want the property tax reduced — period,” he said. They also want the education finance system simplified and its impacts on property taxes to be addressed as well, he said. He noted that the education system was designed for a population of 125,000 students. But with changing demographics, the number has dwindled to fewer than 74,000. “I view it as a de facto emergency,” Baruth said. “The governor is not going to issue an emergency order, but I want us to act in the Senate as though he had.” This coming session, Baruth said, he plans to give the administration the first full week to lay out its plans for fixing the education finance and property tax systems. Three key committees — Education, Finance and Appropriations — will vet the proposals, take testimony, run the numbers and see what they can agree to.Baruth reminded colleagues, including three new ones, that last year they “worked like dogs” to reduce the possible property tax burden by a combined $70 million compared to what it could have been. But he said he wanted the committees to take another look at some of the ideas the governor proposed that Democrats — including Baruth — explicitly rejected as financially irresponsible. “I want all those back on the table, including his plan to buy down the property tax rate much further than we…