Month: May 2015

Legislature Raises Funds to Clean Up Lake Champlain

With the close of the Legistlative Session, VT Lawmakers “raised some money designed to clean up Lake Champlain… while polls show most Vermonters – even those outside the Lake Champlain watershed – are willing to spend the money, there is far less agreement on who should be taxed, and how. ” – VT Digger

“The Senate voted 27-2 to pass a $7.5 million water quality bill, H.35, that is funded in part by a 0.2 percent surcharge on the state’s property transfer tax. The bill also includes fees on pollution permits, medium and large farm registrations, and the sale of non-agricultural fertilizer and pesticides. The House voted Wednesday to concur with the bill, sending it to the governor’s desk. Gov. Peter Shumlin has said he supports it.” Read the full VT Digger article

State Does Not Add a Payroll Tax to Fund Healthcare

VT Digger – “Lawmakers and the governor reached a deal to pass a health care package that, as one senator put it, will “keep the lights on” for health care reform… Six months ago Vermont was poised to move forward with an ambitious single payer health care plan.  In December, Gov. Peter Shumlin pulled the plug on the initiative, which would have been largely funded through a payroll tax, because he said Vermont couldn’t afford to pay for a publicly financed health care program. Lawmakers rejected the payroll tax, and struggled to find funding for a greatly diminished health care bill.”