By Guy Page
The fuel dealers registry bill and the Miles Based User Fee are both moving through the Vermont Senate.
H.740, the greenhouse gas inventory and registry, is in Senate Natural Resources and Energy. It appears likely to pass on a 3-2 committee vote and on party line on the floor.
Gov. Phil Scott could veto it out of concern that it is a precursor for further regulation and taxation, including the Global Warming Solutions Act. The veto likely would be upheld by the Republican minority.
A proposal to impose an EV alternative to the gasoline tax, AKA the Miles Based Users Fee, is part of the transportation bill now under review by the Vermont Senate.
The MBUF is a long-awaited solution to criticism that EVs, already heavily subsidized at the point of sale, are not contributing to state bridge and highway construction and maintenance – now paid for at the pump by gasoline and diesel vehicle drivers.
Also in Senate Transportation, senators are working on restoring local option tax surplus – about $10 million – to municipalities for local highway funds, Sen. Pat Brennan told VDC today.
Longtime Brattleboro rep won’t run again – Mollie Burke, a Democrat legislator representing Brattleboro since 2009, has announced she will not seek re-election.
She was elected to the House in 2008 and has served since then on the Transportation Committee. She is also Chair of the House Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel and active in the Climate Solutions Caucus and the Women’s Caucus.
Anti-ICE bill passes Senate – by a 23-7 vote, the Senate Tuesday, April 14 passed h849, granting the right to sue for deprivation of federal constitutional rights by any government official.