by Guy Page
S.5 beats homeowners with a financial stick when what they need are more carrots, Gov. Phil Scott said today.
Gov Phil Scott was asked at his press conference to comment on statements by Sen. Becca White and other supporters that S5, the Affordable Heating Act, does not force homeowners to go electric.
“We just fundamentally disagree,” Scott said. “When you have someone who is living within modest means, and they’re faced with the option of putting on a new heating system with heat pumps that will cost thousands of dollars, or pay more for fuel – that doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me.
“So I think there’s another path forward. We can use more carrots than sticks. And this seems like the stick approach to me,” Scott said.
Scott vetoed S.5 last week. A veto override session is tentatively scheduled for June 20-22.
At the press conference, Scott also:
- raised constitutional concerns about the waiting period provisions in H.230, the gun control bill approved by the Senate. It will almost certainly face a court challenge, he said.
- Said he’s okay with changes made in S100, the omnibus housing bill. A House committee expanded rural housing development exemptions to Act 250 review. He also defended his administration’s decision to stop spending $20 million/month in emergency housing, now that the pandemic and its stream of federal emergency housing funding is over.
- Opposes the bills approving ranked choice and non-citizen voting in Burlington. He did not say whether he would veto them. He added that if political parties want to run their presidential primaries with ranked choice voting, that’s their business – the subject of a bill in this year’s Legislature.