John McClaughry reports that a ‘climate hawk’ U.S. senator from New England says that unless we give billions to foreign countries for climate change adaption, “we’ll look like jerks.”
Since when do appointees set tax rates?
“When John McClaughry says we’ve got a fuel tax, a carbon tax, I think John’s correct,” Sen. Mark MacDonald says.
A decade ago climate activists like Bill McKibben were hair-on-fire to close Vermont’s largest producer of carbon-free electricity. Now the 350.org thought-leader is having second thoughts.
The Legislature is moving fast on big items with longterm consequences for Vermont property owners and taxpayers.
Vermont labor unions oppose the Clean Heat Standard because it funds climate change programs “on the backs of the working class.”
The Supreme Court said the state must pay tuition to sectarian schools, if that’s what the parent wants. Because, school choice. But the Vermont Senate Education Committee chair says students and staff must be “protected” from religious schools.
Phil Scott has hit the mother lode: vast amounts of federal dollars borrowed, at interest, from current and future taxpayers of our great Republic.
No-one – except John McClaughry – is asking what we will do when the flood of federal money ends.
The carbon tax struck out. TCI struck out. Next up at the plate: the Clean Heat Standard.
A socialist author warns fellow believers to get ready for a long, hard slog.
Thomas Jefferson would abhor the large-scale printing of paper money by our current federal government.
McClaughry expounds upon the virtues of single-member districts.
Today the militant Left is keen to revive a Sedition Act to imprison anyone who gets too far out in front spreading “misinformation” criticizing the Biden Administration, or employing extralegal tactics to suppress free speech as the Sedition Acts did. We’ve done that twice, and both were dark chapters in this land of liberty.
The report recites some obvious challenges, such as “development pressure on farmland, generational transfer of farm assets, [and] changing consumer preferences and markets”. But in its Vision Statement for 2030 the report wanders off into what might be called “Ceres in Wonderland.” That’s a collection of correct and happy outcomes, an exercise noticeably infused with political correctness.
After the push for the carbon tax fizzled out in 2018, the “climate change” game turned to enacting a carbon tax by disguising it as something else. The latest version is called “the Thermal Energy Efficiency Charge”, and Sen. Bray has become its most ardent promoter.
The Public Utility Commission, at the direction of the legislature, has “joined the chorus of voices seeking climate action”. Its all-fuels energy report takes note of the state’s ambitious carbon dioxide emission reduction goals, and almost screams what’s needed on every page: “More Funding!”
The feds sent little Vermont $4.8 billion dollars. That comes to $7,729 per person. That sum puts Vermont second among the 50 states, trailing only New York, which got $7,840 per person. Even so, the state budget department is projecting a $180 million General Fund shortfall for next year.
The pension funds are just 66.4% and 52.3% funded, respectively. The clock is ticking toward calamity, including downgrading the state’s credit ratings.
Gov. Scott is not likely to put forth detailed objections to TCI. He’ll raise a few questions, point to pandemic uncertainty, and pay his customary homage to climate change orthodoxy. But he clearly sees that this is just one more elaborately concealed carbon tax. He knows what that will to do families and Covid- stressed businesses, he has opposed that for four years, and he won’t buy it. Good for him.
