By Guy Page
A “We The People Veto Session” rally will be held Saturday, June 15 at 1-3 pm at the State Capitol steps in Montpelier, organizer Greg Thayer of Rutland said.
Announced speakers include Lynn Baldwin, Windsor County; Chris Bradley, VT Federation Sportsmen Clubs of Vermont; JT Dodge, No Carbon Tax VT.; Martha Hefner – Pray for Vermont; Rep. Mark Higley, VT. House; Lynn LaFleur, Lamoille County; Stuart Lindberg, Windsor County; Jay Shepard, RNC Committeeman and G.E.T R.E.A.L Plan; Moderator, Gregory Thayer, Vermonters for Vermont Initiative; Ed Wheeler-Climate Activist.
The rally will be held two days before the veto session of the Vermont Legislature 10 AM Monday, June 17, called to consider Gov. Scott’s vetos of the following bills:
S.18, banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids
H.706, banning the use of neonicotinoid pesticides
H.289, Renewable Energy Standard
H.72, harm-reduction criminal justice response to drug use (AKA ‘safe injection sites’)
H.645, approaches to restorative justice
H.887, An act relating to homestead property tax yields, nonhomestead rates, and policy changes to education finance and taxation
Gov. Scott has yet to sign, veto or pass into law several other bills passed by the Vermont Legislature, including the controversial H.687, ‘community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use,’ which reforms Act 250 to allow highly regulated housing development in downtown cores and further restricts housing development in rural areas.
Supporters, such as House Speaker Jill Krowinski, say it will stimulate housing growth, which at the beginning of the session was promised as the highest priority of the 2024 Legislature. Critics say its lengthy, as-yet-unwritten, high-bar regulations will actually hinder housing growth. Vermont has the oldest housing stock in the nation and housing sale prices rose 12.8% last year, the highest in the nation.
Of the bills already vetoed, H.887 is perhaps the most controversial. It was a late-session attempted fix to reduce the looming 20% statewide property tax. More than 30 school districts voted down their Town Meeting budgets, with unsustainably high property taxes cited as the main complaint. H.887 reduces the estimated SW property tax to 13.8% by ‘cost-shifting’ some of the likely $200 million increase in school spending to two new taxes on short-term rentals and software.
Also, H.289, the Renewable Energy Standard, will require utilities to greatly increase use of instate renewable power (wind and solar), at an estimated added cost to ratepayers of $400 million – $1 billion over 10 years. Gov. Scott said his administration’s alternative plan of accessing existing carbon-free power in New England (notably nuclear) would get Vermont to 100% carbon-free power in less time and spending less money.
H.687 “may loosen some regulations in downtown centers because that is part of their plan for their Planned Urban Development living,” Thayer said in a press statement. “It creates huge restrictions and added cost to live, build, or renovate a house in the outlying areas of the countryside, where people want to live. Are you ready for all Vermonters to live in tight quarters in downtown settings?”
Thayer also took aim at H.887. “Then there is the education funding, and more of the kicking the can down the road and another study committee. There have been nearly 70 studies since 2020. This is expensive and is nonsense.”
“This is what faces Vermonters. Is this what you want? If you don’t like this picture, come out to the veto rally,” Thayer concluded.
It is unclear whether the announced bankruptcy of ISun, parent firm to SunCommon, Vermont’s largest solar power company, will influence the Legislature’s decision. H.289 passed without the requisite number to override a veto, but many lawmakers in both chambers were absent that day.
It’s also unclear how the deaths of centrist Democratic senators Richard Mazza and Richard Sears will affect the override effort.