by Guy Page
The Vermont House today sustained Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes of the Clean Heat Standard and the City of Burlington’s charter change requiring landlords show ‘just cause’ for evicting tenants.
The vote for both was 99-51 – one short of the 100 needed to override the veto.
Democrats Nelson Brownell of Pownal and Thomas Bock of Chester voted to sustain the Clean Heat Standard veto.
“A policy this life-changing needs to be developed in collaboration and cooperation,” Rep. Sally Achey (R-Middleton Springs), a member of the House Energy and Technology Committee that developed the bill, said after the vote. For example, few lawmakers recognized that the IT challenge alone of monitoring and managing a thermal heat credit system among many small businesses.
Scott was succinct in his noontime press conference today: “It needs to come back” with better planning by the Legislature, he said.
Scott’s H708 ‘just cause’ veto was about providing more rental housing, not less.
“We must not add policies that will remove much-needed housing units from the market,” Scott’s veto letter to the House of Representatives said. “By eliminating a property owner’s ability to end a lease agreement at the time of the mutually agreed upon end date within a lease, this ‘just cause eviction’ law effectively creates the potential for perpetual tenancy, undermining private property rights and a foundational principle of choosing to rent your property.”