[V]ermonters must find $68 million a year to improve Lake Champlain’s water quality and meet pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency, state officials said Wednesday.
The EPA in June adopted caps on how much phosphorus Vermonters can allow into Lake Champlain. All told, the effort will cost about $120 million a year. Of that amount, $52 million is already covered, officials said.
The remaining $68 million needed to clean up the lake will likely come from new tax revenues and new costs passed off to private entities, including farmers and developers, in the form of environmental restrictions.
Either way, Vermonters will be picking up the tab, according to Alyssa Schuren, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.
“We don’t have to pay for the $68 million a year, but somebody does,” Schuren said.
Legislators have known for some time that the effort would exceed $100 million annually, but have only established one source of revenue: A 0.2-percent surcharge on property transfers. The tax could bring in $5 million this year.
Schuren told lawmakers they need to act this session because poor water quality in Lake Champlain poses a health risk.
If toxic blue-green algae continues to bloom unabated on the lake, it could hurt the $2.5 billion tourism economy, she said.
Officials in the town of Georgia have recently reassessed the value of lakefront properties, Schuren said, because of frequent blue-green algae blooms.
To curb the toxic algae, Vermonters must reduce phosphorus discharges into Lake Champlain by 34 percent over the next 20 years, Schuren said. The EPA will check in on Vermont’s progress next year, she said.
“There are requirements, and we need to meet them, and there are costs associated with those requirements,” Schuren said.
Treasurer Beth Pearce is in the process of identifying potential revenue sources for the shortfall.
Some of the possible sources of revenue could include $18 million in fees on parking lots and driveways. A penny increase on the state property tax would result in another $8 million annually. A penny per gallon in the state’s tax on gasoline would bring in $3 million per year.
A sales tax on nail salons and beauty salon services would raise an additional $6.5 million, Pearce’s report estimated. Ending tax exemptions on ski lifts and snowmaking, could generate another $2 million. A sales tax on auto repair could draw $6 million, Pearce’s report states.
These sources were proposed through the stakeholder process and are not recommendations by the Treasurer’s Office. Legislators were told that the projections and descriptions were provided for the purpose of public information and discussion.
Pearce will make a recommendation in January.
