Editor’s note: This commentary is by John Freitag, who is vice chair of the Strafford Selectboard. While working at an environmental resource center in the early 1970s, he played a small role helping to pass Vermont’s first-in-the-nation law for returnable deposits on cans and bottles.
[D]ivided government does not necessarily always mean confrontation and/or inaction. Vermont is a place where it has and can work. Here are three modest measures that build on existing programs which address current key needs of water quality, climate change, and infrastructure. They could be areas in which agreement might quickly be found and help set a positive tone in the upcoming legislative session.
• Raise the can and bottle deposit fee to 10 cents. The returnable deposit first instituted over 45 years ago has not changed since then. Due to recent changes, millions of dollars in unclaimed funds annually now go to the Clean Water Fund. Doubling the deposit fee would significantly add to this amount.
• Raise the Vermont gas tax by 2 cents with 1 cent going to state maintained highways and 1 cent going to town maintained highway. While it would make the most sense to raise the federal gas tax, something which has not been done for decades, to support our infrastructure, it is unlikely this will happen soon. With gas prices going down, this may be the ideal time to modestly raise the state gas tax.
Although a good deal of work continues to be done on our roads and bridges, there is a need for more repair and improvement. Towns rely on already over-used property taxes for the majority of their highway expenditures and an increase in the gas tax with half of the additional funds going to cities and towns would be helpful. This “user fee” would also encourage conservation measures while not requiring the imposition of any new complex bureaucracy.
• A voluntary carbon offset program similar to the Vermont Strong license plates or Wildlife Fund could have funds collected going to projects in affected watersheds, both to decrease greenhouse gases and improve waste handling. Headquartered in Burlington, Native Energy is one of the largest companies providing carbon offsets. While many of their projects are outside our area and even our country, they have successfully supported two projects in Vermont: a biogas digester in Essex Junction and a composting program at a 300-plus cow dairy farm. Unfortunately, at the moment there are no programs in Vermont to which people can offset their carbon usage.
If the state was to partner with this already established proven public benefit company on projects in Vermont, those individuals and companies who feel that climate change needs to be addressed and wish to voluntarily take responsibility for their own footprint could do so; and in a way that would also help address water quality issues in Vermont. Again along with the two other proposals little if any new bureaucracy would be needed.
Politics always involves friction and contention. It is after all in essence about who gets what and who pays for what. Yet, if we look for ways that can best address the common good while putting aside as much as possible ideology, power and personality, this upcoming session could make significant progress on the challenges we face. Often smaller trust building measures such as those outlined above can lead to more substantial agreements. The election is over and it is time those in whom we have put our faith and trust to find ways to move forward. Perhaps these suggestions could serve as a useful starting point.
