[A] coalition of Vermont mayors want the Legislature to tackle Act 250 reform and clean water funding as the new session kicks into gear.
Six mayors — Burlington’s Miro Weinberger, Barre’s Lucas Herring, Montpelier’s Anne Watson, Newport’s Paul Monette, St. Albans’ Tim Smith and Vergennes’ Renny Perry — laid out their priorities at a Thursday press conference at the Statehouse.
The mayors support Gov. Phil Scott’s proposal to add more funding to a downtown tax credit program, and are seeking action on climate change. The establishment of a regional dispatch service is another area of interest for the municipal leaders.
Weinberger said that the mayors support the expansion of areas that can be exempted from Act 250, which mandates a state-level developmental review process on top of municipal-level processes.
“The system we have today in municipalities … is highly redundant and very expensive when you have projects that go through both a robust local permitting process and then need to go through an almost entirely redundant state permitting process,” he said.
Clean water funding is another issue on the minds of the municipal leaders. The state passed a Clean Water Act in 2015 that aims to protect the state’s waterways. However, no long-term funding source has been worked out.
Scott has proposed the estate tax as a funding source for clean water.
Weinberger said that the coalition did not have a position on Scott’s estate tax proposal and does not have a specific funding source in mind. But he said the coalition wants the Legislature to pick a source that will be effective, fair and efficient.
He said that while lakeshore communities should pay more than other municipalities in the state, payment should be more evenly spread out.
“We shouldn’t be the only ones paying, which is essentially what we have today,” Weinberger said. “Right now, really it’s only the handful of communities that have their own stormwater utilities … that are shouldering a very large percentage of the burden, and that should change if we are really going to get serious about fixing this problem.”
The mayors want a statewide Clean Water Authority to be established to address the issue.
“This is a statewide issue that should be addressed,” Smith said. “Just because someone isn’t on a lake doesn’t mean the need for clean water in their community is not important.”
The mayors also support environmental protection and energy measures. The group wants the state to prioritize investing in electric vehicle charging stations, to support initiatives and funding for energy-saving weatherization for low-income Vermonters, and to advance policies to reduce carbon pollution while adding jobs.
The mayors support Scott’s $250,000 increase in tax credits for downtowns and village centers to pay for rehabilitation and investments in elevators, sprinklers and other code improvements.
Perry said that tax credits such as the ones proposed by Scott have helped dramatically improve Vergennes’ downtown.
“Vergennes didn’t look as nice and didn’t function as well as it does now many years ago,” he said. “And one of the reasons why we’ve got to where we’re at is the use of tax credits.”
The mayors also discussed regional police dispatch and are supportive of a legislative study to analyze the issue. They want the Vermont League of Cities and Towns to be an equal partner with the Department of Public Safety and the Vermont Enhanced 911 Board in proposing a plan for regional dispatch centers.
“We would like to see the state come up with a comprehensive plan to address dispatching services throughout the state,” Monette said. “Some of us up in the Northeast Kingdom, we feel that regional knowledge goes a long way, compared to someone looking at Google Maps or sitting in a dispatch center outside of the area.”
Weinberger said the coalition of mayors, which also includes Rutland’s Dave Allaire and included Winooski’s Seth Leonard before he resigned, believes it can have an impact in Montpelier by speaking as a unified voice.
The coalition was founded in 2013, and Weinberger said the mayors have effectively lobbied for a change in a vaccination bill to limit exceptions to childhood immunization and fought to keep the tax increment financing program alive amid discussions of cutting it.
“I do think when a group that represents 100,000 Vermonters comes together and speaks with one voice, that tends to get some attention in this building,” he said.
