Editor’s note: This commentary is by Patrick Flood, the former commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and former deputy secretary of the Agency of Human Services. He is now retired and lives in East Calais.
Thank you to Sen Anthony Pollina for his proposal to tax well-off Vermonters to fund concrete steps to address climate change. Finally, there is a lot of very welcome attention in the Legislature to the climate crisis. Pollina’s proposal is especially welcome because it raises money to actually fund necessary changes and does it without taxing low- and moderate-income Vermonters. Under Pollina’s plan there will be significant funds directed to enhanced weatherization, electric vehicle incentives, public transportation and other initiatives all of which will directly reduce the use of fossil fuels.
This is critically necessary now because Vermont is way behind on any meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, Vermont’s emissions have been rising and it is abundantly clear that this is almost entirely in two areas: transportation and heating. So, if we have any hope of making progress, we need real initiatives to address those areas, and in order to do that there must be funding.
Pollina’s proposal taxes only the top 5% of Vermont taxpayers, and it does this by imposing only a relatively small surcharge to recoup some of the windfall these taxpayers have reaped from the Trump tax cuts. This is perfectly reasonable. Not only are these taxpayers benefitting from a huge tax windfall, the fact is that higher income people are more likely to use more fossil fuel, for bigger cars, bigger houses, more air travel, etc.
It is not right or just to put the burden of mitigating climate change on low- and moderate-income Vermonters who have a hard time making ends meet and have few choices about what they buy, how they heat their homes, or how they get to work or to medical appointments or how they get their kids to and from school. However, this initiative has the added benefit of making it affordable for them to get their homes weatherized, thus saving them money, or to purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle, saving even more.
Even though the surcharge Pollina proposes will affect only the top 5% of Vermont taxpayers, it will produce a fund of about $30 million per year. A taxpayer in the top 1% with an average income of $1,166,000 is presently enjoying a Trump tax cut of $33,000. The proposed surcharge on an income at this level would produce an additional $3,000 in tax annually, leaving a taxpayer at this level still enjoying a net annual tax reduction of $30,000.
A dedicated new revenue source of this size, reached without imposing any new broad based tax, will not only help us achieve our necessary climate emissions goals, it will also create very many new and relatively high paying jobs for Vermonters. This will make it possible for many young Vermonters to remain in the state to start their lives and their families here.
There are a number of other substantive proposals being brought to the Legislature, and many would have an impact on fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions over time. Unfortunately, most of them, if passed, would not be implemented for years. So yes, let’s pass them too. But we are close to running out of the little time we have left to protect ourselves from the most severe consequences of climate change. We need real change now. If another two or three years go by without effective action, our young people will watch in dismay and with growing alarm over the condition of the world we are leaving them.
The world is in serious trouble. Climate change is here and serious damage is being done every day. The predicted results of a warming world are happening faster than predicted, leaving us less time to react than we imagined we had even a few years ago. Very many people still have no idea just how dire the situation is, and therefore have little idea what needs to be done and how soon it must be done to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Most of us go about our business every day believing there is no real reason to change much. Only a full discussion about real and serious changes will educate the public about what we all must do.
The time to act was actually decades ago, but here we are with no choice but to take action now. Pollina’s bill is the first real, concrete step to start what must be done. The world our children and grandchildren inherit will already sadly be a much different and harsher world. We need to do everything we can, starting now to keep it from being a nightmare world.
