In 2020, Sen. Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington, introduced legislation that would create a Vermont Green New Deal.
The bill would have levied an income tax surcharge to fund energy conservation programs, expansive remodeling and weatherization of homes, electric public transportation options, electric vehicle subsidies and regenerative agricultural practices.
The funding mechanism, which would sunset after five years, was a 1.6% income tax surcharge on Vermonters with federal adjusted gross incomes between $200,000 and $500,000.
For income in excess of $500,000, the tax rate would rise an additional 0.15%. The bill would have raised about $30 million.
In 2020, with 14 senators signing on to the legislation — including then-Majority Leader Becca Balint, D-Windham — the bill was dead on arrival.
On Friday, Pollina reintroduced the measure with little to no substantive changes to the policy.
The biggest difference, however, was that, in just one year, support in the Democrat-dominated Senate has dwindled from 14 to just three.
Balint, now the Senate president pro tempore, is off the list, as is her replacement as majority leader, Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor.
Even Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, who co-sponsored the 2020 bill, is another one whose name is missing from the measure this year.
The legislation now sits in the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, where it is likely to again go untouched.
With Covid-19 front and center, Democratic leadership has spoken: No Green New Deal on its watch this session.
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