For Immediate Release
May 9, 2019
Contact: Katherine Levasseur
(802) 828-2245
VERMONT HOUSE GIVES PRELIMINARY APPROVAL TO CLEAN WATER BILL
Montpelier, VT - Today, the Vermont House gave preliminary approval to S.96, the Clean Water Bill, on a vote of 124-14. The legislation focuses on the watersheds of Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog, with a later goal of protection for the whole state.
“The bill focuses on prioritizing our most polluted waters and protecting one of our state’s most precious natural resources: our water,” said Representative Amy Sheldon (D-Middlebury), Chair of House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish, and Wildlife. “The Clean Water Bill will provide consistent, long-term funding for priority projects, targeting dollars in the most cost-effective ways. Our goal is to have clean water in every watershed in the state. The bill focuses on restoring our most polluted waters while also prioritizing prevention projects throughout the state. It brings us together to meet our clean water goals.
Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Representative Janet Ancel (D-Calais), commented, “funding clean water is essential to ensuring our state’s economic future. This bill contains a total of $50.5 million in new and existing funding in fiscal year 2020 for clean water. To achieve our goal of providing a long-term funding source, we reallocated a portion of the meals and rooms tax from the Education Fund to the Clean Water Fund, generating $7.7 million for the Clean Water Fund. By repealing the current cloud computing tax exemption and looking to other new revenue sources, such as ensuring online travel agencies are subject to the same taxes as brick and mortar business, we offset the reduction in revenue to the Education Fund and keep that fund whole.”
“Our natural resources, especially our waterways, are the economic engine and ecological legacy of our state,” added Speaker of the House, Representative Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero). “While Vermont is heralded as one of the cleanest, most environmentally pristine areas in the country, water pollution threatens our economy, environment, quality of life, and tourism industry. At the start of this session, we committed to identifying and enacting a long-term funding source to improve our state’s streams, rivers, and lakes. I’m proud of the work our members did to put this proposal forward today, and I look forward to working with the Senate and the Governor to see it through into law.”
A fiscal note from the Joint Fiscal Office on S.96 may be found at this link.
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