Nine proposed constitutional amendments, some of them far reaching, have been introduced in the Vermont Senate. One in particular stands out as a mortal threat to fundamental Vermont principles. That is Proposal 9.
The “New Act 250” is a concerted effort to make Vermont into the Perfect Little Climate-Conscious State, erecting ever greater barriers to development, and ruled from Montpelier, from whence the Super Board can best perceive the greater good.
The emerging story of the 2020 Legislature is not just the familiar battle over traditional Democratic issues, but a contest with Republican Gov. Phil Scott over three measures that our “climate change” activists believe are Vermont’s vital contributions to the continuation of human life on the planet.
The Global Warming Solutions Act would simply bestow on state bureaucrats the power to force Vermonters to submit to an endless list of expensive and invasive rules to comply with arbitrary emissions goals, and eliminate any shred of our elected representatives’ accountability for those actions.
Since Gov. Scott relishes vetoing new taxes, he needs to nip this new tax program in the bud and let the legislators who bought into this mandate scheme think about how they’ll explain their votes to override his veto when they’re out campaigning this fall.
Today’s EVs run smoothly and quietly and look good. They insulate owners from fuel price volatility and supply shortages, and in most states from fuel taxes. But EVs do not come without problems.
These battles never get to the root cause, not only of high pharmaceutical prices, but of the denial of the best possible health of all Americans. That root cause is the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Unless the legislators can find $40 million in one-time funding to avoid a veto and kick the can down the road for yet another year, school residential property tax rates will increase to cover a $40 million shortfall in the education fund.
Passing more laws aimed at further restricting firearms ownership offers little prospect of preventing more gun violence, and it threatens the constitutionally protected right of self-defense by law-abiding citizens. Instead, schools need to make it difficult for an armed assault to succeed.
So why aren’t we moving rapidly toward direct primary care coupled with independent specialist centers, paid for by health savings accounts and backed up by high deductible health plans?
The governor, rightly concerned with “cost containment,” seems to lean toward doing that by creating a Great Big Hammer to beat school districts into submission. But wait a minute – maybe the overgrown public school system itself is the problem.
Eventually, when the carbon tax drives out all fossil fuel and all users have switched (at considerable expense) to higher cost electricity, there’s nothing left to subsidize that electricity. You’re stuck.