Saturday, February 9, 2013

State Rep Cheney Proposes Tax on Home Heating Oil


House bill proposes hike in heating fuel to pay for efficiency

Burlington Free Press
February 6, 2013
Terri Hallenbeck, Free Press Staff Writer

A new House bill would create a program for making Vermont homes more heat-efficient, just as Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed, but would tap a different tax source.

The bill, H. 216, was introduced Wednesday by Rep. Margaret Cheney, D-Norwich, and is expected to be on the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee’s agenda next week.

Cheney proposes raising $8 million a year through a 0.5 percent increase in the gross receipts tax charged to home-heating fuel and electricity. Half would go to increase the money for low-income weatherization. The other half would go to a thermal efficiency program, perhaps run by Efficiency Vermont. Like that outfit’s electric efficiency programs, this one would coordinate heating efficiency for Vermonters’ homes, Cheney said.

Gov. Peter Shumlin last month proposed similar programs, but would pay for them through a 10 percent tax on break-open tickets sold by clubs and bars. Shumlin specifically avoided proposing an increase in heating fuel taxes as unpalatable to Vermonters.

Cheney said legislators are doubtful the break-open ticket tax will generate the $17 million Shumlin claims it will. She said she’d like the money it would generate to go to the Clean Energy Development Fund, which helps pay for renewable energy projects. That was one of the programs Shumlin wanted to fund with the tax, too.

Read the rest of the story.

LINK:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013302060031

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