Vermont Governor Phil Scott faced a number of questions regarding the legislative session today/Wednesday after he outlined tax proposals his administration is proposing.
The Republican began his weekly briefing noting that while the legislative session is nearing its end, action on several of his key priorities is pending. Scott noted his administration had proposed a tax relief package in January.
“This includes things like the earned income tax credit, increasing the tax exemption on Social Security, eliminating the income tax on military pensions and extending the child tax credit to age six. The House made some significant progress and I’m hopeful the legislature will pass a bill I can sign,” Scott said.
Vermont Tax Commissioner Bill Shouldice said the tax relief bill is directly tied to affordability.
“These four proposals are targeted tax breaks. We believe that these will help Vermonters keep their money in their pocket. The present version of this legislation, what I’m most excited about, received tri-partisan support and hopeful that when we get to the conference committee any minor differences can be sorted out,” Shouldice said.
The governor was quizzed about an executive order he signed on Tuesday that pauses state enforcement of a multi-state plan requiring vehicle manufacturers to meet electric vehicle sales targets. Scott explained that lack of incentives from the current federal administration and technological challenges led him to pause the program.
“We need more charging,” Scott emphasized. “We need more fast charging and we have to allow the technology to catch up. We have to allow for the infrastructure, the charging infrastructure to catch up. It’s just we aren’t able to do that at this point in time.”
Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn acknowledged that the state has the most EV charging stations per capita compared to other states.
“The infrastructure that we’ve built out so far, we built out using money from the VW settlement and that money was not tied to Buy America requirements. Anything that has come to any of the states including Vermont through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is tied to Buy America requirements. It’s very difficult to find the componentry at this point to fulfill the Buy America requirement,” Flynn explained.
Governor Scott recently met with Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University graduate student detained by the federal government in the state and then released per a Vermont judge’s order.
“My conversation with him was brief and he thanked me for some of the statements I’ve made. And I had mentioned to him I may not be in lockstep with his views but I believe in his ability to do so and to utilize his 1st Amendment rights. That’s about where it ended. He seemed pleasant. One of the things Mr. Mahdawi did say was he was thankful that he was here in Vermont,” recalled Scott.
The governor was asked if he had seen a letter to Burlington’s mayor from nearly 100 businesses raising concerns about downtown construction and safety issues. He said the state will assist where it can but the problems must be dealt with by the city.
