This might seem like we’re picking on the Vermont Republican Party. That’s not the intention. We believe in equal opportunity picking-on. However, for the second time this week, a VTGOP discrepancy cried out for correction.
This one was an e-mail that went out Thursday, another in the party’s series titled "I know what you did last session ...". This one focused on H. 520, the energy bill that Gov. Jim Douglas has promised to veto.
Here’s what the party is telling its supporters:
"H.520 – a $35 million tax on a successful business that supplies the state
with a third of its electricity, cheaply – could not be a more ill-conceived
idea or come at a worse time. It would reinforce Vermont’s image as a high tax
state, the hostility of the bill will drive away businesses and jobs, it will
directly and indirectly add to the cost of electricity and make Vermont a less
affordable place to live.
Not a single Republican supported H.520, and Governor Douglas has
promised to veto it."
H. 520 does include a tax on Vermont Yankee, which does produce a third of the state’s electricity, but the tax in the bill that passed the Legislatuer amounted to about $25.5 million from 2009 to 2012, not $35 million. If you look at the final vote in the Senate on that bill, Sen. Vince Illuzzi, who has an R after his name whether some Republicans like it or not, voted for it.
If the Republican Party wants to argue – as Douglas does – that $25.5 million is still too much, and that virtually all Republicans voted against it, then so be it. But the $35 million was an earlier proposal, or yesterday’s news.
The fact that the tax changed a fistful of time during the session does pose challenges for the Democratic legislative leaders if they are going to sell this thing to the public. I can’t tell you how many people out there in readerland have had trouble following the bouncing ball on this one. It’s pretty clear the Republicans are eager to tap into that confusion, maybe even spread it.
- Terri Hallenbeck
