H.5 An act relating to returning monies to the Clean Energy Development Fund to support solar tax credits
Introduced by Rep. Tony Klein (D-East Montpelier), this legislation would use $2 million in state funds to support a solar-energy project in Springfield.
IVEK Corporation, which manufacturers “fluid-dispensing systems,” was “inadvertently omitted,” Klein’s bill says, from a solar tax-credit program designed to encourage renewable energy development.
Klein says $2 million was wrongly diverted from the Clean Energy Development Fund last year to support a geothermal project for which lawmakers had instead appropriated federal stimulus money. Klein says his bill would restore that money to the Clean Energy Development Fund so that IVEK could benefit from the program.
H.6 An act relating to powers and immunities of the liquor control investigators
Introduced by Rep. Ron Hubert (R-Milton), and others, this legislation would grant liquor-control officers full police authority. Hubert says most liquor-control officers are experienced law-enforcement personnel with prior careers in state and local police agencies. But though they’re fully trained and accredited, he says, their employment with the Department of Liquor Control means that “constables have more arrest powers.”
Hubert attributes the problem to “an oversight” in previous legislation, and says granting liquor-control officers full police authority could allow them to provide some auxiliary services to state and local police forces.
H.7 An act relating to appointments on the Mental Health Oversight Committee
Introduced by Rep. Anne Donahue (R-Northfield), and others, this legislation would loosen regulations over the composition of the Mental Health Oversight Committee. Donahue says current rules mandate legislative representatives from certain House and Senate committees. But the guidelines, Donahue says, hamper lawmakers’ ability to select the most appropriate legislators for the job.
S.7 An act relating to the Uniform Limited Cooperative Association Act
Introduced by Sen. Harold Giard (D-Addison County), this legislation would allow outside investment in cooperatives, provided the investing entity has no more than a 48-percent ownership in the operation.
Under current law, Giard says, cooperatives’ options for capital infusions are limited to member-generated expenditures and bank loans. Alterations to the Uniform Limited Cooperative Association Act, he says, would provide a “new way of getting money to flow to cooperatives so they could grow and prosper.”
“In this economy, I think anything we can do to encourage investment in these kinds of enterprises is a step in the right direction,” Giard says.