This afternoon, the Council voted Mayor Durkan’s proposed tax on heating oil out of committee, setting it up for final approval next Monday.
Council member Mike O’Brien was the only Council member present at the committee hearing, and before voting to pass it out of committee, he made a few amendments, including:
- changing the elegibility rules for the subsidy program for conversion from oil furnaces to electric heating so that households making up to 80% of the Annual Median Income (AMI) can qualify;
- asks the city to develop an implementation plan;
- sets requirements for the city to report back to the City Council;
- exempts biodiesel, on a prorated basis based on the percentage of the fuel that is actual biofuel.
The bill will come up for final approval Monday afternoon.