House advances bill to fund water cleanup

Swimmers and boaters at the beach in Burlington. File photo by Cate Chant/VTDigger
The Vermont House advanced a bill on Friday to raise funds for water quality improvements by imposing a quarter percent increase on the state’s rooms and meals tax, and diverting the proceeds fromunclaimed bottle deposits.The slight increase in the rooms and meals tax — for a total tax of 9.25 percent — plus the bottle receipts, would raise $6.4 million for the state’s clean water fund, but