FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2010
CONTACT: Martha Hanson
( MONTPELIER , VT , January 21, 2010) – Fresh from trips to Rutland , Waterbury and Brattleboro , Lt. Governor Brian Dubie today took a break from his state wide “Jobs Tour” to attend a “Jobs Summit” convened by the legislature in the Vermont State House.
But while applauding the legislature for its effort to assess Vermont ’s difficult jobs market, Dubie said that lawmakers would do well to get out of Montpelier and meet with Vermont businesses and workers in the “real world”.
Dubie said, “Just yesterday, I heard from employers both large and small in Brattleboro , and they said the same thing I hear time and time again: the proof is in the pudding.”
Year in and year out, Dubie continued, the state’s employer community has told lawmakers what it needs to strengthen Vermont ’s jobs market. “And year in year out,” he said, “when lawmakers hit the campaign trail, they tell voters they’ll work to grow jobs. But when they arrive in Montpelier every January, those promises are quickly forgotten.”
Dubie said, “I sincerely hope it will be different this year. The proof will be in the budget, and other measures, that the legislature passes this year.” Last year’s budget, he said – the first ever authored by a legislature and passed over a governor’s veto – raised taxes, and hurt jobs and paychecks for Vermonters.
“I’m now in my second week of a state wide Jobs Tour,” Dubie declared. “In every conversation I have with business leaders and workers around our state, I learn firsthand about the serious obstacles to job creation that Vermont companies face.”
The same two hurdles to job creation — over-regulation and high taxes — come up time and again, Dubie said, and only seem to grow each year.
Dubie said the recession’s hard impact on Vermont makes it imperative for the legislature to put the proof in the pudding, with concrete steps to lower taxes and reduce some of the burdensome regulation on businesses. Specifically, Dubie proposes sunsetting tax hikes enacted by the legislature last year in the form of lower exemptions for the capital gains and estate taxes. He also calls for streamlining the permitting process, with measures such as exempting businesses that want to build in a zoned industrial park from Act 250 review.
Recently, Forbes magazine placed Vermont just third from last in their annual business-environment ranking of all 50 states. Dubie says, “We must do better and can do better. I believe in the Vermont worker. That is why, as lieutenant governor, I have traveled all over the world — from China , to Cuba , to Canada — promoting Vermont businesses and products, and trying to bring new jobs to Vermont . We must clear the way for the Vermont worker to compete and succeed. If the legislature will simply remove some of the barriers to job creation that they’ve erected, I have no doubt that Vermont can become the best state in New England to get a job and to do business.”
Dubie resumes his Jobs Tour this afternoon in Randolph.
