Recovery from Tropical Storm Irene is an “all-in” bet that precludes investing in renewable energy or reforming the health-care system, according to a speaker at Tuesday’s annual meeting of Associated Industries of Vermont.
Bruce Lisman, a native Vermonter who climbed the ranks at Wall Street and retired as chair of JP Morgan’s Global Equity Division, is launching the “Campaign for Vermont” to promote “centrist, down-the-middle, common-sense” policy initiatives. He did not offer details about what the initiatives would entail, but he was clear that they meant scrapping plans to invest in renewable energy or a single-payer health care system.
After Irene, Lisman commented, “Our state’s government continues to operate as if nothing had happened at all. It’s one of those out-of-body experiences. Each person in government has changed how they are living, or behaving, but as it relates to governing us, no change at all, hoping things return to normal.”
Launching a single-payer health care system and increasing renewable energy usage, Lisman said, are also “all-in bets.”
“They’re large; they’re profound, maybe intrusive in a fashion,” Lisman told the group of manufacturers, financiers and entrepreneurs. “We don’t have to debate today whether they’re the right things to do. Many of us believe it’s our obligation to protect the environment, however we define it, and some of us believe our insurance companies, well, suck… But maybe this is not the moment to introduce two all-in bets that would freeze, well, people like you, who might make decisions about expanding a business or adding people or thinking about new capacity or new markets. Maybe not this moment.”
AIV is an industry association focused on manufacturing and other business sectors; its members include contractors, banks, and insurance companies. The annual meeting, held in Montpelier, centered on talks by Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, Joseph Henchman of the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., and Lisman.
Scott also criticized Gov. Peter Shumlin’s plans for a single-payer style health care system, contending that it would discard “our entire health care system for the possibility of single-payer health care, when we haven’t done our due diligence on that possibility. To me, that’s a little like demolishing an entire bridge to replace a deck or sending your car to the salvage yard when it needs brakes, tires, and a tune-up.”
Scott drew lessons from the Irene recovery, and he pointed to the quick and inexpensive way the state could construct roads when environmental restrictions were relaxed. As roads were being rebuilt, he said, “Neighbors didn’t fuss about right-of-way issues, gravel pits staying open later, and truck traffic. Everyone pitched in and worked together… The true opportunity is to apply the common sense approach of this effort to normal times. For example, and I’m not suggesting we water down our high environmental standing, but why do we have to have an Act 250 permit to straighten out an existing roadway, like the Cabot-Danville project on Route 2, which has taken almost 10 years to complete the permit process?”
As originally proposed by the Agency of Transportation, the Route 2 widening would have filled 20 acres of wetlands. The project in its current form affects floodways, deer habitat, and streams at the Route 2 site, according to its Act 250 permit. At a site used for mitigating the wetland damage, the Act 250 permit notes impacts to water quality, shorelines, and existing wetlands.
While Lisman and Scott both objected to plans for a single-payer health care system, Lisman differed with Scott on the due diligence question. Lisman called the move to single-payer an “elongated discussion” that the state is still in the middle of.
Lisman’s upcoming Campaign for Vermont will focus on prosperity, he said. He hinted that a prosperous Vermont does not have health care for all Vermonters or use more renewable energy. “It seems like a simple goal, doesn’t it—prosperity? If you could just walk into a bar and say to the bartender, ‘Give me a glass of prosperity.’ But it’s not a casual deal. It’s not ordinary. It requires a consensus within the state to say, ‘We’re going to make this the most important theme, more important than an energy renewal (sic) plan, more important than a single-payer health care system, more important than all those things that this economy now supports.’ It requires fantastic focus, lots of hard work. It requires a robust debate, and it requires a broad consensus, and it requires moving politically to the center, where discussion and compromise actually take place, here and everywhere. Prosperity is not the result of all-in bets.”
Lisman also suggested that the Campaign for Vermont would include elements of increased state government accountability. “We spend $5 billion a year? That’s the size of our budget. You wouldn’t spend $500 a year without expecting certain results and reporting to yourself, at a minimum, how it turned out… Here’s my prediction—if you did know how well it were spent, and it turned out it was spent really well and there was specific programs with specific ideas about what it wanted to accomplish and it did and better, when the state came to you and said, ‘We need to raise your taxes because we got a heck of a hole here…’, you would be—if not enthusiastic—understanding. The government, a fiduciary of your money, if you will, did their side of the bargain: they spent your money well. And your side of the bargain is to give them more if they need it.”
Lisman’s optimistic focus on prosperity resonated with many of the AIV members attending the meeting, and it was hard to find one who agreed that Irene recovery was a reason to scrap health insurance reform or work on renewable energy. Jim Rose of Engelberth Construction in Colchester said, “I think we can be proud as a state of our reaction to Irene, and I think that can be some impetus as we move forward.”
Asked about Lisman’s assertion that Irene recovery efforts preclude work in renewable energy and health care, Rose said, “Let’s focus on Irene, get ourselves set, but the other issues are critical and important to the state and I don’t think we can ignore them. I do think we need to address them more clearly, try to get a consensus and move forward with them.”
Liz Robert is on the board of Central Vermont Public Service, which has developed renewable electricity projects from “cow power” and boasts a 50 kilowatt solar project and renewable education center in Rutland. She said she liked Lisman’s comments about Vermonters’ “ability to see themselves through tough times…a combination of frugality and innovation.” When she was asked about Irene recovery efforts trumping renewable energy and health care, she replied, “I don’t know that I agree with that. I think there’s room for small bets in more than one area.”
