[P]hil Scott, a Republican candidate for governor, announced an endorsement from an auto dealer trade group Thursday as he unveiled his transportation platform.
The policy is largely defined by what it would not do: raise taxes or rely on additional borrowing to pay for transportation infrastructure. At the same time, Scott said it’s critically important to invest in the state’s transportation system, the health of which affects every economic sector.
Scott suggests Vermont can balance those priorities by actually collecting less in taxes. He calls for “pro-growth economic policies” in the form of tax credits, as well as greater efficiency at the Agency of Transportation to ensure Vermont’s roads and bridges are maintained and improved.
Specifically, Scott said he would restore the full research and development tax credit, which lawmakers reduced in 2014. That would allow qualifying businesses to deduct a third of their research and development costs.
He would also create an “angel investor tax credit” to encourage investors to support local companies and reduce risk for entrepreneurs. Scott proposes a 60 percent tax credit for cash invested in Vermont companies.
The transportation plan echoes broader themes in the Scott campaign — that Vermont is becoming unaffordable for many, and state government needs to “learn to live within its means” — which are driven home in a TV ad released this week.
“I firmly believe that we cannot tax people any more,” Scott says in the ad. “There isn’t that capacity. So we have to grow the economy. We have to build that revenue in order to ensure prosperity for Vermonters.”
Expanding the use of tax credits will spur economic activity, he said Thursday, which in turn will bring more money into state coffers. As an example, Scott points to the growth of Vermont’s solar industry, which is heavily subsidized by tax credits at the state and federal level.
In campaign materials, Scott describes tax credits as way in which “collecting less in taxes can make us more competitive.”
Scott, the lieutenant governor, said he would “draw a line in the sand” when it comes to state budgeting and would cap the percentage growth in state spending at the percentage growth in wages and the broader economy.
“We’ll live within our means,” Scott repeated.
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, who has crossed party lines to throw his support behind Scott, joined him Thursday at the news conference. Asked if he believes Scott could impose new fiscal discipline on the Legislature, Mazza said the relationships Scott has built in Montpelier make it possible.
“It’s doable,” Mazza said. “There’s give and take in everything.”
Brian Hoar, with Goss Dodge, was more certain about Scott’s prospects should he be elected governor in November.
“He’ll never make a promise he can’t keep,” said Hoar, a director of the Vermont Automotive Distributors Association, which announced its endorsement of Scott on Thursday.
Scott faces off with Bruce Lisman in the Aug. 9 primary. A recent VPR/Castleton poll shows Scott with a wide lead in name recognition and favorability, but also reveals that Lisman, who has spent heavily, has greatly expanded voters’ awareness of his candidacy.
