Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Don Keelan, a certified public accountant who lives in Arlington. This piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
Gov. Peter Shumlin would do well to take a page out of President Barack Obama’s first two years in office. The page would be on health care. More specifically, the governor should not let this serious and complex issue dominate his administration’s first year in office.
The governor will be under enormous pressure to take on health care reform, especially so when he is pressured from the grass roots coalition, The Health Care is a Human Right campaign. However, the governor and the Legislature must not bend to this or any other single-issue group.
The governor will be under enormous pressure to take on health care reform, especially so when he is pressured from the grass roots coalition, The Health Care is a Human Right campaign. However, the governor and the Legislature must not bend to this or any other single-issue group.
Obama has noted that he did not focus on jobs during his first 22 months in office, and he is the first to admit that he should have—otherwise the U.S. unemployment rate might not be hovering at 9.5%. While the overall Vermont rate is lower, there are pockets within Vermont where the rate is close to 10% if not higher. Vermont cannot afford to lose another generation of young people with no meaningful job prospects available to them.
While there have been many signals coming from outside the state that the national economy is beginning to heal itself—stock market advances, uptick in holiday shopping, gross national product and manufacturing growth and others—historically Vermont lags the national recovery—always has. Jobs are just one of many hardcore issues that our state’s part-time legislature must deal with between now and May 1st.
Closing the state’s $150 million budget deficit will come at a high emotional price—many individuals and organizations will be hurt and difficult decisions must be made.
And if this wasn’t enough of a problem for the Legislature as well as for the administration there is the issue of reforming the state’s employees and teachers pension plans once and for all. This vastly unfunded obligation must be addressed as well as future benefits—and not unlike the budget debate it will come at a high cost to many.
And then of course there will be the issue of tax reform and determining which of the proposals by the Blue Ribbon Commission should be adopted. The debate over the taxing of services—architectural, engineering, legal, accounting, lawn cutting, snowplowing, housekeeping and countless others will be, contentious—but tax reform needs to be addressed. The state’s reliance on taxing goods sold is not reflective of what the state’s economy is about in 2011. It may have been back in the 1970s and 80s, but not anymore.
There have been many words written concerning Vermont avoiding the real estate foreclosure issue—at least it did so on the first round (initial real-estate crash). As a state we are not immune to what appears to be a second storm that is on its way? Small businesses, inns, and second homeowners have not been able to extricate themselves (or their companies) from the high cost and highly leveraged debt burdens. It’s too early to see what role, if any, the administration and legislature will have here? Assuredly, any significant dimunition in second home values, and it’s occurring already, will have a direct impact on primary homeowners and for a long time to come.
A significant decrease in the state’s real estate property values has a bearing on education funding. Already, we are behind in bringing education spending under control due to the extension of the Challenge for Change mandate. Shumlin has allowed the state’s school districts to stretch out last year’s one year mandate, for the 2% reduction, to 2 years.
The legislature, with many new members, has a herculean task ahead of them to bring meaningful debate on some difficult issues. It does not need, nor is it warranted at this crucial time to look to have the state be the sole payer of health care services or for that matter to consider universal health care.
Dr. William Hsiao, the Harvard guru on health care reform, has reported on how health care could be delivered and paid for in Vermont. His suggestions will have to be taken up at another time. Vermont has too many other issues that need attention (not that the cost of health care doesn’t) and they need the full attention of the administration and legislature now, not during the last week of this year’s session.
