Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Jeffrey M. Lewis, the executive director of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. He is chairman of the Regional Development Corporations. of Vermont.
In his inaugural address Gov. Peter Shumlin outlined five goals he believes will unlock the “unlimited growth” in five sectors of the economy. To succeed in these sectors, the broad proposals – the bones – will need muscle and sinew to make them dance.
Shumlin has named the bones—broadband, health care costs, an educated work force, fair taxes and credit availability, and agriculture. Let there be no mistake, however, Vermont’s economy, measured by our standard of living, tax revenues, grand lists, and property values, has been stressed for years.
The governor is right in saying we need to focus on readying our workforce through primary and secondary school as well as on-the-job training. We continue to hear that Vermont’s workforce is renowned for its work ethic and quality—we just don’t have enough of it. He noted that companies like IBM, Sonnax and Vermont Circuits, many of our best employers, cannot find the employees they need. Can we, acting together as the state, take on this project? In addition to training those we have can we help generate a pool of people interested in living and working in Vermont? Attempts at this have been made in the past but they were anemic. The state knows how to market its tourism assets to draw tourists: Why can’t we draw workers in a similar way?
Shumlin’s economic goals, can strengthen the economy. Broadband has been a priority for years, yet we have made little progress. As the governor, noted we now have the benefit of a $420 million investment. Vermont, however, has specific and daunting difficulties—we have a sparse population outside our few near-urban areas and our compact villages, equally sparse distribution of commercial, non-profit and government demand, mountains and valleys galore. Broadband, unfortunately, is only lightly regulated so compelling corporations to act as the electric companies did in the Aiken era is not possible.
Leadership is key in this area: The governor has to work with the companies that have the technology and capital to talk them into doing what will be good for Vermont, and, we trust, good for them. This is a quintessential negotiating opportunity: the citizenry need broadband everywhere, and the companies need viable economic opportunities.
Shumlin highlighted the five industrial groups he sees as Vermont’s economic future: manufacturing, renewable energy, tourism, technology and agriculture. Here we confront perhaps the most troubling truth about our economy: We simply don’t know very much about it. Our best manufacturing companies are focused on productivity, not employment. Many have increased their output while holding employment steady or even reducing it. We need to know more than we know now about where in that sector employment will come from.
Renewable energy is a hot-button business sector and we have seen some innovative contributors in Vermont from CarbonHarvest to Building Green. This a crowded sector with nearly every state calling itself “green” and laying claim to exactly the same strategy.
Further, we are finding it difficult as a state to site green energy production facilities: Some have made it through, many have not. This points to internal conflicts we have to address. We are not, as a state, able to set priorities for certain kinds of development, say green energy production or manufacture, and have that decision affect the complex permit process. This merely points out that we do not have, as a state, an effective way of creating and executing priorities. This means, for the moment, there is a premium on leadership to help align the actions of the variety of entities: agencies, companies, financial institutions, and policy makers.
The lack of effective priority setting mechanisms bedeviled the prior administration. Shumlin has, in this fresh start, the opportunity to breathe life into the bones of his goals by leadership, shared urgency, articulate voicing of our needs, and skilled negotiation with both the legislature and the private sector.
Gandhi used to describe leadership as knowing where the people want to go. The governor has identified exactly those points that Vermonters want: a healthy growing economy with fair taxes, growing employment opportunities, better living standards through hard work, robust and ubiquitous communications, health care fairly priced and available to all.
Shumlin has identified the route of march and the goals. We all need to get there together; pushing, pressing, driving the economic health of Vermont forward for the benefit of all our citizens current and yet to be.
Those of us who are involved in economic development on the ground are excited about the governor’s direction and leadership. We are ready to help.
