In the flurry of opening day of the Legislature, the legislative vote on the governor’s race, the inaugural and protests, you may have missed an important event: The economic “pitch.”
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott and the advocacy group V2AVT, or Vision to Action Vermont, held a “shark tank”/speed dating event for business organizations that were urged to tell lawmakers what changes to state policy would encourage economic development in Vermont.
Scott said the state is facing a “crisis of affordability,” and the best way to solve the crisis, in his view, is to create more higher paying jobs. And the best way to do that, he says, is to help businesses thrive in Vermont.
“People are struggling to make ends meet, working two and three jobs sometimes,” Scott said, as he ticked off a list of companies, Plasan, Energizer and Vermont Yankee that have left the state. “As businesses leave, so do the opportunities for Vermonters who want to stay and work here.
“Add to that the state’s population is stagnant and it’s aging, and, yes, we have some problems, and with that we have opportunities.”
Scott said the idea of the event was to explore those opportunities by coming together and pooling ideas.
The ideas were varied, but a few themes emerged as speakers who had five minutes to make their case for statutory changes sped through their remarks.
Here is a sampling:
Vermont needs to rebrand itself and “keep one foot in the pasture and put the other foot in the future,” as Matt Dodds of Brandthropology put it. Characterizing the state as a paradise where tourists can recreate in a “rural yesteryear,” doesn’t help tech companies attract skilled workers. Dodds held up Switzerland as an example. The small European country has similar attributes — with its storied pastoral legacy — but beyond the cows with klinking cowbells, the nation has a high tech manufacturing base and sophisticated financial industry. Dodds, who was representing the Vermont Chamber of Commerce for the pitch, listed the many companies that have started in Vermont — AllEarth Renewables, Dealer.com, Microstrain, Biotek, Seldon, Concept 2, Orvis, Burton and Ello — suggested that the state needs to do a better job of promoting Vermont’s reputation for entrepreneurship.
Dodd’s premise was also picked up by Jeff Couture of the Vermont Technology Alliance, an association that represents tech firms. It’s extremely difficult for Web companies to attract talent in Vermont because there is a perception that there are no tech jobs in the state.
“Tech companies can’t find employees for jobs they have right now,” Couture said. “People don’t think Vermont is a place to have a career in tech.”
The tech industry added 500 good paying jobs last year, and for every tech hire, there are five to six non-tech employees, Couture said.
Couture suggested the Legislature should create a source of capital for tech entrepreneurs, along the lines of the Working Lands Enterprise Funds or the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
Freeing up more capital for commercial lending was a subject that was explored by several participants.
Cairn Cross of FreshTracks Capital wants the Legislature to abolish the licensed lender statute for commercial transactions (8 VSA chapter 73) because he says it snares most small businesses that are too big for micro lending and too small for a sizable loan. Under current law, commercial loans of more than $75,000 and less than $1 million must come from a state licensed entity. This makes it extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to obtain the credit they need to start or scale up businesses.
Retail sales still represents a significant proportion of the state’s economy even though the industry has taken a double hit from the Great Recession and sales tax free competition online, according to Mark Sherman of Stowe Mercantile. Sherman supports a sales tax holiday for retail stores and sales tax fairness with online companies like Amazon. He would like to see the state accelerate sales tax collections of products sold via the Internet.
Bill Driscoll of the Associated Industries of Vermont says the state is one of the most expensive in the nation for manufacturing, but workers here are so skilled and industrious that often companies will stay anyway. The problem is that a generation of skilled workers will retire in a few years and younger people aren’t getting the schooling in math and the sciences to replace them, Driscoll says. The state should invest more in workforce development, in his view.
