[I]f world class winter sports, fall foliage and top-rated craft breweries aren’t enough to attract new residents to Vermont, would $10,000 help do the trick?
Hundreds of people from around the world are interested enough in the new program to contact the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development to try to find out.
Last week Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill that would pay workers to move to Vermont and work remotely for an out-of-state business. They could receive up to $10,000 over two years to cover moving expenses, coworking memberships, workplace technology and other work-related expenses.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, would apply to full-time residents who are working full time beginning Jan. 1.
“Vermont has a worker shortage and we need about 10,000 more people a year just to get to full employment,” said Betsy Bishop, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. “This is certainly one of many ideas that are being worked on to address that issue.”
News reports about the new program generated immediate national attention on social media and prompted workers from California to Florida and even overseas to contact state offices.
“So far we think that number is 600,” Michael Schirling, secretary of the commerce agency, said earlier this week. “That’s from all over the world.” In a later interview with Vermont Public Radio he said the number had climbed beyond 800.
Schirling, whose agency is working on designing the program, said he was not entirely certain how word of the program spread so quickly.
“I don’t know if it’s special PR. We have a company that we use, among many, that does some of our economic development marketing and helps with placement,” he said. “It started with some placement they did last week and then it spun up into this large set of stories.”
The agency will begin accepting applications beginning the first of the year on a first-come, first-served basis. Overall spending would be capped the first year at $125,000, enough to bring in 25 workers whose one-year reimbursement would be limited to $5,000. Funding would then rise to $250,000 in 2020 and then fall back to $125,000 again in 2021.
The first three years Vermont will attempt to fill 100 available spots for the program with 20 spots each following year the program is funded after 2021.
Vermont’s aging population has prompted a need for attracting more workers to the state, and those who are enrolled in the program would pay income taxes that would help expand the state’s tax base.
Many details remain to be worked out, Schirling said.
“We have parameters that have been set out in terms of the types of things that can be reimbursed,” he said. “But the mechanisms, and the amounts and all of that has to be vetted.”
The bill isn’t the first effort intended to boost Vermont’s dwindling workforce. The state this year also unveiled a Stay to Stay Program, aimed at some of the 13 million annual tourists who might be encouraged to move to and work in Vermont.
“If we could convert just one tenth of 1 percent of them to be residents, we could fix our employment problem,” said Bishop of the Chamber.
“We have about 16,000 fewer workers than we did in 2009,” Scott said in rolling out the Stay to Stay program. “We must think outside the box to help more Vermonters enter the labor force and attract more working families and young professionals to Vermont.”
Vermont’s shrinking workforce has been a serious matter of concern for years. Last year Vermont surpassed New Hampshire as the second oldest state in median age at 43.1, beating out only Maine. It has the second smallest population in the country, 623,657. And although its numbers had been declining for five years, Vermont experienced a 0.5 percent uptick in 2017.
According to a 2017 survey by United Van Lines, the most moved-to state was Vermont. The study found that of the moving company’s 254 total moves involving the state, 67.7 percent were ingoing.
But the survey findings were decidedly mixed for those hoping to expand the state’s workforce. It also found that Vermont was the sixth most moved-to state — for retirees.
