Editor’s note: This commentary is by James Ehlers, who is the executive director of Lake Champlain International and a candidate for governor, a U.S. Navy veteran, a water quality and public health advocate, and an environmental and veterans affairs adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders.
[A]t the heart of Gov. Phil Scott’s government shutdown threats is a myth.
It is a myth that pits working people against working people; that blocks reforms to make life easier for low- and middle-income earners; that has served as a convenient political smokescreen for Republicans for decades.
It is the simple but cruel myth that trickle-down economics will make life more affordable.
This has never been true. Slashing taxes disproportionately benefits corporations and the most affluent, and negatively affects the rest of us: Mobility decreases and tax revenues fall. The inequality that results has been shown to hinder opportunity for children born without privilege and slow economic growth.
In an interview with The Guardian, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz called “the weakening of unions, the weakening of the worker bargaining power and an assault on public education” a “breakdown of the social contract.”
And that’s exactly Scott’s playbook: Make Vermont more expensive by failing to invest in services for those who need it most and blocking an increase in minimum wage; by failing to invest in affordable housing and our environment and lake, which is our economic engine; by attacking public unions.
He has pointed to a so-called “surplus” that we will use to cut taxes. Where is the “surplus” for the new mom with no maternity leave, or the senior on a fixed income, or the parents caring for their adult child with a disability? These Vermonters are struggling, and more tax cuts to disproportionately benefit corporations and the most affluent won’t help.
Instead of making Vermont more affordable, he is squeezing working families, making it ever more impossible for low- and middle-income people to succeed. That’s what “fiscally conservative” policies do.
Instead of attracting people here to grow our tax base, a state that neglects its infrastructure, services and people may as well hang a “keep out” sign. Threats of a government shutdown only exacerbate the problem.
Scott may try to cover up what he’s doing to our state with online advertising campaigns and $10,000 cash giveaways, but it can’t cover for the rot coming from the top.
Legislators came up with a budget that had tri-partisan support. It was shot down in favor of a scheme to use one-time funds to keep tax rates artificially low that will just give Vermonters sticker shock when they inevitably rise steeply — a political gimmick that won’t amount to real savings. This was the same trick he pulled last year, failing to provide the Legislature with detailed policies until the very end of the session, then demanding compliance. Because Scott has toyed with the Legislature for the second year in a row, and has demanded his way — with no compromise — he bears responsibility for any possible shutdown.
And if government does shut down, and our hardworking state employees do not receive paychecks, and services to the most vulnerable are threatened, and families can’t enjoy state parks over the holidays — remember this: The reason that the governor shut down our government was to protect a failed ideology.
It’s time for those of us who don’t believe in this failed ideology to come together for an economy wherein corporations and the most affluent contribute their fair share, where we invest in people and the planet, where we protect our natural resources as the cultural and economic treasures that they are. An economy in which no Vermonter ever has to be exposed to poisonous chemicals to attract big companies to Vermont and no person ever has to lose his or her job to care for a loved one with a health emergency.
We need to abandon the trickle-down myth once and for all.
Instead of shutting down the government, we need to make it work for every single person in this state. To make our state not just affordable, but livable.
No one who loved Vermont would hold its government hostage. But the work of governing is the work of loving one another, because when we do that, we invest in one another. And when we invest in one another, we all win.
