MONTPELIER — Farmers, foresters and advocates for rural Vermont urged lawmakers at a public hearing Wednesday to secure more money for the Working Lands Enterprise Fund and to loosen Act 250 restrictions.
“This state needs more from all of us than it’s ever needed,” Vermont Land Trust president Nick Richardson told the panel at the Statehouse.
“These working landscapes that we participate in — that are such an important part of how we feel about this state, the connections that we have here, the community that we have here — they’re really under threat,” Richardson said.
He and close to 30 other attendees testified before nine members of the rural caucus, also known as the Rural Economic Development Working Group. The caucus is a House body representing rural districts throughout the state.
In holding the hearing, legislators hoped to hear ideas they could act on in the coming session.
Many speakers homed in on the success of the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, run by the Working Lands Enterprise Board, which since 2012 has given grants and other support to agriculture and forestry projects.
They asked the Legislature to put more funds into the program, pegging a total budget of $3 million as the ideal figure.
“Sadly, even with the total of $1.959 million in grant funds available, many shovel-ready and strong proposals will not get funded this year as the board has over $3 million in total requests,” said Ellen Kahler, a non-voting member of the board and executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
Kahler said that if legislators can find between $500,000 and $1 million in the state budget adjustment — usually one of the first actions of the legislative session — “many more viable and valuable working lands business projects could receive funding.”
And, Kahler said, the board would be able to deploy those funds this winter, ensuring all the grants could go out within the fiscal year.
Some recipients of past grant funds emphasized how even though the program has helped, they still face significant struggles.
“There’s a tremendous amount of barriers between small agriculture and profitability,” said Bruce Hennessey, who with his wife, Beth Whiting, runs Maple Wind Farm in Richmond.
The farm has received more than $82,000 from the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, but Hennessey said he and his wife can’t afford to pay for employees’ health insurance.
“That’s a major problem for them, and it doesn’t feel good for us either,” he said.
Mike Rainville, a Lincoln resident who owns Maple Landmark Woodcraft in Middlebury, suggested making the grant-awarding schedule more flexible and limiting the delay between applying and receiving funds.
Unlike Hennessey, Rainville said he can offer health insurance for his 39 employees. But the company’s premium increase for 2020 is $27,000, he said. That’s more than he spends on lumber to for the company’s products — wooden toys, decorations and other crafts.
He said he recently sourced lumber from Maine, rather than from Vermont as usual, which saved him $6,000.
“Instead of $18,000 worth of money to Vermont mills, I sent $12,000 to Maine,” he said. “That bothers me a great deal, but I have to maintain my business.”
Other economic concerns centered on Act 250, the 1970 law meant to balance conservation and development.
“Act 250 is expensive and it’s unpredictable,” said Greg Tatro, who runs G.W. Tatro Construction in Jeffersonville and a nonprofit working to fight opioid addiction.
He said that between Act 250, civil engineering and stormwater system costs, he spent more than $200,000 to get started on a construction project in Jericho this year.
“That’s a nonstarter for most business startups; they can’t afford that,” he said. “I think that’s a real problem for Vermont rural areas.”
He said that if he owned a business in Boston and wanted to move, New Hampshire would be a more attractive spot to land than Vermont because it’d be cheaper and quicker.
“A solution to that is to talk to each town and community in the state, ask these folks if they’d like more business or more people,” he said. “The ones that don’t — leave them alone. The ones that do — let them pick places for businesses. We pre-approve these lots for Act 250, so when somebody comes up and wants to build a business, we can get them going in 30 days.”
Putnam Blodgett and Al Robertson, officers of the Vermont Woodlands Association Board, asked for action on two bills introduced in the Legislature this year that, they said, would make the Act 250 process easier: H.197 and S.104.
Some requests came on a smaller scale than legislative reform.
Coventry Town Administrator Amanda Carlson said she knows the state has created tools for local governments to support businesses.
“But that information doesn’t always reach the small towns,” Carlson said. “These towns are dealing with one person and the selectboard member that’s been there for 30 years, and they don’t always share that information around.”
She said she’d like to see state-run, regional workshops to teach people about what programs are available.
