Vermonters for Economic Health

Here, the Rutland Herald describes an effort 50 years ago to streamline Vermont state government. Today, the government is the state's largest employer with 8,000 people. Governor Douglas is paring back 5% through attrition and eliminating vacant positions in 2008, but costs must be reduced even further.

Vermont state goverment revenue totals nearly $1.2 Billion for FY2008, including a small surplus, based on estimates in April 2008. The report issued by Michael Smith, Secretary of Administration is here. If we have a surplus, then the estimate was a bit understated or, perhaps, taxes are too high. I'd say both are correct.

Read The Caledonian Record's editorial about the recent sales tax free weekend.  An excerpt follows:

"The majority of legislators have grown so accustomed to passing new taxes or incrementally increasing every manner of tax and fee, that they have actually come to believe the tax dollars belong to them and is theirs to spend. They could not be more wrong.

This letter by Tom Licata was published in the Burlington Free Press on July 13, 2008

"...If this state cares anything about the people and their community they'd look long and hard at what's happening here." So said Denise Ogurkis of Vermont Tubbs.

100 jobs were recently lost as this company decided to leave Vermont ("Vermont Tubbs to close; 90 jobs cut," June 11) due to its "overhead costs at the Brandon facility [that] are much higher than they are at the Whitefield [New Hampshire] plant."

This letter by Robert Rich was published in the Burlington Free Press on July 11, 2008

"In a recent e-mail to his constituents, Rep. Warren Kitzmiller wrote about workers' compensation insurance, "Many in the business community were disappointed that I refused to slash benefits (really, they are not benefits, they are only partial indemnification for the loss a worker suffers), but I think the program needs to be recognized as a balance, not a 'cost' to business."

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce has stated the following at the close of the 2008 session. I have inserted my comments within theirs.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce began the 2008 legislative session with hopes that important issues confronting Vermont businesses would be addressed, and that the legislators would enact:

• Meaningful workers' compensation reform
• A lessening of the tax burden
• An improvement in the cost of doing business in the state
• Housing Incentives
• Solutions to the shortfall in the transportation fund