A recent survey showed that “economic issues” are the top priority for House Democrats, ahead of education finance, and healthcare reform. In that light, Campaign for Vermont (CFV) today released a plan for economic prosperity. CFV urges the private sector to lead a broad-based coalition in support of economic growth.
“We believe that economic growth and shared prosperity is the best way forward for Vermont and its citizens. A vibrant economy is a prerequisite to addressing the issues of poverty, hunger, and upward mobility,” said Bruce Lisman, co-founder of CFV. “We believe that Vermont can be an economic powerhouse of its own definition.” CFV believes that their plan will attract business investment, create value-added jobs, and a bridge out of poverty for those seeking opportunity.
CFV's plan “A Pathway to Economic Renewal and Shared Prosperity” combines a long-term commitment to economic growth with a strategic plan and a strategic budget that informs the public about the effectiveness of the resources being spent. They also released a short video clip profiling their proposals.
“We engaged a diversity of stakeholders in order to develop recommendations that match the unique economic landscape of Vermont,” said CFV Executive Director Cyrus Patten.
“The CFV prosperity plan is comprehensive and takes a much broader and longer term view of economic development” said Allan Rodgers, a Professor of Business at VTC. “Vermont must focus on educating and training our workforce to attract new employers and to keep our youth and existing employers from leaving Vermont.”
Campaign for Vermont believes Vermont must create conditions – a “platform for growth” – that encourages innovation and economic growth, and sets the stage for Vermont to become an economic powerhouse. Those are:
· A competent, transparent, and accountable government, and one that is in a continuing state of self-improvement.
· A Strategic Plan that highlights goals and steps to reach those goals with an accompanying Strategic Budget that would define the cost of achieving those goals.
· Budget growth that more closely relates to available resources, making policy decisions more predictable.
· Reform of our Education System—of quality, governance, and funding.
· The inclusion of Affordability as an essential theme in State governance.
With a ‘platform for growth’ in place, CFV believes there is significantly greater leverage from economic renewal strategies. They are:
· Build a broad-based and lasting coalition in support of a more dynamic economy and shared prosperity.
· Bring coherence, efficiency, simplicity, and funding for economic development agencies.
· Build a calling effort on our largest employers that will illuminate their needs and wants while building strong relationships.
· Reimagine the importance of our considerable number of small businesses, and create a better understanding of who they are and how we can truly help them.
· Train, improve, and enlarge our workforce. – According to CFV, it’s the true lynchpin of shared prosperity.
· Broaden the definition of manufacturing, provide a broader array of support for those that make things here, and become the state of “efficient manufacturing.”
· Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and eliminate the benefit cliffs, and thereby provide true economic resources for working class Vermonters. Presidents as different as Obama and Reagan have endorsed this program’s value.
· Re-define the value of our extensive higher education industry and focus on retaining the 43,000 students who annually attend our colleges.
· Better connect the links between ideas to patents and patents to revenue and revenue to jobs.
Campaign for Vermont has over 1600 partners that have signed onto their vision. You can find a list of them, as well as CFV’s other policy positions at CampaignForVermont.org.
Source: CFV 12.22.2014