Public Assets Institute With 25percent more Vermonters living in poverty than in the early 2000s, medianhousehold income stagnant, and high-quality child care still not affordable oreven available to many Vermont families, the state’s elected officials need tofocus on addressing these and other foundational issues in the next biennium. Tomove Vermontforward, policy makers need to zero in on three fundamentalinitiatives:
- Make work pay and ensure that all Vermonters canmeet basic needs.
- Make smart, evidence-based investments inprograms and infrastructure.
- Make state government more effective by increasingpublic engagement, fairness, and transparency.
Those are the recommendations contained in A Framework for Progress: Investing in Vermont’s people, infrastructure, and good government,a report released today by PublicAssets Institute inMontpelier.
“To make progress for Vermonters, the Legislature andadministration need to take strategic action this biennium,” said Paul Cillo,president and executive director of PublicAssets. “Economic growth won’t beshared by all Vermonters without policy changes. State government has animportant responsibility in improving Vermonters’ lives.”
The report recommendsthat the minimum wage should be enough to support a family and keep up withrising costs, and that affordable, high-quality child care is available to allwho need it.
“Elected officials also need to make smart investments thatbenefit all the state’s residents and take steps to make state government moreeffective,” Cillo said.
Public Assets Institute is a non-profit, non-partisanorganization based in Montpelier that believes Vermont should be a state wherecommunities thrive and the economy works forall Vermonters. Toward that goal,it conducts research and analysis on state tax, budget, and economic policies.
The recommendations inAFramework for Progressare offered to further the public debate this falland into the next legislative biennium. They focus on actions elected officialscan take to deploy public resources more effectively to serve the common good.The list is neither comprehensive nor exclusive. But these policy changes wouldprovide a solidfoundation for restoring our infrastructure, bettering thelives of low- and moderate-income Vermonters, and improving the policymakingprocess itself.
Some of those include eliminating the education property tax on a primary residence and basing resident school taxes solely on income; institute a carbon pollution tax—necessary to combat climate change—which would reduce
gasoline and diesel consumption further;fully fund the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board; and make needed repairs to Vermont's water and wastewater systems.
AFramework for Progressis a companion document to Public Assets’Stateof Working Vermontreport, released each December, which provides thedata and analysis behindthese recommendations.
Public Assets Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Montpelier thatpromotes sound state budget and tax policies that benefit all Vermonters. Moreinformation atwww.publicassets.org