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The Issues

Job Creation

How To Bring High-Paying Jobs To Vermont

Steps to bring new jobs to Vermont and revitalize our economy.

There was a time when everywhere you turned, it seemed, some Vermonter’s invention was coming to life in a barn or garage, resulting in a factory or office building employing our neighbors. There’s no reason we cannot continue this tradition of innovation and bring good, high-paying jobs back to our state.

Unfortunately, we have gone years without a serious business plan to support economic development in our state. This lack of planning has contributed to our loss of jobs and few new business start-ups over the last decade.

Vermont’s many assets far outnumber our current problems, and by utilizing these assets creatively, Vermont will thrive. Our institutions of higher education and those just over our borders are some of the best in the world. Our brand, synonymous with fresh, quality and green, is world-renowned. We have a quality of life that is the envy of the country and good schools for young families. Vermont is uniquely positioned at the center of three major cities: Boston, New York, and Montreal. We have underutilized rail, air and fiber-optic assets. Our scale should allow us to move quickly to capture new opportunities as they appear on the global marketplace.

During my 11 years in the legislature, I devoted my time to bringing entrepreneurs and business leaders together to develop economic development legislation that would create jobs without compromising our farms and forest land. Working with Vermonters, we created programs to redevelop abandoned industrial sites, attract film productions, bring broadband to rural communities, strengthen rail service, and increase access to capital for small businesses. But I know from my experience in the private and public sector that legislation without strong executive leadership only gets us so far.

Working closely with the business community and regional development corporations, my administration will develop the infrastructure, access to capital, and responsive government to create jobs in Vermont:

• Broadband - Bring the economic development potential of high-speed internet and cell service to all of Vermont's businesses and to the last mile of every town in Vermont.
  
• Effective and consistent regulation - Make the permitting process predictable and transparent, and make enforcement consistent to ensure that neither corporations nor workers abuse our workers' compensation or independent contractor laws.
• A thoughtful and equitable system of taxation - Reward investment and encourage the formation of risk capital to create and retain jobs.
• Higher education and tech transfer - Invest in our institutions of higher education, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies and other incubators to bring ideas from the classroom, barn and garage to the global marketplace.
• Capital - Increase capital available to Vermont businesses by expanding the seed capital fund, increasing state resources for micro-enterprise loans, and providing incentives for Vermonters to invest in Vermont businesses, large and small.
• Revitalize downtowns - Support and simplify the Vermont Downtown Program and the growth center program to continue revitalizing Vermont’s Main Streets.
• Recycle industrial sites - Pre-permit, provide clear cleanup plans and support regional development corporations to increase the redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites.
• Promote Vermont - Having helped grow a Vermont-based company makes me uniquely qualified to deliver a message to the world that Vermont is a great place for business.
• Green jobs - Leverage the Vermont environmental brand and the reality of global warming to make the state a center of green innovation. We will do this by making training available to Vermonters for jobs in the green economy, supporting the expansion of green technology development and encouraging the investment directly in the green business sector and renewable energy production in the state.
• Value-added agriculture - Build markets for value-added agriculture products using new media tools and supporting infrastructure for processing specialty food.
• Open new markets - Provide direct support to Vermont companies to bring their products and services to national and international markets.
• Transportation - Invest in transportation system - rail, highway, and air - to make sure we have easy business travel access to nearby cities and the globe.
• Revise the business tax credit system - Create clear tax incentives that are accountable, easy to understand and reward investment and job creation.
• Insist on a return on our government's investments - Measure the performance of our state programs, reward efficiency, and report that information to Vermonters.
• Pro-economic development appointments - Appoint smart, experienced people who are excited about the economic development potential of Vermont to leadership positions in my administration.