The Vermont Standard
6/4/2004

Sen. Matt Dunne Co-Sponsors Successful Development Package

A comprehensive economic development proposal unveiled in January by Sen. Matt Dunne (D – Windsor County) and Sen. Hinda Miller (D - Chittenden County), largely passed the legislature spread over a variety of spending and policy bills. The new approach, named the CREDability initiative, was the product of research conducted over the last year by a group of entrepreneurs led by the Senators and facilitated the Snelling Center on Government.

“Our goals were to find opportunities to create jobs by leveraging our strengths in Vermont,” said Sen. Dunne a former software executive and Director of AmeriCorps*VISTA, after the flurry of legislation containing the parts of the initiative passed on the last day of the session. “We needed a new approach to economic develop that matches today's economy.”

The legislation focused on elements identified by national economic development experts as necessary to build jobs in the new economy:

  • Recruit and retain people, not large corporations
  • Strengthen opportunities for Vermont companies to complete in the global marketplace
  • Create a state of entrepreneurship
  • Strengthen Vermont's unique sense of place by building strong downtowns, and protecting our natural landscape and agricultural base.
  • View Vermont as a region, rather than individual counties
  • Encourage diversity and creativity

From this set of principles, Sen. Dunne and Sen. Miller created S.296 as a starting point.

“While we knew a bill that included expenditures, tax policy and land use legislation would not make it through the process intact, it was important that we connect the dots to show how the various elements would work together,” said Sen. Miller, formerly Founder and CEO of JogBra. The final legislation was spread over S.42, the Capital Bill and the Appropriations Bill.

The final package included the following elements:

Broadband Grants – Competitive demonstration grants for five municipalities to bring high speed Internet to the last mile of their community.

Seed Capital Fund – Provided incentives to create a $2 million private equity seed capital fund to support Vermont entrepreneurs.

Brownfields – Funding for environmental assessment of abandoned industrial sites and sweeping legislative reform to provide liability protection for developers who clean-up and redevelop contaminated properties.

Downtown Buildings Code Adjustments – Instructed the Department of Labor and Industry to further adjust code requirements to make it easier to redevelop multi-story downtown buildings.

Foreign Limited Liability Companies – Created a regulatory change to encourage foreign companies to set up their U.S. presence in Vermont by allowing them to continue to utilize their internal governance procedures of their home country. Vermont is the first to allow such flexibility.

Film Fund – Authorized Vermont Economic Development Authority to develop fund for low interest loans to support film projects that are largely shot in the state of Vermont and employ at least 30% Vermonters.

World Trade Office – Invest additional money in the WTO to help Vermont businesses more effectively get their goods and services sold in foreign markets.

Incubators and Creative Infrastructure – To complement the new federal funds, strategic grants to support technology transfer incubators in different parts of the state and to support new higher education centers that emphasize creativity (Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction).

Sen. Dunne said that while the economic development package is comprehensive, there is still room for further creativity in jobs creation policy. “We need to be vigilant in finding what our entrepreneurs need to grow, create jobs, and retain our most creative minds. That includes trying new approaches like those in this legislation, but most importantly having an ongoing dialogue with the Vermont business community.”

“In the global marketplace, we must find ways for our companies to compete and attract companies that have an international perspective. The synergy between new international companies, Vermont's commitment to a high quality place to live, and our home grown entrepreneurs has the potential to be very powerful and differentiate us from the rest of the country,” said Sen. Miller. The economic development approach was supported strongly by Senate leadership from the beginning of the year.

Just after their election to the Senate, Dunne and Miller spearheaded the creation of a new Senate Committee focused on economic development issues. It was in this committee that the legislation was further refined and gained the momentum to pass. The Senators hope to continue convening the business community over the election period to identify additional opportunities to strength entrepreneurship, the creative economy, and create new jobs for Vermonters.