Shumlin and the Legislature undermines Vermont’s iconic bucolic economy while allowing deep subsidies to new energy suppliers. While these measures have merit, no off-setting measures have been enacted to mitigate the costs of these mandates. The Legislature has enacted costly new mandates such as the minimum wage, paid leave, and energy surcharges.
Rather than cash, the Rainy Day Fund is now comprised of IOUs. Vermont’s Rainy Day Fund, established to help Vermonters during hard times, has been leveraged by lending it to the Teachers’ Retirement Health Care Fund and for affordable housing and energy efficient projects, among others. State economists have documented that recessions occur on average every seven years and as of now the bottom of the last recession was seven years ago.Īct 46 has both disrupted and undermined Vermont’s locally controlled school system while not addressing high property taxes and school spending, which continue to rise despite declining student enrollments. State budget managers have increased the Medicaid cost shift onto private insurance premiums from $138 million to $176.5 million since 2010. Through the enactment of the Green Mountain Care Board and the all-payer funding system, the scope of taxpayer responsibility for rising health care costs has dramatically expanded. The state budget, not including federal dollars, has grown by 35 percent since 2010 while the state’s economy has grown by only 23 percent. Here’s the patchwork of the “government” bubble our leaders have crafted: There will be another recession in Vermont’s future and rather than prepare for it, our Statehouse leaders have created a state government spending “bubble” that will certainly implode when the next recession hits, leaving vulnerable Vermonters and over-burdened taxpayers even more vulnerable and more burdened. The Great Depression was attributed to a stock market “bubble.” “Happy days are here again,” they said, until they weren’t. A housing “bubble” dominated the last recession and before that it was a “tech” bubble. Recessions are often caused by private sector “bubbles” that suddenly implode. Over the past six years, Vermont’s leaders have taken us far down the empty pockets road.
Further, elected leaders can overly leverage state finances and the state’s economy such that when times of trouble arrive, rather than a helping hand, there are only empty pockets for those in need. Unlike the federal government, which can “print” money in times of crisis, state governments do not have such luxury. They expect their leaders have the wisdom to keep the people's government on solid footing such that when help is needed, help is available. N times of trouble, from floods to recessions, citizens turn to their government for stability and help. Editor's note: This commentary is by Tom Pelham, formerly finance commissioner in the Dean administration, tax commissioner in the Douglas administration, a state representative elected as an independent and who served on the Appropriations Committee.
0 kommentar(er)
