BRATTLEBORO — According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Vermont was the only state in the nation declining in population.
The census data also shows that Vermont ranks just behind Maine as having the second highest median age, at 42.3 years.
As a result, Vermont has an older workforce, and those older workers have to stay on the job longer as businesses struggle to recruit younger workers.
And the state has struggled mightily to balance its budget in recent years, in the face of declining tax revenues from the lingering effects of the 2007-08 recession.
“A declining population, an aging workforce, and limited economic growth is not a recipe for success,” Vermont Chamber of Commerce President Betsy Bishop said on Dec. 16. “We're trying to change that.”
Speaking to members of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce during a breakfast event at the Brattleboro Retreat, Bishop said the state needs to focus on economic growth to close the budget gap, not raising taxes.
The 2015 agenda
Bishop has been speaking to the state's regional chambers of commerce to outline what the key issues in the upcoming legislative session will be.
In the Vermont Chamber's words, lawmakers in 2015 should:
• Preserve the Agency of Commerce and Community Development budget, which is currently less than 1 percent of the General Fund.
• Address spending problems in education, health care and the state's general fund while avoiding harmful tax increases.
• Support existing workforce training programs to invest in Vermonters and address the growing challenge of talent acquisition for businesses.
• Contain health care costs through ongoing work at the Green Mountain Care Board.
• Facilitate growth and development by addressing process issues in permitting.
Bishop said that money would be the dominant issue of the 2015-16 biennium, and everything the Legislature does will be predicated on dealing with the fundamental problem of spending more money than is coming in from taxes and fees.
The health care part of Bishop's talk became obsolete when Gov. Peter Shumlin announced on Dec. 17 that his administration would end its effort to work toward a single-payer health care plan.
In a statement given after Shumlin's announcement, Bishop said that scuttling single-payer “is the right decision for Vermont, for her people, for her businesses, and for the economy as a whole. Now, we can focus on the cost containment and choice necessary for continued reform.”
But even before Shumlin's announcement, Bishop said that the health care fight would take a back seat to what she felt was going to be the equally big job of education reform.
Kendal Melvin, the Vermont Chamber's governmental affairs specialist, said that while lawmakers examine education governance and consider tweaks to Acts 60 and 68, they should also look closely at education spending.
Melvin called the current level of spending on education “unsustainable,” saying that expenses for school staff make up 80 percent of the average school budget.
And Melvin said staffing levels keep increasing, while student enrollment keeps declining.
Promoting growth
Bishop said the state can start to solve its economic problems simply by promoting opportunities in the state, and “convince more people to live, work, and play in Vermont.”
“There are lots of great jobs available in Vermont,” Bishop continued. “We need to tell people about those great jobs. We need to promote Vermont outside of Vermont.”
Bishop said that is why the Vermont Chamber advocates fully funding the Agency of Commerce and Community Development budget.
It also advocates setting a floor on the amount of revenue that the General Fund receives from the state's rooms and meals tax, and using the excess to do more marketing of Vermont.
With a statewide hotel and inn room-occupancy rate of just 47 percent, Bishop said that “moving that even a little bit starts to bring in more money.”
Bishop said the Vermont Chamber suggests that Vermont do more to promote its agricultural, technology, manufacturing, and renewable-energy sectors.
“We've got to start focusing on growth,” she said.