Public Assets recommends 2019-20 state initiatives

MONTPELIER – With 25 percent more Vermonters living in poverty than in the early 2000s, median household income stagnant, and high-quality child care still not affordable or even available to many Vermont families, the state’s elected officials need to focus on addressing these and other foundational issues in the next biennium. To move Vermont forward, policy makers need to zero in on three fundamental initiatives:

• Make work pay and ensure that all Vermonters can meet basic needs.
• Make smart, evidence-based investments in programs and infrastructure.
• Make state government more effective by increasing public 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 Public Assets Institute in Montpelier.

“To make progress for Vermonters, the Legislature and administration need to take strategic action this biennium,” said Paul Cillo, president and executive director of Public Assets. “Economic growth won’t be shared by all Vermonters without policy changes. State government has an important responsibility in improving Vermonters’ lives.”

 The report recommends that the minimum wage should be enough to support a family and keep up with rising costs, and that affordable, high-quality child care is available to all who need it.

“Elected officials also need to make smart investments that benefit all the state’s residents and take steps to make state government more effective,” Cillo said.

Public Assets Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Montpelier that believes Vermont should be a state where communities thrive and the economy works for all Vermonters. Toward that goal, it conducts research and analysis on state tax, budget, and economic policies.

The recommendations in A Framework for Progress are offered to further the public debate this fall and into the next legislative biennium. They focus on actions elected officials can take to deploy public resources more effectively to serve the common good. The list is neither comprehensive nor exclusive. But these policy changes would provide a solid foundation for restoring our infrastructure, bettering the lives of low- and moderate-income Vermonters, and improving the policymaking process itself.

A Framework for Progress is a companion document to Public Assets’ State of Working Vermont report, released each December, which provides the data and analysis behind these recommendations. 

Public Assets Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes sound state budget and tax policies that benefit all Vermonters. More information at www.publicassets.org

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