(Promoted in keeping with our policy of promoting diaries by statewide candidates – promoted by GMD)
Today while touring local businesses and meeting with business owners in Jacksonville, Dover, and Wilmington, I called on Governor Douglas to put support back behind Regional Development Corporations and on Lt. Governor Brian Dubie to clarify his position on Regional Development Corporations.
It’s clear that Vermont needs more jobs, and our Regional Development Corporations and Regional Planning Commissions are on the front lines of supporting business growth and relocation efforts.
Yet under the “Challenges for Change” initiative, Governor Douglas proposed consolidating Regional Development Corporations and decreasing their funding.
I have spent much of my career in business, working to build a Vermont-based software company and now at Google, and I know how important it is to have local organizations that can be responsive to economic development opportunities.
Regional Development Corporations help spur economic development and create jobs across the state. Companies like Dealer.com expand their operations with the help of their local Regional Development Corporations.
Job creation is a central focus for many Vermonters and while reducing state spending is necessary in these tough economic times, making cuts to groups that will help create jobs and grow Vermont’s economy is absolutely the wrong approach. These groups have proved their effectiveness and I believe they are necessary for moving our state forward.
So, Governor Douglas, change your position and put support back behind Regional Development Corporations.
Even your own Lt. Governor has been vague about whether he agrees with the current approach.
At a meeting with the Bennington Regional Development Corporation, Lt. Governor Dubie was asked about whether he supports Governor Douglas’ plan to cut funding and consolidate Regional Development Corporations.
His response, as reported by The Bennington Banner on April 22nd, was to claim he hasn’t been a part of the “Challenges for Change” initiative. The Bennington Banner reported that:
Dubie, who said he is not “directly involved” in crafting Challenges for Change, said economic development should be a priority in Vermont.
The Banner went on to report that Dubie:
“…said he largely agreed with an op-ed piece penned by Bob Matteson, a longtime Bennington resident and former town manage, that opposed the consolidation.”
Where is the leadership? Lieutenant Governor Dubie, please clarify for us whether or not you support consolidating and cutting the budgets of Regional Development Corporations.
So far, he’s been “The Man Without a Plan.” It’s about time he stops ducking tough questions from schoolchildren, and actually tells us what, if anything, is on his mind.
by all means call out Douglas/Dubie/Dorn on their typically shortsighted economic development proposals
however, your support for the RDC’s may or may not be warranted
in theory, Challenges for Change is supposed to reflect a strategic vision based on an analysis of existing and potential programs; to a large extent, there is no such body of knowledge about the state’s economic development programs; some of us have been pointing that out for years (I can’t imagine why the Speaker & Pro-Tem thought the Agency had sufficient information to make informed choices)
the evidence is in this year’s Unified Economic Development Budget (UEDB) which, for the first time, contains some performance data; not surprisingly, it is woefully inadequate and exposes the administration’s failure to define and track outcomes (including the RDC’s)
no objective analysis has been done to ascertain which programs work and which ones don’t; what is clear is that these folks have spent about $200 million in the last five years and can’t tell us what they’ve achieved