Vermont has some very major long term problems to solve - like serious unfunded pension liabilities and increasing pollution of Lake Champlain.
Then there’s low population growth; the State’s unconnected and very old digital and data systems. And we can’t forget where we’re going with energy; lack of longer- term investments in promising programs, such as child care and children’s development; and serious infrastructure problems, such as deteriorating roads and bridges. But “Here and now” is the essence of Vermont’s budget Act – and the 2019 Budget - just wrapped up in a messy Legislative session - was no different.
Vermont’s overall State budget is now about $6 billion dollars - a lot of money for a small state – so we need to be sure we’re spending all that money in the best possible way. With the exception of Vermont’s capital spending of approximately $80 million dollars a year, which is borrowed, and which does invest in the future, almost all of Vermont’s spending is for the here and now.
But longer term issues are not getting any better – and negative consequences to Vermont’s future are increasing.
If we compare Vermont’s behavior to that of business, the business proportion of spending for research and capital improvements is much larger than that of the state. This is partly because if a business fails to invest for the future, in the super-competitiveness of that world, the business will fail.
So business constantly invests in new customer generation, data systems, facilities, technology and people. State government should take this lesson seriously.
It shouldn’t be hard to find a point or two of inefficiency, waste or unnecessary expenditures, particularly in larger budgets, for a one-time change in base spending.
A one-time reduction of day to day spending in the order of 2 % of the $2.5 billion dollar State Fund could be shifted into longer term investments. And if it could be sustained for even just one decade, it would generate about a half of a billion dollars to help us deal better with our future of considerable uncertainties. We would be a very different and stronger Vermont at the end of that cycle.
There may be better strategies than this, but there’s no question that we need to think and act bigger on behalf of the longer term … and what our children will inherit.
