John McClaughry put together a formidable group to consider the demographic future of Vermont and this panel met yesterday in one of those imposing hearing rooms in the statehouse; first to hear from Richard Heaps and then comment on his presentation.
With his colleague Art Woolf (familiar to those who visit this site),
Heaps conducted a detailed study of the long-term demographic trends in
Vermont and then came up with a scenario for the state’s future out to
the year 2030. McClaughry compressed and edited the original report
into a more reader-friendly and less richly technical document which he
calls “Off the Rails,” and that title pretty much says it all. In the adjacent column, you'll see a link to the report
. We think it is the best place to
begin any discussion of Vermont’s economic future.
The event, as noted, did not get a standing-room-only reception
and during the proceedings, a legislator on the panel excused himself
so that he would be included in one of those end-of-session group
photographs. News coverage was limited to this item on the Freeps' blog.
A visitor to the statehouse yesterday could have
left the McClaughry hearing, climbed a flight of stairs, and listened
to a House debate on whether or not to make it criminal to operate a
tractor, while drunk, on a state highway. The debate arose, evidently,
from an actual case and it was somehow important that the intoxicated
tractor driver was pulling a manure spreader.
Manure spreading is something they know a lot about in Montpelier.
Still, it would be a mistake to think that because distracted
legislators were not paying attention, nothing interesting or
worthwhile was said. Vermont is old and getting older. The taxes are high and
getting higher. Heaps and Woolf are not alone in considering these
trends to be real, deep, and worth worrying about. The Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
issued a report yesterday that included some recommended actions for
keeping young people in the state and attracting some from other
jurisdictions. For a mere $164,000, some outside consultants came up with e-mail addresses of 700 young people who might be willing to settle here.
Technical studies are fine and empirical data -- to include e-mail addresses -- is always useful.
But this seems to be an area where the anecdotal evidence is
undeniable. Vermont is not the kind of vibrant, happening place that
most people in their 20s find seductive. Not enough action. People in
their 30s, with children, are more likely to consider Vermont a
desirable place to live and raise a family. Good schools, good
recreation, low crime-rate, and so forth.
There are things that can be done to attract these young families
to the state and we will be talking to a couple of McClaughry’s
panelists about such initiatives. Meanwhile, one can only hope that
the legislature looks good in those photographs. And that they got
that thing about intoxicated tractor drivers pulling manure spreaders
sorted out.
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