The Source of Our Pain

When we talk about instances where state officials use environmental, anti-development, sustainability, etc. exuberance to justify unpopular and often indefensible decisions, we usually account for it as a 'political' action, 'judicial activism', or even 'identity politics' at work. We rarely consider these actions as a form of corruption. It's surprising to find that despite our own apparent forgiveness for these transgressions, the World Bank considers the unchecked discretionary power of bureaucrats a form of corruption.

"The search for effective methods of combating corruption has led to an increasingly wide recognition that corruption is fundamentally a problem of governance. Corruption thrives where states are too weak to control their own bureaucrats, to protect property and contract rights, and to provide the institutions that underpin an effective rule of law. Consequently, recent studies of corruption have tended to focus on key characteristics and policies of the state, especially the extent of state intervention in the economy and the degree of discretionary power of bureaucrats."

This raises the question in my mind as to the extent of the corruption in Vermont. For example, when the ANR denies a permit for a business because it conflicts with the bureaucrats' personal interests and agendas, does this action constitute corruption? Is the environmental movement a form of organized crime?  This isn't as crazy as it sounds. Consider the extent of the rent seeking activities taken by many environmental groups. So when a business is denied a permit for a project that otherwise meets all the technical requirements, should the business call the FBI? I know of at least one that already has and others that filed federal lawsuits.

Comments

[Dennis Lukas]

Love the rent seekers ball! How true! Individuals rights are getting trampled by organized groups that get more and more laws passed that reflect the groups views. Vermont is a wonderful example of this. Most people and businesses, do not want to spend the time or money to fight these laws. The companies that wanted to build at Killington are a good example, when faced with long permitting delays they left, and quickly built in New Hampshire.
The groups that control Vermont could be looked at as criminal, as they do more harm than good, however, they are the voice of the majority. Taxes never go down and Vermont will not change, at least not in our lifetime. Despite the best efforts being put forth by people with common sense, the zealots are still in charge. A green Vermont is a happy Vermont, keep it simple.

[Jon Harrison]

The one and only way to solve the problem is to reduce the size and power of government. So long as government disposes of so much power and resources, special interests will seek to use it to advance their selfish and often "corrupt" agendas.

[Dennis Lukas]

Amen Jon, the sooner the better!

[Robert Bloomer, Jr.]

Are you just waking up to this? There’s a more traditional corruption at work in Vermont rotting the government from the inside out. When I was in the West Rutland government the Health Department was falsifying our drinking water testing to show contamination to force us to build a new water system. At the last minute the Department pulled our state grant and Farmers’ Home pulled the loan it had offered. It was Farmers’ Home that had initially stopped lending in West Rutland because of the supposed water quality problems, and the commercial lenders followed suit, making property there worthless. The story is too involved for this space but the only explanation that occurred to me was that various high level bureaucrats, having engineered the crisis themselves, expected to be paid off to release their death grip on the town.

More recently, Supreme Court Justice John Dooley has successfully blocked development of a parcel adjacent to his home for 20 years with some highly questionable tactics including removing an official file from the state archives in Middlesex, and then lying about it. A complaint to the Judicial Conduct Board was dismissed by Vice Chairman Robert Keiner without submitting it to the full board. I have enough of these instances to fill a book which, incidentally, is about finished.