Vt. businesses rallying around Symington
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: January 28, 2008
MONTPELIER – A dozen owners and managers of small and specialized Vermont businesses said the state should be taking care of infrastructure, including not just roads and schools, but high speed internet and health care, and leaving business to them.
And despite the cost of living and concerns about taxes and permitting, workers and entrepreneurs will come to the state for good schools and to work at things they believe in, the business owners said.
"There is a perception that you are taking a risk to move to Vermont," said Dave Winslow of EpikOne, an online marketer in Williston. But if you poll workers in their 20s, those in Vermont will be happier on average with their lives than those in other places, he said.
Winslow was one of several business owners invited to the Statehouse last week by House Speaker Gaye Symington.
Changing regulations around the processing and sale of farm products has helped, and doing more – for instance a proposed change allowing the sale of more raw milk more easily – would help still more, said Pete Johnson, the owner of the organic farm Pete's Greens in Craftsbury. He already delivers vegetables and other products to his customers.
"It makes a lot of sense for me to be able to offer (raw milk) as well," Johnson said.
Several of the business owners said the state could help by making it easier for them to afford health insurance, perhaps by expanding the new Catamount Health program to small businesses.
"It is hard to overestimate the effect the health insurance mess has on those of us that are in business," Johnson said. "I would love to see a universal Vermont program."
State policy makers should be cautious about trying to attract large companies with tax breaks, some of the business owners said. Those large companies may be inclined to leave when the tax breaks run out, and they are not a good fit for the state in some cases.
And lawmakers should not forget that farming is — and should remain — the basis of Vermont's economy, said Andrew Meyer of the Hardwick-based Vermont Soy.
"Agriculture is the foundation of the state. It is where the state should focus its attention," he said.
Symington, a Jericho Democrat, has been talking over the last year to those who run and own new and mostly small businesses to see what the state is doing right in its approach to economic growth. The "Why Vermont Works" meetings – cumulating in a gathering last Thursday in the Statehouse – is something of a response to complaints by businesses about higher taxes and too much regulation.
The economic success of the state – from drawing businesses to attracting workers – is "so much based on the quality of life here" Symington said.
That doesn't mean those starting new and non-traditional businesses in Vermont who came to Montpelier don't have the same worries as their larger brethren.
"There is definitely not enough rental housing in Burlington," said Ted Adler of Union Street Media. If it was easier to build affordable housing, "that would really help us as an employer."
Covering taxes is also a struggle, he said.
And permitting, long a worry for business owners, can be a problem even for a company the size of his, said Johnson. When his farm put in an 800-square-foot kitchen, there were five state agencies and departments to go through.
"Individually they have all been great to work with," he said. But there was no central person at the state to coordinate those permits, so he had to himself.
"I don't understand it very well," he said. "I don't really want to."
Ultimately state government should concentrate on infrastructure, including health insurance, and let companies do what they do best, said Tom Lowell of Vermont Photonics, an optical measurement equipment company in Bellows Falls.
"If we do the business and you guys the infrastructure, it will work great," he said.
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