I think a lot about running for governor of Vermont. Why?

• Because the state where I have lived for 25 years is at a dangerous fork in the road. We can take one fork toward denial, irrelevance and decay. Or we can take the second fork toward transformation, prosperity, vitality and resilience.

• Because the state is stagnating. Our population is shrinking. Our smart young people are leaving for better jobs and cultural diversity in cities. This trend will leave us in a Vermont of under-educated dependency on the one hand and wealthy older people on the other.

• Because our citizens are increasingly powerless to build lives of prosperity and happiness in the face of the global marketing machine that sells us junk without regard for our health and well-being. Facebook does not care about our privacy. Coca-Cola and McDonalds don’t care about our health. But they are happy to profit from our hard-earned dollars.

• Since World War II, we have created the most powerful economic engine in world history. It has lifted millions out of poverty and created broad opportunity. But it also threatens our livelihoods. We just adapt and adjust to that engine in the way we educate. But we must stand up to that engine and say NO to protect our health and privacy.

• We have reached a point where that economic engine is so powerful and creates so much wealth for so few people without regard for our social fabric of the that we need to take a new approach.

• I am not talking about the Burn it Down approach, nihilistic approach of the Trumps, or the right-wing approach of the congressional Republicans.

• I am talking about a return to a market capitalism that creates opportunity and prosperity for all - and regulated by a proper referee. It is the job of the referees to bring fairness to the market system. Those referees work in state government. And they are talented and important people.

• Our need in Vermont is to bring more of that prosperity that is shared by Vermonters.

HOW?By transforming this state into a modern example of resiliency in an uncertain world. 

• In 1962, Phil Hoff came to office promising a new approach. Vermont was emerging from the sleepy 50s and needed to move from the poor farm and one-room school houses to a modern economy, a modern government, a state highway system to get goods to market and modern education system.

• So Hoff spent months rethinking how Vermont works and he delivered a new style of of activist government - unified school districts and a modern welfare system.

• We still govern ourselves largely on that model and the the time has come for a new generation of Vermonters to rebuild this state.

At the core needs to be resiliency. The climate crisis is real and it is here. In everything we do, we must build in resiliency - in our buildings, in our systems of transportation, education, natural resources, energy and agriculture. We can no longer afford to throw up buildings along strip highways in Barre-Montpelier or Williston Road. These are failures of planning and community building. Act 250 must screen all projects through a resiliency lens for how a project will benefit the community and prosper in a climate change world. Our education system needs to get more resilient. Less test taking, more critical thinking and team building. Our government needs to get more resilient so it can make decisions faster and be more responsive to citizen needs. Our transportation system needs to get more resilient. Fewer roads, highways and cars. More bike lanes and smart-transit to move us around. Our health care system needs to get more resilient - too many hospitals trying to do too many things. Our police need to be peace officers and community leaders instead of feared military style troops in the front yard of a high school with deadly consequences.Our colleges need to get more resilient. Too many colleges with unclear missions vying for student dollars. But more than anything - we need to grow Vermont into a place where people will come to raise families and build productive lives. How do we do that?A lot of good work has already been done. Stephen Kiernan’s manifesto on Vermont was a great start. It is a document I signed along with many others of diverse backgrounds and persuasions. It is here:https://www.stephenpkiernan.com/vermont-to-the-tenth-powerThe author Bill Schubart over the last five years has laid out a roadmap in his writing snd commentaries. Read Schubart here:https://schubart.com/vermont-economic-development/The legislature is trying mightily, although I believe it could take a more holistic approach. And Gov. Scott has rightly sounded the alarm of what is coming if we don’t take action. Here is what I would do. 

1. Move beyond the era and thinking of no new taxes to one of investment and innovation.

2. Modernize our tax system to pay for schools, services and innovation via income - not property wealth. And tell companies that profit from selling junk food, using our natural resources or invading our privacy privilege for which they will pay a price.

3. Open Vermont to new citizens of all backgrounds. These are the next generation of entrepreneurs and job creators. The Syrians in Rutland, the Africans in Burlington/Winooski. These are the Irish and Italians and French Canadians of the last century who built Vermont. We can do that again.

4. Execute an economic development plan for Vermont that touts our attributes to the entire world. For too long, we have built development efforts around a monolithic Vermonter, often people wanting to ski and vacation. That’s fine. But the world is different now. We must speed up our efforts and reach out directly to all manner of people.

5. Get healthier. We all know our health care spending is out of control. We must revamp the system to promote health and penalize those who do us harm. Junk food companies like Coke and Pepsi need to pay for the harm they do to our health. Vermonters need to stop enabling this health care crisis by taking a walk and getting off the junk food. We successfully made smoking uncool in the last 20 years. Let’s do the same with the latest killer.

6. This goes for opiates as well. Let’s build on the work being down around the state to eliminate this scourge.

7. On broad-band and cell service - the next governor should summon the heads of AT&T, Verizon, VTEL, Google, Constellation and anyone else who takes our money for poor service to a meeting. That governor should demand a new approach to broadband building out or threaten to use executive powers to force the issue. Too much commerce and prosperity are being lost every day.

Vermont has all the attributes it needs to become the place where people want to live and prosper. Clean air and water, human-scale communities, an honest government, community-minded business leaders and a strong non-profit sector and on and on. Let’s put a welcome sign at each entrance to Vermont and tell the world we are open for business. (Might need an Act 250 permit or an exemption from the billboard law)Watch this space for details over the next months for detail on each of the issues and how we can transform this state into a Vermont of the future.