Candidates for governor highlight environmental platforms
By Peter Hirschfeld
Vermont Press Bureau
A slumping economy and harrowing labor market has made job creation and economic development the near-singular focus of every major party candidate in the 2010 race for governor.
But as politicians lay out their plans to restore fiscal prosperity, they frequently cite the state’s environmental assets as the backbone of its economic system. The waterways and landscapes that define the Vermont aesthetic, candidates say, also support the framework on which its economic prospects hinge.
“The natural resources aren’t just icing on the cake or a backdrop of a picture of a pristine state,” says Elizabeth Courtney, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. “Natural resources are the foundation of our economy.”
Courtney says the focus on economic issues isn’t misplaced.
“Vermonters in general are rightly concerned about the economic imperative of the day, and we need to focus on figuring out how we’re going to create jobs and strengthen the economy,” she says. “The challenge is how to think about the economy while at the same time considering the importance of keeping our natural resources healthy and resilient so that our environment can actually support and sustain a healthy economy for all Vermonters.”
Todd Bailey, executive director of the Vermont League of Conservation Voters, cites several pressing environmental issues that will face the state’s next governor.
A $100 million public investment in Lake Lake Champlain over the past decade, Bailey says, has failed to remediate pollution levels in the state’s premier waterway.
“We need to get the job done on the lake but also open our eyes to what’s going on with regard to the water situation in the rest of state,” Bailey says.
A regulatory framework faulted by Republicans and Democrats alike for stunting economic growth will also figure prominently in this year’s race for governor.
“Permit reform is going to be an ongoing issue, and there is a way to modernize the process and at the same time do a better job of protecting natural resources in the state,” Bailey says. “It’s going to be handled differently I think depending on who wins.”
Conserving the open lands that support both agriculture and tourism industries in Vermont, according to Bailey, will also be an issue. In the last two years, Gov. James Douglas has sought dramatic cuts for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, funding for which supports the conservation of open lands and the construction of affordable housing. Current Use, the state’s premier land conservation program, has also been under the legislative magnifying glass.
“Given the budget situation, will there continue to be a commitment to protecting the working landscapes in state of Vermont?” Bailey says. “This is going to be a significant question before the next governor.”
The Times Argus spoke with all six major party candidates for governor and asked them to highlight items on their environmental platforms. Voters will decide a five-way race for the Democratic primary on Aug. 24. The winner will run against presumptive Republican nominee Brian Dubie in the general election in November.
Susan Bartlett
Bartlett has long championed the importance of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and has been widely credited with protecting it from proposed reductions by the Douglas Administration. She says that advocacy will continue as governor, where she’ll use the state’s bonding authority to invest $30 million over the next two years to bolster funding at VHCB and expand its conservation and affordable housing mission.
“That money will attract enormous matching funds and will go directly into the heart of the part of the economy that’s been hardest hit,” Bartlett says. “We can put the construction industry to work building affordable housing, we can save farms hit hard by their financial disasters, and we can preserve the working landscape that Vermont needs to survive.”
Bartlett says she’ll bond for the funds, and that the increased revenue from the job-creation aspect of the plan will more than cover debt service on the loan.
“Money is cheap right now, and what do we have our great credit rating for if not to use it,” Bartlett says. “I can’t think of a better way to use it than to get all those people back to work.”
Bartlett says Byzantine regulatory processes at the state and local levels have thwarted responsible development proposals by stalling the permit process. Too many permits, she says, seek to ensure the same environmental outcomes. She says Vermont can pare down the number of permits required of developers without compromising the standards those permits look to uphold.
“I don’t believe we can have permit reform until we deal with the number of permits we have now and, in a sane, responsible manner, consolidate those permits,” she says. “There are up to 11 different permits that you need for water. I find it hard to believe we need 11 permits to get to what are probably pretty simple outcomes. We need to streamline the process in a way that helps developers, and I think we can do that without compromising on the environmental aspect.”
Brian Dubie
Dubie says the choice between the economy or the environment is a false one, and that Vermont can grow its economy while improving protections for natural resources.
He says he’ll work with the environmental community and developers to simplify and streamline the permitting process in a way that fosters new development without compromising the environment.
He cites the designated growth centers legislation as a model for the future and says exempting pre-determined sites from Act 250 could unburden would-be developers from the regulatory constraints he blames for stunting economic progress.
“We could designate areas where we want to grow, and then remove Act 250 as a hurdle or provide modifications to the Act 250 process as a positive incentive for communities that want to move ahead with an industrial park,” Dubie says.
Dubie says he’ll work to support farms and agriculture and that he supports land-conservation efforts in Vermont. But he says organizational inefficiencies mean the state could cut funding to organizations like VHCB without necessarily hurting its mission.
“We have a historic downturn. We’re looking at at least a $110 million deficit in next year’s budget,” Dubie says. “And that’s going to require some prioritization.”
Citing a so-called “Tiger Team” report issued by the Douglas Administration, Dubie says Vermont could “shrink the infrastructure” associated with VCHB and other nonprofit organizations with similar missions.
“If there’s a way for us to shrink the business overhead side and ensure as many dollars go to healthy development or to build affordable housing solutions, then we can maximize our dollars to help people who need help and minimize the money we spend on overhead and administration,” Dubie says. “Yes, there is need for conservation of land, and I certainly understand that. But we have some difficult choices to make as a state right now.”
Matt Dunne
Dunne says his plans for a “place-based” economy and “slow-money” economy are intertwined with an environmental agenda that looks to abate pollution in waterways and use permit reform to focus development appropriate areas.
“We attract people to the state who bring dollars and resources and innovative ideas precisely ideas because of our natural resources,” Dunne says. “We must … provide tools for the kind of job creation that doesn’t destroy that natural environment but actually benefits from our investment in our beauty and our environment.”
Dunne says he’ll tap funds from the federal government and intellectual assets at the University of Vermont to craft a pollution-control plan that would stem the flow of phosphorous and other pollutants into Lake Champlain.
“I think there is a real opportunity for Vermont and UVM to be a center of innovation for tackling the kind of challenges that people are facing all over the country in the worlds of agriculture and water,” Dunne says.
On the issue of permit reform, Dunne says he’ll offer a plan that would encourage new development in areas where it’s unlikely to have negative environmental impacts.
“We have 4 million square feet of abandoned industrial space in Vermont and I think we can all agree as Vermonters we want development to take place in those locations first,” Dunne says. “I have proposed actually pre-permitting all 4 million square feet, so people understand at the outset what it is they can do on this property and then allow architects and contractors to have at it.”
Dunne, whose father founded the Vermont Land Trust, says his conservation ethic runs deep. To that end, he says, he’ll maintain funding for VHCB. He also extols the virtues of the Current Use program, but says he supports reforms that would make it more fiscally sustainable in the long run.
He says the system may lack appropriate safeguards against abuse by landowners seeking short-term tax benefits.
“There is increasing anger over the Current Use program because Vermonters feel that people are getting the use-value tax benefits but not actually engaging people from the forestry and agriculture worlds,” Dunne says. “For those of us that are passionate about keeping Current Use, we need to make sure it’s transparent in how it’s working and that we’re holding people accountable.”
Deb Markowitz
Markowitz says she’s running for governor to “protect the things that make Vermont special.”
Those things include village centers, open spaces, and lakes and streams, all of which her environmental platform, she says, looks to strengthen.
More investments are required to properly clean up Lake Champlain, and she says she’ll work with the state’s congressional delegation to bring more federal money to the effort. She says she’ll also serve as an intermediary with farmers and environmental leaders to craft new regulations that would lessen the amount of phosphorous running into the lake.
“We need to talk about how we can create the right kind of buffers to prevent more phosphorous from running into the lake,” Markowitz says.
She says the next governor can also reform operations at the Agency of Transportation to ensure that road construction doesn’t exacerbate the effects of storm-water run off into lakes and rivers.
“The way we maintain roads and build roads have a great impact on what washes into waterways,” she says. “As governor, that’s something I can have direct control over.”
Markowitz says that Vermont has done well addressing the very small issues and has taken the lead on big issues.
“But where we fail is in planning and strategic thinking about our future,” she says.
Her “Office of Planning, Performance and Partnership,” she says, would provide the framework in which Vermont could address a range of environmental concerns.
“Vermont didn’t become such a special place by accident,” she says. “It was because of strategic thinking and policies put in place many years ago and we need to refresh that.”
The office, she says, would bring together leaders in the science, planning and development worlds to develop “metrics” and policies.
“We need scientists at the table. We need to have community members, cities and towns at the table. And we also need good metrics,” she says. “We need to know whether what we’re doing is working, and if it’s not working, then we need to bring stakeholders to the table to see what the new direction should be. It’s going to be a very important strategy in approaching environmental issues into the next decade.”
Doug Racine
Racine says problems with the regulatory framework stem more from administrative failures than they do with the high standards those permits seek to ensure. Staff reductions at the Agency of Natural Resources, Racine says, mean that developers and businesspeople are left to navigate a complex system alone.
“What the current governor has failed to address are management issues, the issues of silos within state government where businesses often get contradictory advice about what they’re supposed to do. It’s more difficult to get permit applications processed with fewer staff people,” Racine says. “I would take comprehensive look at how all these pieces fit together and look at how we can streamline the process without compromising our environmental standards.”
Racine says his economic plan is tied directly to his environmental agenda and that investments in the environment should be viewed as economic-development expenditures.
Specifically, he says that repeated attempts by the Douglas Administration to balance the budget by cutting funds at VHCB would, in the long term, exacerbate the revenue problems now facing the state.
“I was one of the original sponsors of VHCB about 25 years ago,” Racine says. “I believe that conserving farm land and forestland are not just important environmental issues but important economic issues as well.”
Racine says water-quality issues, especially in Lake Champlain, threaten to unravel a key thread in the Vermont economy. He faults Gov. James Douglas for failing to enforce existing water-quality standards and said restoring the enforcement staff at government-oversight agencies will help the problem.
“I see a need to simply enforce our existing laws and work with our communities, work with our businesses, work with our farmers to provide the guidance and the assistance they need to comply with our laws,” he says.
Peter Shumlin
Pollutants flowing into Lake Champlain, Shumlin says, are a looming environmental disaster. As governor, he says he’ll work more aggressively to draw down federal dollars to stem the flow of pollution from agricultural enterprise.
Shumlin says he also wants to encourage municipally based responses to storm-water runoff issues as a way of mitigating so-called non-point sources of pollution.
Shumlin says the standards and criteria built into Vermont’s regulatory framework are already sound. But he says Vermont needs to overhaul the way in which those permits are administered. Through a combination of new technology and management changes, Shumlin says, he’ll break down the regulatory obstacles impeding development.
“The reform that’s needed is one of efficiency and attitude more than it is reforming the criteria of Act 250,” Shumlin says. “We need to treat every jobs creator with an efficient welcoming and a smart administrative process.”
Shumlin calls himself a major proponent of land conservation who has deflected efforts by the Douglas Administration to cut VHCB.
“If I’m elected governor, I want people to regard my administration as the Renaissance period for VHCB,” he says.
New investments in the organization, Shumlin says, will spark an affordable-housing boom that will not only attract young people to Vermont but also energize a sluggish construction sector.
“We can’t grow jobs unless we continue to build low-income housing,” he says.
And Shumlin says Vermont’s role in the nation’s agricultural production will grow more prominent as climate change narrows the farming belt. Positioning the state to capitalize on that growing market, Shumlin says, will require the kind of land-conservation efforts that VHCB has spearheaded.
“I believe VHCB plays a critical role in preserving farmland for future generations,” he says.
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