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From the law: > (3) The Agency shall award grants under the Program on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to available funding, as follows: (A) not more
by unit91 8y ago
From the law:
> (3) The Agency shall award grants under the Program on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to available funding, as follows: (A) not more than $125,000.00 in calendar year 2019...
With such a small budget, it seems like the actual intent may have been to allocate up to $125K to generate advertising about their state.
https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Documents/2018/Docs/BILLS/S-0094/S-0094%20As%20Passed%20by%20Both%20House%20and%20Senate%20Unofficial.pdf https://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Documents/2018/Docs/B...
- ChuckMcM 8y agoAs we are talking about living and working in Vermont on a technology focused news aggregation site, I would call that a success. Part of the reasoning given in the article is to shore up the "rapidly sinking tax base" of the state and it reminds me that we don't have a good example of governments that both grow and shrink based on the economic activity of the state. That is something that could really help areas remain stable for longer periods of time I expect.
- intrasight 8y agoUS governments aren't very good at this - because they don't bank the good times. How many US governments have "Sovereign wealth funds"?
- s73v3r_ 8y agoI can guarantee you that states that did would be hammered by anti-tax people thinking that they were overtaxed.
- zdragnar 8y agoTo be honest, most "anti-tax" people are fine with the theory, but don't trust that it will be well managed and, more importantly, preserved for lean times. Too often surpluses are immediately funneled to special projects that we could have been better off without. The "pro-tax" people in my area are also generally against this sort of thing, because they want nothing more than to take more money and spend it on special constituencies. For example, my state passed a sales tax that was sold to us as a way to better preserve our parks, wild lands and cultural heritage. About 19% has gone to the DNR, which means less actually went to the stated cause. The rest is being funneled to art projects that are poorly received and utilized. Mind you, this is in a state that's very pro-taxation, and otherwise very liberal.
- empath75 8y agoMost anti tax people are just anti taxes on _me_
- zdragnar 8y agoSo are most pro-tax people, they're just pro-tax-everyone-else. Our governor is filthy rich, campaigned on raising the taxes on the one percent, and yet none of the taxes he wanted would have affected his trust fund income. What a surprise.
- JBReefer 8y agoShocking then that 12 do then, and they're mostly low-tax states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund
- intrasight 8y agoIt seems the more pertinent correlation is to resource-rich states, which makes sense as most are non-renewable, and if on state land, should benefit all the citizens.
- JBReefer 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund 12 states, mostly low tax states. Texas has 2, both from the 19th Century.
- jtsnow 8y agoYes, the Strong Towns organization has a unique perspective on this. They make a convincing argument that local governments in the U.S. are trapped in a "growth Ponzi scheme." [1] Without continuous growth, most of them will never cover their liabilities. Strong Towns also provides interesting insights on how to avoid and correct this pattern. [1] https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme/ https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme/
- ChuckMcM 8y agoI like the Strong Towns ideas, I wish they could present them in a less activist sort of way sometimes. It is perhaps the author's of the various article's history that leaks through but often times when reading their stuff I feel like I'm being talked down to and I think that blunts their otherwise useful information.
- pm90 8y agoThe reason for this historically is that throughout human history the main problem for societies has been to devise systems and governments that allow you to grow as fast as possible. Famine, War, Diseases or any Natural Disasters had the potential to wipe out your community or Kingdom, so throughout history you see this mad dash at settling lands, growing communities etc. That has changed in the past 100 years, especially in the New World. You no longer have to worry about your towns being burned down by an invading army (not in the developed world at least). The systems and thinking that we have in place for governing have just never dealt with this problem before. I do hope that it changes in the near future as we see the inevitable decline in many, many rural communities in the US and the hyper-growth of urban conglomerates. It would be nice if Governments could plan for a gradual decline in the population and ensure that basic city services would survive the decline by investing judiciously, rather than try to reverse the trend with expensive gimmicks to attract people that lose money, make the communities financially insolvent and basically increase their misery.
- gk1 8y agoYes, I was surprised by this: > Vermont has budgeted grants for about 100 new remote workers in the first three years of the program and about 20 additional workers per year for every year after. Vermont lost 10,000 working-age residents over the past five years.[1] This plan will (in theory) recover just ~1% of that. Maybe they're monitoring reactions to this announcement before they put more money into the program? Otherwise I don't see how this is supposed to make any difference to their problem. [1] https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/money/2016/07/21/vermont-aging-faster-than-rest-united-states/87263398/ https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/money/2016/07/21/v...
- Spooky23 8y agoWith skiing in the east an industry in rough shape since it doesn't snow anymore, and agriculture in a slow death spiral, Vermont is trying to embrace it's potential as a bedroom community for NYC and Boston. Burlington is a cool little city and the countryside is beautiful as well. If they can use a small program like this to stimulate some cadre of "pioneers", they'll get alot of value, and perhaps some improved outlooks for underutilized former IBM people.
- superplussed 8y agoI hadn't heard that there has been a decline in snowfall, it's pretty stark in the Pacific West: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-snowfall https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...
- Spooky23 8y agoI live in Upstate NY. We get snowfall, but after the storm blows out, it gets warm. This January/February, I cleared my roof of snow wearing shorts, and the temp was around 65-70.
- wuliwong 8y agoI don't totally understand the figure. What is determining the number of data points taken? It looks like the density of readings in the NW is much higher than in the NE.
- ainiriand 8y agoIf they plan to give a grant of 10k from a total of 125k do you know if they intend to give it to 12.5 persons willing to relocate? Strange figures.
- verelo 8y agoGiven it's "up to $10k" it could easily be 125 people at $1k each.
- TomK32 8y agoNorthern Ireland had a no-cap for renewable heating, no one bother to ask for money for years until ppl close to the DUP figured how to exploit it and extract a billion pound or something. Starting with a small sum makes sense, and for every remote worker they attract there might be a spouse, very likely children and suddenly you have two jobs generated on top for free.
- 0xfaded 8y agoLikely a pilot program, the cost of administering the program provably exceeds the 125k itself. I've just received my Danish startup visa. It may seem that every European country is trying to hand these out like candy, but my batch was capped at 50 visas. It makes sense to start these types programmes out small and observe the ramifications. Cash-for-clunkers is a good example of a large scale program going wrong, where massive funds were allocated to buy back unused cars.
- intrasight 8y agoEven adding a zero to that budget would have little effect. Demographics is an existential crisis and should be budgeted for accordingly.