After I read the answers by a number of state legislators to survey questions asked by and printed in the Rutland Herald, I wanted very much to have this commentary be helpful rather than be critical of some of the state problems legislators want to emphasize in the 2024 legislative session. I decided so, although some of the chosen issues wouldn’t be my choice.
Governing a contemporary Vermont is not a walk in the park. There are many critical issues that have to be studied, debated, solutions found and voted upon by 150 representatives and 30 senators. Choosing what to make decisions about is itself a major problem because decision makers always have a wish list of issues and objectives that far surpass time, personnel and budget realities. There are many reasons for such studied ad nauseam by psychologists but these reasons are not my focus.
Wishful thinking plagues both government and business leadership. When I input various corporate product managers before writing a strategic and tactical marketing/communication plan, I would always make sure I got all their wishes (objectives) written down. Then I would help these managers choose and focus on an activity that could be realistically accomplished within all the constraints. But most importantly, I made sure, as best as possible, that a definitive number of specific objectives were met. No deviations from the planned tactics allowed, that would undermine the approved strategies and tactics.
I wanted all to believe and accept that, with the resources available, we could accomplish a focused number of objectives — leaving less important needs for another budget year.
Of all the state issues, if I were a representative, these would be my immediate focus:
— Population: Population is a crisis in a state that has a rapidly aging population with a negative birthrate. This issue is the most critical because it affects so many areas that have to be focused on and solutions determined in order to improve the state’s demographic mix. The fact is, population could be the focus of the entire legislative session.
In order to attract a younger population, the state needs to build more reasonably priced housing units; the state needs to build more affordable day care centers; needs to lower taxes; and attract businesses to relocate here. All these objectives must be achieved in order to reduce the negative economic impact caused by an aging population.
The population issue is a linchpin concern. To begin deciding workable solutions here, the state needs to designate the issue an emergency, organize for an emergency with a new titled executive in charge of all the associative issues and who is given the authority to cross departmental responsibilities.
— Infrastructure improvement: Vermont’s climate as everywhere is changing. The state will experience a continued number of floods and other adverse weather events. Vermont needs to develop effective, defensive, infrastructure projects to protect it from continually facing devastating weather events which are disrupted, and costly, and certainly not an advantage to attract young people to live and work in Vermont.
— Addiction: To help, new laws have to give law enforcement greater legal leeway to protect Vermont citizens. However, the principal issue here is addiction; 80% of the thefts and other crimes are committed by addicts. This fact should drive the focus regarding laws, yes, but major efforts should be on reducing addiction.
— Implementing AI: Whatever one thinks of the potential good or eventually catastrophic effects caused by machines smarter than humans, artificial intelligence devices will become as commonplace as mobile phones. Vermont needs to start implementing the AI devices that can help solve the state’s social and economic problems. To not pay attention to the most disruptive technology ever invented by humankind, the state ignores an opportunity that can easily turn into additional social and economic problems, the extent of which can only be known to science fiction writers.
By focusing on finding solutions to interconnected linchpin issues, state representatives can more easily do what must be done, then move on to other issues in a more effective, systematic way, at another time. What is needed now is to take the time to focus only on the most critical, interrelated, problematic issues. Focusing on a limited number of critical problems is effective wish (objective) fulfillment. Deciding on too large an array of issues is always folly, never focused.
Louis Scotellaro lives in Chittenden.
