The Times Argus online poll asks: Do you understand Challenges for Change? Yes or No, this troubled me.
Like Challenges for Change itself the poll limited its possible responses . As of yesterday the poll results show, perhaps not surprisingly that only about a quarter of 300+ respondents say, yes they actually understand C for C.
Could roughly 75 people that said ‘yes’ all work for Public Strategies Group or are some in the legislature?
Although sick of the race to the bottom aspect of the C for C I checked out the 47 page C for C pdf Progress Report. The report details seven “First Wave” charter units, think of them as the shock troops for the CforC program.
What follows are some notes on the robust alternative planning .
Among three Challenge Outcomes and Proposed Measures for all “First Wave “ departments are nuggets of managerial guidance and brilliance such as: Increase employees’ engagement in their work. After years of layoffs and threatened layoffs by the governor this could be a stand alone challenge for change.
Some specifics worth highlighting by dept. include:
Department of Liquor Control Additional revenue for the general fund through increased sales.
And a gift card program generating $50,000 in new revenue the first year of sales.
Dept of Fish and Wildlife initiatives include these goals: Generate additional revenues by promoting the sale of Department merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, books, posters, patches and stamps
And finally this, also for Fish and Wildlife, (which boggles the governmental entrepreneurial imagination):
if feasible, collaborate with VT Lottery Commission to develop new mutually beneficial products.
So during a major National recession, high unemployment and personal financial insecurity part of Vermont’s “First Wave “ plan for its “Better Deal” is actually increased liquor and gift card sales, and fish themed lottery tickets.
Maybe VT Ag can have a bake sale?
DMV can sell gold plated vanity plates?
Dept Corrections designer jumpsuits?
DOT sponsor highway mile markers?
Perhaps we can bring back billboards?
And remember – this will all magically happen online everywhere – no more printed lottery tickets, no more printed drivers licenses, no more printed fishing permits, and you can pay for it all with your special edition VT Debit / Credit card (no annual fee if you spend more than $500 on booze or lottery tickets) – and a portion of your ‘Green Mountain Miles’ will go to funding the governor’s meal plan…
Gimmicks in place of policy.
Sad.
When your countrymen and women have just been murdered and an iconic city shut down – ‘Go Shopping’.
And when the state is struggling to overcome budget issues… ‘Buy more booze, and gamble a bit more, so we can increase revenue.’ (oh, and we’ve gutted the services you might need should you need substance abuse help, or gambling addiction, or if you have a broken home and your kids are all f’d up because you gambled away the meal money.)
We can’t have grown up discussion about the ‘T’ word – so we’ll have fees and gimmicks in their stead.
This is pathetic. I can’t wait to see the innovative Second round of initiatives. I’ll offer a suggestion: Set up one of the carnival booths where passers by can hurl a few baseballs with the hope of dumping the Gov in the water.
at the Statehouse? You could retrain the staff of the abandoned State Hospital as black-jack dealers.
to “extended stay” youth and/or elder hostels?
…buy a whole bunch of lottery tickets and hope they pay out?
My brain connected the Dept. of Liquor Control with the Fish and Wildlife in their adjacent quotes and had visions of Jimbo and his cronies making money off flatlanders likkering up before they got their hunting licenses and shooting each other, after which they could be fined and exiled until the next hunting season. Hey maybe the liquor stores could SELL hunting licenses — consolidate facilities!
Then I got unscrambled and saw they were two separate items.
But of course, there wouldn’t be much change there from current practice — and no challenge, either.
NanuqFC
The National Rifle Association says that guns don’t kill people, people do. But I think the guns help. ~ Eddy Izzard
Here is a stiff shot supply-side thinking from the House General and Military Affairs
Committee. Cut a tax that generates $15 million in the hope of increased liquor sales through flexibility in pricing.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress…