(Here is the latest from Candidate for Governor, Peter Shumlin – promoted by GMD)
Yesterday, I announced A Vision for Vermont, a strategic plan to get Vermonters back to work. A Vision for Vermont is an aggressive, visionary jobs plan, designed to help both the unemployed and those Vermonters struggling to keep up with mounting bills on stagnant incomes.
Vermont has a bright future but we need bold, visionary leadership to ensure that we get our economy moving again and seize the opportunities available to us. Please check out the plan at: www.shumlinforgovernor.com/vision-for-vermont/
The plan outlines a number of bold initiatives, such as implementing a single payer system to get health care off the backs of our employers, providing universal early education to give our kids a strong start, wiring broadband to every last mile by 2013 and responsibly developing in-state renewable energy generation through the sale of Vermont renewable energy bonds.
A Vision for Vermont also includes initiatives to help support the backbone of our economy – our small businesses and our family farms. As Governor, I will provide capital to our small businesses to help them grow and create jobs and better opportunities for Vermonters. And I will work tirelessly to ensure that our farmers are receiving the value added price for their hard work and their quality products.
I have established a record of getting tough things done. As Governor, I will build upon that record and put Vermonters back to work, grow our economy and make our state a place where our children can proudly raise their families.
I’ve been reading everything about job creation but never see anything hopeful in terms of who we are creating these jobs for. We spend more to imprison people in this state than to educate them. We produce a huge number of unemployable people.
I have a son with a felony related directly to his former addiction to drugs. Businesses don’t want to hire ex-cons and felony backgrounds are huge barriers. While he was half starved in a for-profit out of state prison, people were trading his suffering in monetary value on the stock market.
While I like the idea of renewable energy and tax cuts for those who can produce results, I like as much or better the idea of “renewable people”.
Do you have any plans with regard to these human issues?
Vermont has taken more steps to further criminalize and demonize folks than they have to better education or jobs for those who return from prison. Jobs with a livable wage just aren’t offered to people who made mistakes as young adults.
Do you have any plans for these people, or do we just throw them away like trash?
I read where Sen. Sears has endorsed you, Peter. Last I knew, although he does some good work, he was pushing to send more people out of state for the good of the stock market. Have you thought of any alternatives to sending people into prison in the first place? Alternative sentencing, drug courts, better and more complete utilization of the community justice centers would be a start.
Either way, it’s time to stop spending more per inmate than per student in Vermont and I hope you agree that the answer isn’t to send them further from sight, but to bring them all home where they belong.