Trickle-Down Bureaucracy Is Destroying Vermont

Source: American Thinker

By John Klar | October 25, 2019

"Trickle-down economics" describes tax cuts for corporations, wealthy investors, and entrepreneurs intended to assist lower-income citizens by stimulating investment and economic growth. Also called "supply-side economics," the doctrine was championed by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman but denigrated by many — including economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who characterized it as "feeding the sparrows by giving oats to the horses."

Consider that in Vermont, the government has grown to be a mammoth corporation (the state's largest employer by far) and sucks up working Vermonters' wealth in a trickle-up bureaucratic behemoth. So much money is spent on reports, studies, and employment for state workers that Vermont's property tax rates are some of the highest in the nation. To the extent that any of the money does come back down, it is indeed a mere trickle.

Vermont demonstrates the government bloat that plagues many states, and the effects are becoming apparent. Vermont now has fewer than 700 conventional dairy farms — but the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the UVM Extension Service steadily increase employees, and salaries. This is quite typical of the virus-like quality of the Vermont bureaucracy — it grows, and citizens lose wealth or leave.

Vermont has nearly twice as many full-time state employees per 10,000 residents as New Hampshire, yet Vermonters are struggling much more than their thriving neighbors.  There is no growth, and the governor has infamously offered $10,000 bribes to out-of-state earners to reside in Vermont.  Perhaps the gargantuan proportions of Vermont's state government explain why Vermont's median income is $57,808 and New Hampshire's is $71,305.

The math is revealing.  In a very thick and expensive "workforce report," it is revealed (Table 13) that "Comparing Fiscal Year 2013 to Fiscal Year 2017, both the number of classified employees and FTEs grew, with the number of employees increasing 4.9% (362) and FTE's increasing 5.0% (365.9)."  Table 14 reflects that the agriculture department grew by 28% in those years; the Department of Health Access by more than 110%.

Granted, Vermont's VAAFM has taken on water quality and other issues.  Yet still, as it increased employees, it steadily increased their wages — by 15.1% over the covered period (Table  40).  Vermont's farmers are not so fortunate — "Net farm income ... decreased from 2014 through 2016 due to drops in commodity prices."  And Vermonters on the whole saw only a 3.78% increase in median income over the same period, from $55,418 in 2013 to $57,513 in 2017.  Yet fully 7.7% of Vermont employees report that they "disagree" with the statement that "The work I perform is meaningful and rewarding" (Table 61).

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Ed.'s note: Only in America can a communist politician like Bernie Sanders advance the legalization of cannabis as a presidential platform promising executive orders to change the laws. In 2020, don't do it America. Don't put this Soviet clown in office. Bernie Sanders is from the state of Vermont. Look at what the abusive policies are of the massive bureaucracy that has formed over the years in the state of Vermont. Now just imagine the bureaucracy that would swell to gargantuan size under a Sanders' presidency with his plans for the cannabis industry.

"Consider that in Vermont, the government has grown to be a mammoth corporation (the states largest employer by far) and sucks up working Vermonters' wealth in a trickle-up bureaucratic behemoth. So much money is spent on reports, studies, and employment for state workers that Vermont's property tax rates are some of the highest in the nation. To the extent that any of the money does come back down, it is indeed a mere trickle."

Bernie Sanders Manages To Make Marijuana Legalization Cost $50 Billion

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