As with so many other candidates on the trail, Matt Dunne says it's all about jobs.
The 40-year-old Dunne, one of five candidates for governor vying to win the Aug. 24 Democratic primary, says his background of state legislative experience, federal government administrative experience and private-sector business experience provides the right background to lead a state in difficult times and respond to the rapidly changing world economy.
Dunne, who led the AmeriCorps program during the Clinton administration, says he has experience in leading 6,000 subordinates, “almost the size of state government.”
“The folks who got me into this race did so because they believed the next governor needs to create jobs that can bring and retain young people in this state, and that we transform the way we do government,” Dunne said.
State employees and teachers “feel like they're the enemy of the state,” he said. “The current administration appears to blame them for [the state's] inability to manage effectively and efficiently.”
“We need clear leadership in our goals and mission,” he said, seeking transformations in policy and procedure that “both state employees and the public can get behind.”
Dunne's message focuses on economics - both cost-saving measures for state government, like leveraging new, lower-cost Internet technology like cloud-based computing, and state policies that generate new businesses with new jobs. He advocates an aggressive state government embrace of new energy technology; like all his primary rivals, he favors the 2012 shutdown of the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon.
He also promises to transform the way the state interacts with businesses in every capacity, from wooing companies to relocate, to becoming more transparent and collaborative in permitting processes, to combatting “how disconnected the government is from the realities of business.”
Dunne hopes to see state government make service and permitting more interactive and available via the web.
“It's an embarrassment that you cannot start up a business without having to fill out a physical piece of paper,” Dunne said.
The lack of comprehensive broadband - Vermont ranks last in the nation in making the high-speed Internet universally available to its most rural areas - hampers companies looking to hire the best and the brightest, or discourages young engineers from remaining in the state, he noted.
As part of an evolving economic plan that he calls “The Innovation State,” Dunne said the state's leadership needs to acknowledge the unlikelihood of large companies relocating.
Rather, he said, the state should expect and embrace the “churn economy,” startups led by “innovators and entrepreneurs” - and be prepared for the realities that some of those businesses will fail and others will be sold.
The state is also known for the rich arts activity in its “creative economy,” he said, as well as its “place-based economy” that leverages the ability of Vermont's natural assets to draw people into the area.
And, he said, while craftspeople often can't compete on price, Dunne said products in the “slow economy” - whether organic farm produce or handcrafted artisanal furniture - can compete as a niche.
“The Vermont brand is better than any other in the world,” Dunne said. “To people, 'Vermont' is equal to 'high quality'.”
To make this happen, Dunne said, the state needs huge investments in infrastructure, including a massive effort to pre-approve 4 million square feet of abandoned industrial space for reuse.
Dunne cited his longstanding interest in recycling abandoned industrial sites as an example of his capacity to find common ground among disparate interests when he put forward the first brownfields legislation in New England.
That effort, he said, came as a result of collaboration among University of Vermont and Vermont Law School students, environmentalists, lawyers concerned about liability issues and lawmakers.
Companies need more capital, and Dunne proposes deferring capital gains taxes for citizens who invest in Vermont companies, providing an incentive to keep money in the state.
The candidate proposes self-insuring Vermonters under a single-payer health-care system similar to the one that insured his AmeriCorps program.
“I know it works - I did it,” he said.
The result, Dunne said, would be a state that would no longer have the second-oldest population in the country - one that would serve as a magnet for a more diverse group of young workers and their families.
Power of community
Dunne grew up in the Northeast Kingdom town of Hartland and is raising his family in “the same dusty farmhouse” where he was raised.
At 22, fresh from Brown University with a degree in public policy, Dunne was elected to the Vermont House “by the community who in many ways raised me,” he said.
The open seat had traditionally been held by a Republican, but Dunne said he was able to transcend party lines.
Dunne, whose father died when he was 13, said his family didn't have to cook a meal for months.
The orchestrated gesture of helping the bereaved family “gave me a real sense of the power of community,” said Dunne, who served for seven years in the House and, later, as a state senator for two years.
Dunne said that hands-on experience will serve him well in the executive branch.
The House and Senate have “very different ecosystems,” he said, noting the House is “unbelievably particular on policy issues and the diversity of views brought to the table,” while the Senate “takes much less time to focus on one particular issue.”
“They have different paces, different styles of debate, different priorities,” Dunne said. “By understanding these differences, I can move forward legislation we need to have.”
“[The Democrats] running in the primary have a role to play in the state of Vermont,” Dunne said. “Any of us would be a much better choice than Brian Dubie as our next governor, with the difficult tasks we need to face.”
“It's important that we come together after the primary and after the general election,” he said. “We have hard work to do.”