Report Calls for Budget System Change

The Montpelier-based Public Assets Institute issued the report: “The 2013 Budget: Is It Adequate?”  which says state leaders have presented Vermonters “...with no vision of what the budget is meant to achieve - other than to keep state government running.”  Institute President Paul Cillo says the state needs a new budget process.
Economic Policy Analyst Doug Hoffer agrees with the Public Assets Institute assessment that the budget methodology should change. University of Vermont Associate Professor of Economics Art Wolfe says the ideas in the Institute’s report  sound good, but it does not illustrate there are problems no matter the system.   Paul Cillo says the problem with the current “manage-to-the-money” process is that when revenues go down, needs increase.