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Chamber highlights tourism and manufacturing as core sectors, flags tech hub and capital access
Summary
The Vermont Chamber emphasized tourism and manufacturing's economic weight, described aerospace and advanced manufacturing ties, and said the state should leverage a new tech hub and improve access to capital for scaling businesses.
The Vermont Chamber of Commerce briefed the Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee on Jan. 15 about the economic role of tourism and manufacturing and the need to support business growth and access to capital.
Chamber leaders gave a snapshot of the visitor economy: "It's about 10% of our workforce, $3,000,000,000 in visitor spending every year, $456,000,000 in tax revenue, and that's from over 13,000,000 visitors annually," Mike O'Sullivan said, citing analytics provided by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. The Chamber said manufacturing is the largest contributor to Vermont GDP in recent measures and highlighted aerospace and advanced manufacturing clusters.
The Chamber said it will broaden its manufacturing focus beyond aviation to represent the full range of manufacturers and continue the annual manufacturing summit and cross-border aerospace corridor work. The Chamber also raised the tech hub as an opportunity: "championing it," Amy Spear said, and noted interest in how hub funding will be used and whether it helps firms scale.
Speakers urged improving access to capital so companies that start in Vermont can grow in-state rather than relocate. "If we want...wages to grow in Vermont, we have to support business for us in Vermont," Megan said, arguing that business growth drives higher wages. The Chamber and committee members discussed supporting employers with regulatory streamlining and incentives to keep and expand operations locally.
What happened: presentation and committee discussion; presenters said they will pursue industry engagement and follow-up events; no formal action was recorded.
Why it matters: Tourism, manufacturing and tech-cluster development are central to Vermont's economy; the Chamber framed policy priorities—capital access, workforce and permitting—as levers to retain and grow firms.
