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Stakeholders tell Vermont committee regional government could ease services, but funding and accountability remain unresolved
Summary
Business groups, planners and state officials told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee that county or regional governance could improve EMS, transit, permitting and economic development, but witnesses said legal limits, funding gaps and the need to protect local accountability must be resolved before any structural change.
Montpelier — Stakeholders told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee that Vermont’s patchwork of municipal responsibilities is straining services and that county or regional governance could create scale, improve service delivery and relieve volunteer-driven programs.
Austin Davis, director of government affairs at the Lake Champlain Chamber, told the committee the state routinely tries to solve modern problems with an outmoded structure and urged the lawmakers to inventory existing county and regional entities and identify which services would be better handled regionally. Davis cited emergency medical services, transit planning and permitting as areas that often hit “the town line,” and said a regional approach could both yield efficiencies and better service for residents.
“In the state of Vermont, it’s very difficult to do that in…
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