Suzi Wizowaty

"Hold onto your hats," we're being warned, as we approach 2010. The coming legislative session promises to be the most difficult ever, worse even than last year's. True, the economy has hit bottom, according to a range of indicators--job losses have flattened out, for example--which means that things aren't getting worse every week. But unemployment still runs high across the country; in Vermont it ranges from over 10% in the Northeast Kingdom to over 6% in Chittenden County. The picture looks bleak indeed.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," say politicians. "It's all about jobs."

Perhaps that's the most effective message. But in truth it's never just about jobs. It's also about--meaning we have to concern ourselves also with--the cost of health care, and where we want our energy to come from, and how we're going to protect our environment. It's about property taxes, the unemployment insurance fund, teachers' retirement, permit reform. It's about Medicaid reimbursement rates, child care subsidies, the availability of home health aides to support elderly parents' staying at home. It's about supporting small businesses and protecting the poorest of the poor. It's about carrying out the responsibilities of state government without passing along additional economic strain to the cities and towns.

In other words, it's about finding a balanced approach to our economic woes. We're a small state, and what affects some of us affects us all. A balanced approach recognizes that we're all in this together. A balanced approach to solving Vermont's economic problems will consider cuts in spending, increased efficiencies, and additional revenue. A balanced approach will lessen our collective economic distress by diffusing it as broadly as possible so that no one group feels a disproportionate impact. In the end, rather than struggling to protect "me-me-me," we can relax into a shared sense of pulling together for the sake of a greater "us." And the subsequent economic recovery will benefit us all.