Non-profit seeking to grow VT’s middle class updates its research priority list for 2025.
by Ben Kinsley, for Campaign for Vermont
MONTPELIER, VERMONT – Last week, Campaign for Vermont Prosperity (CFV) announced its research priorities for 2025. Topping the list were education, affordable housing, and health care.
“None of these should be surprising,” said CFV President Pat McDonald, “these are all areas where everyday Vermonters are falling behind.” In recent years education spending has grown at double digit rates, so have health insurance premiums; the latter has increased 92% since 2018.
Similarly, housing costs have also increased rapidly. According to the Vermont Housing and Finance Agency (VHFA), the income required to purchase the median priced home on the market doubled from $60k per year to $120k per year since 2020. CFV points to the cost of construction for state-funded projects exceeding $500 per sq/ft as a critical area to address in order to make housing efforts truly affordable.
CFV also seeks to better understand the cost-drivers in the health care system by analyzing Medicaid and Medicare data related to hospital billing to understand whether or not specific hospitals are driving the bulk of the health care spending. Similarly, on the education front, the organization plans to quantify a previous proposal that focused on administrative cost-savings as well as look more deeply at the current funding formula and how it drives costs in the education delivery system.
“Vermont employers have done their part, increasing wages at an average rate of 6% per year since 2018, but that is still not enough to keep up with these other increasing costs. However that also ignores the fact that an growing number of Vermonters are on fixed incomes and do not seeing that kind of income growth,” said McDonald, “they are falling further behind.”
The full list of priorities and research questions can be found on the organization’s website – CampaignForVermont.org
CFV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to the vision of a more prosperous Vermont and growing middle class. They seek to accomplish these goals by reconnecting Vermonters to their government and advocating for more transparent policy-making.