Coalition Principles
The Fund Vermont’s Future coalition agrees to coalition principles to guide our work.
FUND VERMONT’S FUTURE PRINCIPLES
1. We commit to working together to ensure that the state creates a budget that supports the success and well-being of all Vermont families and individuals, protects our most vulnerable residents, ensures a clean environment, and provides excellent education for our children as the cornerstones of a vibrant society and a strong economy.
a. We believe that proactive investment in prevention helps to mitigate or eliminate the need for policies and budgeting that are reactive to individual and collective crises. Thus, we will work to “move money upstream” so that our investments are in prevention first.
b. We believe the state of Vermont should invest directly in the people of Vermont in a way that promotes dignity and choice for individuals. We trust individuals to know what they need and believe that financial self-determination is good for the economy as well as individuals and families.
2. We commit to raising revenues in a progressive and racially and socially just manner, so that the state can address inequities by allocating public funds in a way that makes Vermont equitable, inclusive, and racially just. State funding should first help those who have been oppressed through structural or systemic barriers.
a. We will work to ensure that the state makes significant needed investments in systems to identify, track, and correct inequities and in other work recommended by the Racial Equity Advisory Panel and the Executive Director of Racial Equity.
b. We commit to ensuring that Vermont’s public systems including health care, environmental protection, education, justice, taxation, and social services treat every resident fairly and equitably. We will work to ensure that state policies and services meet all Vermonters’ needs.
3. We commit to ensuring that the State of Vermont is investing regularly in maintaining and upgrading our public infrastructure, such as transportation, water and wastewater facilities and broadband, so that every person who lives in Vermont and every business that operates in Vermont can prosper.
4. We commit to building a state budget process and raising and investing revenue to support the State’s policy goals in a way that is transparent and includes meaningful public input, that balances Vermonters’ needs with their ability to pay, and that raises revenue when it is “…evident to the Legislature to be of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.” (Vermont Constitution; Chap. 1, Art. 9)