rainy day proposal

Vermont Rainy Day Fund Proposal - Jerry Trudell

1) Create an investment pool to increase the Rainy Day Fund so that it can provide $5,000 grants to homeowners to install solar heating and hot water systems.

This can be done a number of ways. For starters, community banks should be willing to help build Vermont’s energy future since it would assure the brightest future for all, including banks. I am sure that they would be willing to fund such a program of emergency grants for homeowners.

In addition, the banks could provide low interest loans modeled after Housing and Urban Development’s1% loans to homeowners for additional capitol needed to equip Vermont homes with solar power.

If necessary the State of Vermont should borrow the necessary money and finance low interest 1% loans. This way everyone would be able to afford to install solar heating systems and triple pane windows. With a low-interest loan on $5,000–$10,000, the average amount needed per household, monthly payments of $100 or less would be easily manageable to enable everyone to become energy producers. This is the most feasible energy solution for the near future.

2) Fund my statewide public transportation proposal with $20 million, the equivalent of about 7% of the AOT ( Agency Of Transportation) annual budget for 2009. Buses are extremely cost-effective and efficient, with a fully loaded bus getting around 500 seat miles per gallon. (Miles per gallon of vehicle x number of passengers)

By comparison, even a fully loaded high mileage car only gets around 120 seat miles per gallon with 4 passengers.

CCTA ( Chittenden County Transit Administration) runs its entire fleet on an annual operating budget of approximately $10 million. In contrast, it costs MORE to "improve" Kennedy Drive in South Burlington--$14 million.

This comparison tells a story. Vermont’s transportation policy has treated public transportation as a forgotten stepchild, with the AOT spending only about 7% of its annual budget on public transit ($ 21,469,275) even though we need it more now than ever. At the same time, new highway construction, is actually the largest single slice of money spent.

The enormous cost of building new roads--about an average of $10 million per mile for highway construction--will eat up the annual budget quickly, as the total of Federal and State funds for 2009 is only $257,323,262.

Building new highways, which are of dubious value in some cases, can be a very wasteful use of our transportation budget. But $20 million dollars is enough to fund my entire statewide public transportation proposal to link current systems now in place. This would give us far more "bang for the buck" than the same ammount spent on a mere 2 miles of pavement, which creates short term jobs in construction, but has minimal impact on the Vermont economy, in comparison. (See statewide system proposal.)

HOME RAINY DAY PROPOSAL WINTER SURVIVAL TIPS ELECTRIC CARS FUTUREPOWER NOW! CLIMATE CHANGE TAX FAIRNESS HEALTHCARE NATIONAL DEFENSE VIRTUAL CAMPAIGN HQ. MY BIOGRAPHY SLIDESHOW	Vermont has a Rainy Day Fund of $60 million set aside for supposed emergencies. The Vermont legislature is discussing ways to use this fund, so here is my proposal to use this fund to accomplish as much as possible.
	Vermont Rainy Day Fund Proposal - Jerry Trudell 1) Create an investment pool to increase the Rainy Day Fund so that it can provide $5,000 grants to homeowners to install solar heating and hot water systems. This can be done a number of ways. For starters, community banks should be willing to help build Vermont’s energy future since it would assure the brightest future for all, including banks. I am sure that they would be willing to fund such a program of emergency grants for homeowners. In addition, the banks could provide low interest loans modeled after Housing and Urban Development’s1% loans to homeowners for additional capitol needed to equip Vermont homes with solar power. If necessary the State of Vermont should borrow the necessary money and finance low interest 1% loans. This way everyone would be able to afford to install solar heating systems and triple pane windows. With a low-interest loan on $5,000–$10,000, the average amount needed per household, monthly payments of $100 or less would be easily manageable to enable everyone to become energy producers. This is the most feasible energy solution for the near future. 2) Fund my statewide public transportation proposal with $20 million, the equivalent of about 7% of the AOT ( Agency Of Transportation) annual budget for 2009. Buses are extremely cost-effective and efficient, with a fully loaded bus getting around 500 seat miles per gallon. (Miles per gallon of vehicle x number of passengers) By comparison, even a fully loaded high mileage car only gets around 120 seat miles per gallon with 4 passengers. 0 CCTA ( Chittenden County Transit Administration) runs its entire fleet on an annual operating budget of approximately $10 million. In contrast, it costs MORE to "improve" Kennedy Drive in South Burlington--$14 million. This comparison tells a story. Vermont’s transportation policy has treated public transportation as a forgotten stepchild, with the AOT spending only about 7% of its annual budget on public transit ($ 21,469,275) even though we need it more now than ever. At the same time, new highway construction, is actually the largest single slice of money spent. The enormous cost of building new roads--about an average of $10 million per mile for highway construction--will eat up the annual budget quickly, as the total of Federal and State funds for 2009 is only $257,323,262. Building new highways, which are of dubious value in some cases, can be a very wasteful use of our transportation budget. But $20 million dollars is enough to fund my entire statewide public transportation proposal to link current systems now in place. This would give us far more "bang for the buck" than the same ammount spent on a mere 2 miles of pavement, which creates short term jobs in construction, but has minimal impact on the Vermont economy, in comparison. (See statewide system proposal.) top of page