Douglas Begins To Look Back At His 8 Years As Governor

Print More
MP3

 

(Host) Governor Jim Douglas is starting to look back at his record in office over the past 8 years.

Douglas says tight management of the state budget and a number of health care reform initiatives are his greatest achievements during his four terms as governor.

VPR’s Bob Kinzel has this report.

(Kinzel) In less than four weeks, Governor Jim Douglas will step down from office and once again become a private citizen.

This is an unusual role for Douglas, because for most of his adult life, he’s been in the public sector. First, as a member of the Legislature in the 1970s, then as Secretary of State from 1981 to 1992, as State Treasurer from 1994 to 2002 and four terms as Governor.

Speaking on VPR’s Vermont Edition, Douglas said his top accomplishment over the last 8 years has been his leadership on fiscal years.

(Douglas) "We have balanced our budget – not exactly the way I would like in every case, but we balanced it nonetheless. We haven’t raided our Rainy day funds, our stabilization reserves. We have the strongest bond rating in New England and one of the best in the country. We have relatively low unemployment, foreclosure rates, bankruptcy rates compared to other states. We haven’t had the trauma of massive budget cuts that other states have had to implement because of the stress of their economic situations."

(Kinzel) Douglas also cited several health care reform efforts as important achievements – starting with a program that’s designed to offer timely care to people with chronic illnesses. 

(Douglas) "We’ve made some tremendous strides starting with the Blueprint for Health in 2003, the commitment to wellness to prevention to chronic disease management to connecting every Vermonter with a medical homes so that he or she has access to a team of caring professionals to determine what needs to be done to keep that person well."

(Kinzel) The governor also listed the creation of Catamount Health Care – a program that offers coverage to Vermonters who don’t have health insurance as another top accomplishment.

In Douglas’ first term in office, he struck an agreement with Democratic leaders to reform the way that the state finances education – it’s a law known as Act 68.

(Douglas) "It got rid of the very divisive shark pool or sharing pool that we had earlier that spawned all of the those private fund raising efforts in a lot of the wealthier communities in our state. So I think it was definitely a step in the right direction. The problem is it didn’t have one essential element and that it is a way to restrain spending in our local school districts."

(Kinzel) Douglas says his short term plan is to teach several political science courses at Middlebury College for the winter semester but beyond that – he says he’s not certain what he will do.

For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.

 

 

Comments are closed.