Vermont is at a crossroads. Voters will have the chance this year to shape the future of the state for the next decade. That’s because just about all of the top state leadership positions will change over after the general election in November. The current governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and Senate president are all leaving their posts. Gov. Jim Douglas is retiring after eight years in office. Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie and Senate President ProTem Peter Shumlin will be squaring off for the vacated governor’s seat, assuming Shumlin survives the primary vote recount. In any event, Shumlin won’t be head of the Senate next year, in fact he won’t be there at all. Deb Markowitz, who finished third in the Democratic primary race behind Shumlin and Sen. Doug Racine, will be out as secretary of state, a position she has held for 12 years.

Add in the current financial state of the state, which is certainly not very good, and it becomes clear that whoever ends up in those vacated seats must be able to set a clear path over the next few years for the state.

They also must be a good listener. It won’t be enough, in our opinion, to come into office in January with an agenda. Vermont’s new leaders must also listen to what the real issues are for Vermonters, and find ways to offer real solutions.

We are very encouraged to see state reps. Ann Manwaring and John Moran urging local towns to take action. It’s not enough to complain about the ravages of Act 60 and Act 68 on local communities. Frankly, local officials have been doing that for the past 13 years with little effect. Manwaring and Moran are spot on when they say a coalition must be built to include other towns besides the so-called “gold” towns. They also correctly point out the need for data and facts. Windham County, in our opinion, is the poster child for what is wrong with the education funding mechanisms in the state. Millions of dollars have poured out of the county over the past 13 years. Towns have paid an even bigger price in terms of escalating property values, declining employment, and stagnant wages. There are plenty of statistics to bear this out.

The Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation have numbers from a variety of indicators showing the decline of the economy in the county. But there needs to be a chorus of voices speaking in harmony to state leaders and planners about the problems and pitfalls of our current statewide tax redistribution system.

Solutions also need to be offered. It won’t be enough to say the current education funding system is broken. That has been tried. And the answer was “show us something better.”

Which, to our way of thinking is just a stall to maintain the status quo, but a legitimate answer nonetheless. So solutions need to be in place before the question of “what next?” arises. Difficult, but not impossible. As was pointed out, there is a blue-ribbon panel that will be studying education funding and taxation. Local communities must make the effort to have their issues heard. Letter writing, testifying at committee hearings, media campaigns, or whatever it takes.

In a way, Manwaring and Moran have issued a challenge to local communities. Now it is up to local leaders to organize and follow through.

There’s a sea change coming in Montpelier. It may the best chance in the past decade for meaningful change to the education funding/statewide property tax dilemma.