More about my platform as Governor of Vermont

As many other states have experienced a sharp decline on tax revenues and sharp increases in costs, so has Vermont. To make matters worse, every candidate running, except me, has had a hand in allowing costs to increase while tax revenues decreased. Every candidate is running on their leadership skills that have led to this mess. Lt. Governor Brian Dubie has the audacity to run on this message on his web site, “Forbes magazine recently ranked the states from one to fifty based on favorable business climate.
They ranked Vermont third from the bottom.” Hello? Where have you been? Where is the leadership? Why should we trust you now? A true leader is measured by his ability to skillfully influence others while not having the formal authority over the other person.

I believe among Vermont’s greatest attributes are its quality of life and its environment. Vermonters (of all races, religions, genders, class, and sexual orientations), businesses, and tourists are drawn to Vermont as result of our quality of life and spectacular environment.

I’m proposing a realistic strategy that will lead to long term growth that will further enhance our quality of life without compromising our environment.

My primary focus as an Independent Governor is to;

1. Cut state waste and spending while improving productivity – before we can cut taxes, we need to get our cost structure under control. We will reduce the cost of government and healthcare. We will improve the productivity of our State’s services so we can handle the expected growth in jobs and businesses without adding costs. This will ensure that when we can responsible cut taxes.
2. Retain our businesses and create an infrastructure that enables businesses to grow – by improving the productivity of the State’s services will provide better service to our citizens and businesses. We will identify and remove nonsensical barriers that the state has imposed on businesses that limit businesses growth. However, we WILL not compromise our environment to do so nor will we compromise our spectacular quality of life.
3. Develop a cost-conscious culture – immediately, all managers who manage a budget will be taught how to manage their budgets with an emphasis on identifying productivity improvements that will reduce the cost of their operations. The managers will be held accountable for driving down the costs of their services WHILE improving their services quality, timeliness and customer satisfaction.
4. Cut Taxes - cut taxes without compromising our quality of life, without compromising our education system, without compromising the environment.

Over the years, I've honed my deep expertise in helping organizations, private and public sector, decrease costs, improve productivity, improve customer satisfaction and yes drive growth.
I can do the same for the Green Mountain state.
My prior experience and expertise includes doing the following; (as a matter of fact, I'm probably the only candidate who has actual experience doing the following with the exception of cutting taxes but neither do the other candidates. LOL)

I need your help getting on the ballot. Please download my signature petition to help me get signatures, asap. You can download this petition here www.tinyurl.com/Dan4VTGovernor . Contact me to pick up the petitions

Why cost consciousness and productivity?

Why cost consciousness and productivity?
First, I don’t believe that we, as a state, will see a substantial increase in state revenues anytime soon. Additionally, I DO believe that we’re likely to see an increase in costs, especially healthcare costs.
Therefore, we have no choice but to improve the state’s productivity… raising taxes is not an option.

Let me define and explain productivity first. Simply put, it’s doing more with fewer resources (e.g., money) or more with the same resources. Productivity measures the efficiency of an organization. So why am I hung up on productivity? Well, if the state’s revenues remain flat and costs increase, we have no choice but to increase our productivity, doing more with less (raising taxes is not an option), so that we can continue to provide the state’s essential services. Unfortunately, productivity improvements themselves will not be sufficient to solve the state’s budget woes, we will also have to make some tough calls and reduce and or eliminate some services. Just being truthful... folks.

Okay, what about developing cost consciousness. For starters, I will require managers to measure and track productivity of their products and service rather than how well they’re blowing their entire budget. State employees need to start thinking about how they will improve their productivity and held accountable to do so. Managers need to do more than merely manage their budgets; they will be responsible to improve their operations productivity, quality, cycle time and yes, customer satisfaction.

As governor, I will ensure that the state develops a solid strategy to maintain its current budget levels. I will ensure that the state has a strategy map and balanced scorecard that includes productivity measures and targets for everyone. And I will provide quarterly updates on our productivity improvements to the citizens of Vermont. After all, its your money and you’re the customer.

I have many years of experience developing and executing strategies, driving productivity improvements to drive down costs.

Dan for Governor, why all the hullabaloo about productivity?

Dan for Governor, why all the hullabaloo about productivity?

Well, let’s face it, with the recent, and dare I say arbitrary, state budget cuts, there are bound to be a few, very few, critical State functions that are now underfunded, at capacity, and unstable and thereby, are in no position to handle growth of any kind.

Also, we all know, it’s only a matter of time, hopefully a short amount of time, before the economy rebounds. By streamlining, improving the capacity, removing the waste and improving the quality of our state functions and operations we will ensure that when the economy does rebound, the state will be prepared to handle the growth and provide the superior services, that I know it can, for a fraction of the cost of other states and with much less hassle to Vermonters and businesses alike.

We need to get back to management and leadership basics.

Cut waste and spending while improving productivity

Cut waste and spending while improving productivity - Doing more with less and with higher quality

As Governor and in response to the State’s significant reduction in Tax Revenues, the State of Vermont must dramatically reduce its wasteful spending. Like many other public and private sector companies, Vermont’s spending irresponsibly increased as the economy “boomed” and its now time to right-size our state and federal government budgets.

• Unfortunately as budgets are cut, false assumptions are made that quantity and quality of services will naturally be compromised. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Operations and processes across the state are riddled with wasteful, bureaucratic activities and tasks that have no value. Costing us, the tax payers and customers, time and money.
• Operations and processes across the state are lacking clearly defined goals, objectives, and measures. Resulting in competing “priorities” and worst yet, individuals, who don’t know or understand the state’s priorities, determining the priority of the work they will do.
• Operations and processes are managed to a “budget” and not based on measurable performance standards. Ask a state employee what would happen if the demand for their services increased 15%, they will likely respond one of three bureaucratic ways. 1. We will need more people, 2. People will have to wait, or 3. I will have to reduce the services I provide. I don’t anyone will or is expected to answer, I will find a way to make our service more productive to accommodate the demand.

Even after the “so called” tough budgets cuts are made, there will still be plenty of money to provide essential, needed services. If and only if, we have a leader in place who is experienced in boosting productivity and performance while significantly driving down costs.

If you go to our state's web site, you will find a laundry list of unprioritized "priorities" without measures of success. As Governor, I will use my deep expertise to develop a relevant, practical and pragmatic measureable strategy that includes, yes, prioritized goals, objectives, and yes specific, actionable, relevant and time bound measures that everyone can rally around and drive towards. Doing so, will immediately surface a tremendous amount waste in government. Waste that is costing us money and time which subsequently results in Vermont, people and business, dissatisfaction.

I'm running for Governor of Vermont

As many other states have experienced a sharp decline on tax revenues and sharp increases in costs, so has Vermont.
Over the years, I've honed my deep expertise in helping organizations, private and public sector, decrease costs, improve productivity, customer satisfaction and revenue.
I can do the same for the Green Mountain state.
My prior experience and expertise includes doing the following; (as a matter of fact, I'm probably the only candidate who has actual experience doing the following with the exception of cutting taxes but neither do the other candidates. LOL)
1. Cut state waste and spending while improving productivity
2. Retain our businesses and create an infrastructure that enables businesses to grow
3. Develop a cost-conscious culture
4. Cut Taxes

Too my Lean and Six Sigma friends the first item looks familiar.
In the coming days, I will actually outline the game plan that translates these "words" into an action plan with measurable outcomes.