Last year, Vermont’s business community delivered a sobering message: our economy is buckling under the weight of rising costs, limited housing, and outdated systems that no longer serve our workforce or employers. In last year’s Business Climate Survey, 91% of businesses said our tax structure is stifling growth, and 95% believe that new revenues aren’t being matched by real progress. With an overall business climate score of 2.56 out of 5, this isn’t just a warning; it’s a call to action.

On September 18, the Vermont Solutions Summit will answer that call. Hosted by the Vermont Chamber and the Vermont Futures Project. The Summit is grounded in the data and research of the Vermont Economic Action Plan, a roadmap built to address the very challenges businesses have been shouting from the rooftops: unaffordable housing, a strained workforce pipeline, and policies that fail to keep pace with economic reality need solutions.

At the Summit, business, state, and municipal leaders will come together not to admire the problems, but to design real, scalable solutions. Attendees will hear from communities already putting reforms in motion and work hands-on to shape the next phase of implementation.

From Kevin Chu’s data-driven keynote, MythBusters: Addressing Pushback and Building Buy-In, to an interactive Policy Roundtable, to a closing discussion led by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on the intersection of economic growth and climate resilience, this is where strategy becomes movement.

And as we prepare to put this plan into action, we’re once again asking Vermont businesses to share what they’re experiencing on the ground in the 2025 Business Climate Survey. Your input will inform the conversations happening at the Summit and help shape the policies that follow. Whether you’re optimistic, frustrated, or somewhere in between, your voice matters now more than ever.

The road forward starts here: shaped by data, driven by business, and built for Vermont.