As Vermont lawmakers return to Montpelier following Town Meeting break, the legislative session enters the phase where ideas must become decisions. For Vermont’s economy, those decisions carry real consequences.

The first half of the session is often defined by hearings, proposals, and policy exploration. The second half is where priorities are tested, and choices become outcomes.

Over the past several years, Vermonters have done something important. We have invested significant time and energy into planning for the state’s economic future. The Vermont Futures Project’s Economic Action Plan brought together the perspectives of more than 5,000 Vermonters and established measurable goals for workforce growth, housing development, and long-term economic opportunity.

That effort produced something Vermont has historically lacked: a shared economic roadmap grounded in data.

But a roadmap alone does not move the state forward. Vermont has long excelled at identifying challenges, but progress requires moving beyond episodic decision making toward sustained economic strategy.

The question now is whether Vermont will translate that planning into policies capable of addressing the economic pressures businesses and families are experiencing today.

Those pressures are real.

Nationally, the economic outlook entering March reflects cautious resilience paired with continued uncertainty. Inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s long-term target; interest rates remain elevated, and many industries report difficulty finding workers while managing rising costs.

For Vermont, these national dynamics are amplified by structural challenges closer to home.

Recent economic competitiveness data place Vermont near the bottom nationally on measures including economic momentum, long term outlook, and workforce demographics. These rankings underscore the structural challenges the state must address to strengthen affordability and economic opportunity.

Demographics alone present a stark reality. Over 17,000 Vermonters are projected to retire annually this decade, while far fewer young workers are entering the labor force. To maintain economic stability, Vermont must add roughly 13,500 workers each year through population growth and workforce expansion.

At the same time, housing shortages continue to constrain that growth. The state will need tens of thousands of additional housing units to support the workforce Vermont’s economy requires.

When businesses cannot find workers, expansion stalls. When housing is unavailable or unaffordable, recruitment becomes nearly impossible. When regulatory timelines stretch into years instead of months, investment flows elsewhere.

Employers across Vermont are experiencing these pressures simultaneously.

There have been encouraging signs of progress. Conversations about health care affordability, housing infrastructure, and workforce recruitment reflect a growing recognition that Vermont’s affordability challenges are interconnected.

Vermonters are confronting rising property taxes and education costs that are intensifying the broader affordability conversation across communities. Recognizing the challenge, however, is not the same as solving it. If Vermont is serious about improving affordability and strengthening economic opportunity, several principles should guide the decisions ahead.

First, Vermont must strengthen fiscal predictability. State spending has grown significantly in recent years, placing pressure on the tax base that supports essential services. Businesses and families alike need stability and transparency in fiscal policy to make long term decisions about investment, hiring, and where to build their future.

Second, Vermont must modernize the regulatory systems that shape housing and economic development. Employers consistently report that permitting timelines and regulatory complexity increase costs and slow projects that communities need.

Third, Vermont must confront the reality of demographic change. A shrinking working age population is not a temporary challenge, but a structural shift that will shape Vermont’s economic capacity for decades. Addressing it requires coordinated strategies to recruit new residents, retain graduates, and expand housing and opportunity for the next generation of Vermonters.

These priorities reflect the areas the Vermont Chamber identified at the start of the legislative session and continue to guide our work in Montpelier as the session moves into its second half. These issues are not simply business concerns.

When businesses grow, they create jobs, support local tax bases, and sustain the services communities rely on, from schools and infrastructure to the small-town economies that define Vermont’s identity.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce works to bring these economic realities into policy discussions every day in Montpelier. Representing employers of all sizes, industries, and regions of the state, the Chamber’s role is to ensure that the perspective of Vermont’s business community is part of the decision-making process.

Vermont has done the planning. The data is clear. The goals are defined.

The weeks ahead will determine whether Vermont translates that planning into policy and whether those policies lead to the action necessary to strengthen affordability, competitiveness, and opportunity across the state.

Vermont’s future is not predetermined. It will be shaped by the policy choices made in Montpelier in the weeks ahead.