Follow Matt on Facebook

@mattdunnevt

Campaign News

Bennington Banner: Dunne aims higher in 2nd attempt

July 30, 2010

NEAL P. GOSWAMI
Thursday July 29, 2010

BENNINGTON -- Four years after a failing bid to unseat Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, Matt Dunne is hoping to challenge him again -- this time in a race for governor.

Dunne, of course, must first win a five-way Democratic primary to challenge the Republican Dubie, who announced his candidacy for the state’s top office after Gov. James Douglas said last fall that he would not seek re-election.

Dunne, a former state representative and senator, and currently an executive with the Internet giant Google, faces Sens. Peter Shumlin, Doug Racine and Susan Bartlett, as well as Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz in the Aug. 24 primary.

Dunne, who spent 11 years in the Legislature, started a software company in Wilder, and now on leave from Google for the campaign, said he is setting himself apart in the primary because of his experience in job creation and "vision to move into a new era as an innovation state."

Dunne was also tapped by former President Bill Clinton to head Americorps Vista, a national service organizations. Business leaders throughout the state are taking notice of his campaign because of his mix of business and management experience, Dunne said.

"The piece that seems to be engaging the business leaders is the experience I had in running a 6,000-person organization and helping bring it into the 21st century," he said. "That experience and what I learned from that process is something that business leaders are intrigued by and they see the need for that kind of management experience."

Dunne said his mixed experience will suit the state’s budget woes. A $100 million to $120 million budget gap is expected for the next fiscal year, meaning state government must find a way to balance the budget with continued lackluster revenues.

"I’ve had to work through budgets in good times and bad. I intend to take those experiences of being able to prioritize our critical needs and looking for ways to reduce overhead costs that do not affect front-line services," Dunne said.

‘Waste’ on outdated tech

Dunne said there is an "incredible waste of money" on outdated technology. "We are spending millions of dollars on contractors and servers and licenses that don’t work very well," he said. "We’re 46th in the nation in using the Internet to engage our population and that’s just unacceptable."

Embracing new technology and properly training employees will save money in the long-run, according to Dunne.

He said the state can also find savings in health care. "The proposal that I’ve put on the table is to do a self-insurance, single-payer program where everyone pays, everyone is covered and, most importantly, we fundamentally change the way we do reimbursement. We move it away from fee-for-service and towards rewarding health outcomes."

Dunne said he would begin putting together a global hospital budget and meanwhile moving "very, very aggressively" to set in place waivers that would be required by the federal government.

The state must also "grow the pie" to boost revenue, Dunne said. "Having a governor who understands how business works and how to have a responsive government" will allow that to happen, he said.

Dunne said a "real investment" in Vermont’s infrastructure is needed, particularly Internet and cell service. He said a CNBC businessrankingrecently dropped Vermont lower because of its poor network.

"Our quality of life and our K-12 education was all in the top five but we have terrible infrastructure," he said. "We simply can’t be dead last and continue to think that we can grow jobs throughout the state of Vermont. The good news is technology allows us today, if we have someone with the right experience to deliver, to bring fiber optic speed Internet to the last mile."

Dunne said he would use revenue bonds to improve Internet and cell service.

"What we can do is provide very low cost capital and a regulatory package that can allow for the deployment to happen very quickly," he said. "In exchange for that low cost capital there is two obligations -- one is that you actually go to the last mile of the community, and the second is that you keep the pipe open so that anyone who wants to provide services over that fiber optic cable can do so at a fixed, wholesale rate. It’s those leases that pay down the bond over time.

"If people are concerned with our telecommunications infrastructure then I’m their candidate. It happens to be the area that I’ve worked on for years and years," he said.

Posted here in the Bennington Banner.  Contact Neal P. Goswami at the Bennington Banner.

blog comments powered by Disqus