Op-Ed: Paralyzed by bureaucracy

August 19, 2026  |  By Dan Jones

As more and more parts of our governmental systems and priorities founder on the rocky shoals of crisis, I am convinced that our governmental and business bureaucracies are simply paralyzed.

Here is an example. During the great flood of 2023, the levee road protecting the Montpelier wastewater plant came within inches of being overtopped and flooding the facility. That would have been a disaster for the entire capital region, and would have cost multimillions of dollars and years to repair. During the months after the event, protecting the plant was considered a top priority. The city bureaucrats appealed to the state bureaucrats for funds to do a rapid repair.

But the Scott administration’s bureaucrats couldn’t be bothered to come up with the requested funds needed to rapidly raise and strengthen the surrounding roadway. The Agency for Natural Resources had problems with the plan because it didn’t meet their regulations. Instead, the agency offered $150,000 to do additional planning.  

So here we have a critical facility that needs repair before the next flood, but the first response of the bureaucratic mind is to demand a study. Such studies are the first stage of paralysis. Herein then lies an exemplary case of how the bureaucratic mindset now controlling our governmental and business decisions is creating a level of dysfunctional paralysis that will hamper our society’s capacity to respond to the growing climate and economic crises. Right now, with no actual agreement among the funding agencies and the city, something might get done by 2029-30.   

When asking about the coming state election, many voters I’ve spoken with harbor a quaint belief that our myriad governmental agencies will find proper ways of problem-solving. After all, we have lots of strict regulations, like Act 250, which promise to lessen our contribution to climate change, protect the wilderness and build new housing. Sadly, the actual effects of such well-intentioned regulations are to simply beget regulatory bureaucracies, populated by officials intent on enforcing policies but with little understanding of the pain and frustrations they create for many of us.  

Around the state, many rural citizens are increasingly tired of regulation for the sake of regulation, regardless of the good intentions supposedly underlying them. One such group is Rural Vermont Rising, an emergent organization with the purpose of giving voice to rising discontent. This growing movement blames the Vermont Legislature for creating an insufferable number of regulations and attendant regulatory systems, which, they feel, stifle the motivation of those who actually want to work. 

They assert that the Vermont State Democratic Party has loosened an avalanche of well-intended regulations on the public for years. This past year, Act 181 created severe limitations on rural land use, thus requiring a frustrating number of expensive permits and reviews to create rural roads and lumber selection plots, while limiting how new farms could be created. These were capacities that our rural residents used to take for granted. 

This brings us to the next level of dysfunction of our bureaucrats. They think they are doing the right thing in carrying out the demands of the Legislature. Regulators, permits, review, etc., are merely the needed costs of carrying out the legislative mandates.

Meanwhile, our legislators are confused at the growing backlash against “needless” regulations. They thought they were being responsive to the demands of environmental groups, energy advocates, and conservation advocates, who have been lobbying them for years to limit growth and create renewable energy developments. Sadly, rural Vermonters’ perception is that too many regulations benefit the wealthy who are colonizing Vermont. Privileged folks desire freedom from unsightly infrastructure and proximate developments. They have no problem coming up with $200,000, or more, for studies and permitting to develop their homes however they want. The average farmer or logger, however, finds it impossible to fund such equivalent permitting for their own businesses. So the class divisions grow deeper.  

I know that we must prevent further ecological destruction and protect our landscape. But I also recognize that instead of more studies, we need real people to clear the land, plant crops, and husband the resources necessary to return Vermont to a functioning agricultural economy.  

The climate crisis is real, as is misuse of land resources and poisoning of water systems. These are not behaviors we want to continue or reward. To date, we have failed in making working Vermonters partners in solving problems that will affect them. Such participation requires a different kind of imagination than is available to those administrators and councilors burdened with bureaucratic brains.

Let me be clear. The ascendancy of the bureaucracy was a critical component of our complex modern state. Our state’s economy was powered by cheap fossil fuels. Today, as fossil fuel energy becomes ever more costly and wasteful, we need to bring a lot of the efforts to protect our land and water much closer to home. It’s time for a politics of local participation, so that the rigid, bureaucratic brain is no longer the default mode of our governments.

Dan Jones lives in Montpelier.