McClaughry, Ethan Allen Institute celebrate 10 years

Vermont Business Magazine, Nov 01, 2003

The Ethan Allen Institute bills itself as Vermont's free market public policy research and advocacy organization."

Founded in 1993 by former state Senator John McClaughry of Kirby, EAI is now completing its 10th year, culminating in a celebration dinner November 17 in South Burlington, featuring noted humorist PJ O'Rourke. McClaughry, 66, grew up in Illinois and came to Vermont in 1963. He has an AB in physics and math from Miami University (Ohio), an MS in nuclear engineering from Columbia, and an AM in political science from the University of California. He also has an honorary Doctor of Laws and Letters from Miami.

VBM asked McClaughry to talk about the organization's purpose, principles, growth, successes, and shortcomings in an email interview.

VBM: Why did you think Vermont needed a "free market think tank" back in 1993?

McClaughry: A major goal of my years in the Legislature was to improve the climate in Vermont for competitive free enterprise. My policy prescription was simple. Low and stable tax rates. Few and reasonable mandates on businesses. Regulation that can be strict, with regards to the environment, but fair, swift, and certain. When I left the Senate, I conceived the idea of an independent nonpartisan public policy organization to counter the anti-business policies of many of the influential groups working to control the Legislature, and to offer "Ideas for Vermont' Vermont's Future" based on free market principles.

VBM: Was that an original idea?

McClaughry: No. There were at the times several similar organizations promoting free market policies in other states. The Pioneer Institute in Boston and the Mackinac Center in Michigan were two of the most prominent. We modeled ourselves after them.

VBM: What are your guiding principles?

McClaughry: Briefly, individual liberty, private property ownership, limited government competitive free enterprise, strong local communities, limited government, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity for all. Later, prompted by the Vermont Supreme Court's decision in the (1996) Brigham case, we added respect for the constitution - as opposed to having our Five Supreme Legislators writing their own constitution.

VBM: Do people view that list of principles as radical?

McClaughry: Strangely enough, some do. I'm pretty confident in saying that all of our principles would have won a huge majority vote for the first 200 years after the state was settled. But as you know, since the 1960s there has been a marked change in the political climate in Vermont, so much so that those well-tested and successful principles are now out of favor with lots of people and politicians. For a lot of activists in Vermont today, the Big Idea is collectivism. That's pretty hard for me to understand in view of its almost universal failure everywhere that collectivism has been forced onto people.

VBM: How does the Ethan Allen Institute wage the war of ideas? McClaughry: Our mission is to educate Vermonters in the fundamentals of a free society. Those principles I just mentioned. We try to do that in a lot of ways. I suppose most Vermont newspaper readers are familiar with my biweekly commentaries. Also my commentaries on Vermont Public Radio. We run State House Roundtables, where we bring in a panel of divergent views on an Issue to illuminate the decisions legislators must make, and the consequences.

Last November we ran our best-ever event, a one-day workshop on "Making Vermont Government Work". I got all three candidates for governor - Jim Douglas, Doug Racine and Con Hogan to pledge to attend if they won. Jim Douglas, who won, was all set to come when he was called away to a National Governors Association orientation meeting that day, but he sent four of what are now his top appointees.

Former Delaware Governor Pete DuPont was the big star, but we also had three nationally known experts from Washington - one from the Democratic Leadership Council's think tank - leading sessions on government efficiency and health care policy. We had 25 legislators present, from both major parties.

We do major reports for legislators and others on topics Eke education finance reform, welfare reform, and barriers to economic growth. Think tanks in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Hawaii have republished our model state health care policy. [Our most recent major report was on the developmental disability program. We found that the state was spending $114 million a year in federal and state funds to support 1,850 developmentally disabled and socially isolated Vermonters. That's over $60,000 apiece.]

VBM: What becomes of those reports? Do they influence policy makers?

McClaughry: Governor Dean and his appointees weren't much interested in anything we proposed. Since then there has been a much better market for sound freemarket ideas. I'm glad to work with legislators, editors, trade associations, anyone in a position to help advance those ideas. But to be honest, it's often a long road from our advocacy to a political consensus. In 1975 the Environmental Board rejected out of hand my proposal for mediation in environmental disputes. A decade later it had become common practice. Generally, new ideas need a while to germinate.