Your
State and local programs seeking to attract remote workers face a question —
by Joel Sams
ISSUE 4 2021 | CSG CAPITOL IDEAS
Long before lockdowns, toilet paper shortages and ubiquitous Zoom meetings, Vermont state Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons was already thinking about remote work. Vermont is a rural state facing a declining population. Remote workers, Lyons realized, could become a growing segment of the workforce. They just needed a reason to choose the state.
20
“When I went in to draft the bill with legislative council, I felt like I was working in a little dark closet, because there were no models out there for this type of incentive,” Lyons said. “But I felt very strongly that we needed to have incentives to bring people to our state.” With the 2018 passage of legislation that Lyons co-authored, Vermont became one of the first states to create an incentive program to attract remote workers. Shortly afterward, Tulsa, Oklahoma, launched a similar program to attract remote workers to the city. In 2021, as the move toward remote works seems to be permanent, an increasing number of states and cities are creating incentive programs, like Vermont’s and Tulsa’s, to sweeten the deal for a highly skilled and newly mobile workforce. But while Vermont and Tulsa have seen success, other programs have shown that research is key — what do remote workers really want?
VERMONT Lyons’ bill was signed by Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on May 30, 2018, and quickly attracted national attention. The program, which was funded through 2020, paid workers with jobs outside of Vermont up to $10,000 over two years for eligible moving expenses to Vermont and costs of remote work. The program was subsequently expanded to include new workers moving to Vermont for any job. By 2020, the program’s funds — a total of $500,000 — had been awarded to a total of 140 successful applicants, according to a 2020 annual report. The average grant size was $3,571, and counting family members, the program resulted in a total of 298 new Vermont residents. Other demographic data from the annual report shows that grantees hailed from 38 states, and 64% of grantees were under 40 years old. The program primarily attracted workers in information technology (20%), management (26%) and writing and editing (5%). New funding was temporarily halted due to COVID-19, but a bill signed by Scott on June 1 included $630,000 to continue funding eligible relocation expenses for new and remote workers, in addition to calling for a study of the program’s effectiveness.
