About Us
Our Mission
Our mission is to conduct research, perform fiscal analysis, disseminate information, and develop policies that apply the powers of government to improving the wellbeing of ordinary citizens, especially the most vulnerable.
Issues
PAI's current work focuses on three areas: health care, education, and family economic security. We provide Vermonters with facts and analyses to inform the policy discussions, as well as policy models and proposals in these crucial areas of government and public life.
Few things are more important than being healthy. And staying healthy involves preventive care and regular visits to the doctor. It may involve an operation at the hospital or long-term care at home or in a nursing home. We all need and deserve access to quality, affordable health care services throughout our lives. No one should have to face bankruptcy in order to stay alive and healthy.
But America's health care system is in crisis, in part because it is not a system at all, but a scattering of uncoordinated, competing pieces, some inadequate, others redundant, and many working at odds with the needs and interests of the people they are meant to serve.
It must be a priority of government to provide the public infrastructure that helps citizens stay healthy. Government must ensure that an adequately staffed health care system provides affordable, high-quality care to everyone. This responsibility includes public funding, planning, regulation, professional licensing, and service programs.
Thomas Jefferson famously noted: "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government."
Education is necessary for people to live satisfying and productive lives as well as to participate meaningfully as citizens in our democracy.
In this spirit, our public school system is open to everyone, regardless of wealth, ability, or religion. Vermont is fortunate to have a public school financing system that is fair to both taxpayers and students, and that provides an adequate, sustainable source of funding through the Vermont Education Fund.
Making sure that the Education Fund continues to receive adequate revenue to support a good education for our children is an important watchdog responsibility of Vermonters. There have been efforts every year since the Education Fund was established in 1997 to divert revenue from the fund or to saddle the fund with new responsibilities without new revenues. These efforts increase property taxes and undermine public education.
Adequate funding for higher education should also be a priority in Vermont to ensure that students have access to institutions of higher learning both in state and outside.
All Vermonters want and need sufficient income to give their families a decent home, provide nutritious food, and pay for health care, transportation, childcare, and other essentials. Yet, many working Vermonters continue to earn less than what they need to live. When working Vermonters earn less than they need to live, taxpayers end up filling the gap.
While Vermont's per capita income has been increasing since 2000, not all Vermonters have enjoyed the benefits of these increases. In fact, the income disparity between those at the top and everyone else has been increasing for the past twenty years.
The ability of all citizens to live decently is fundamental to the cohesion of any society. When Vermonters can't pay for basic needs even working two or three jobs, they feel hopeless, alienated, and disenfranchised -- and that hurts everyone.
Government can and should ensure that workers are paid fair wages and are treated with respect, that affordable childcare is available for working parents, and that taxpayer money spent to put Vermonters to work is spent wisely.
Staff
Paul Cillo
President and Executive Director
Paul Cillo, founder of the Public Assets Institute, has been active in public policy work for over thirty years, as a local and state political representative, consultant on health care, education finance, and other tax and budget issues; and on energy efficiency. He represented Hardwick, Walden, and Stannard in the Vermont House of Representatives for ten years, serving four years on the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee and four as Majority Leader. During those years he designed and led the Legislature to adopt a groundbreaking education financing system that equalizes opportunity for all Vermont children, regardless of where they live.
Paul Cillo has served extensively at the local level, as well, on Hardwick's Select Board, Planning Commission, and other volunteer committees. He has been a member of numerous nonprofit boards and advisory committees, including the Lamoille Housing Partnership (Treasurer), Northern Counties Health Care (President), the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Energy Foundation. Paul Cillo is a lifelong Vermonter, originally from Castleton. His parents were Italian immigrants who, with Paul Cillo and his three siblings, ran a small summer restaurant and marina on Lake Bomoseen. Paul Cillo graduated the University of Vermont in 1975 with a BA in Philosophy.
Jack Hoffman
Senior Policy Analyst
Jack Hoffman joined Public Assets Institute in October 2007. He does research and analysis on state fiscal issues and prepares periodic reports published by PAI. Before joining Public Assets Institute, Jack covered politics and state government in Vermont for 20 years. He was chief of the Vermont Press Bureau, the capital bureau for the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Covering state government, he focused on tax and budget issues, especially education funding. After leaving journalism in 2002, he served for five years as executive director of the Vermont Broadband Council, a non-profit organization promoting the use and availability of broadband in the state.
Before he started his reporting career, Jack traveled extensively in Africa. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Libya in the late 1960s. He has called Vermont home since 1965, when he first enrolled in Middlebury College. He and his wife, Lark Upson, live in Marshfield, where he is a member of the Twinfield Union School Board.
Sarah Lyons
Executive & Communications Assistant
Sarah Lyons joined the Public Assets Institute in November 2006 where she coordinates administrative and communication functions of the organization. She serves as webmaster, assists with research, manages publishing activities and newsletter design and distribution, and provides support to staff and board members.
Prior to joining the Public Assets Institute, Sarah worked for eight years in small business development, marketing, and graphic design. She wrote press releases, designed and managed marketing campaigns, and edited technical user manuals.
Sarah lives in Walden with her husband and daughter. She has been a Walden town lister and currently serves as a mentor to eighth grade children, manages a maple sugar orchard, and is an active community member.
Board of Directors
Paul Cillo, President & Executive Director
Hardwick
Carlen A. Finn, Treasurer
Executive Director
Voices for Vermont's Children
Marshfield
Linda E. Markin, Chair
Chief Financial Officer
Concept 2, Inc.
Hardwick
Marion Milne
Founder, Milne Travel
Former member Vermont General Assembly
Washington
Cheryl Mitchell
Research Professor, The University of Vermont
(College of Education and Social Services and College of Medicine)
Former Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Human Services (1993-2002)
New Haven
Sheila Reed, Esq., Secretary
Legislative Coordinator/Attorney
Voices for Vermont's Children
Ryegate
David Tucker, Vice-Chair
Former State Director
Vermont Office of Economic Opportunity
Sutton
We are funded through grants and donations and we need your help. The Public Assets Institute is tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. You can support our work by making a contribution through Paypal:
or by mailing your tax-deductible donation to:
PO Box 942
Montpelier, VT 05601
We also welcome your support through volunteering, internships, and other forms of help. Please contact us.