ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) – A local manufacturing plant will miss out on an expansion that could have brought 30 new jobs due to Vermont’s high taxes, an executive with the firm said.

“The paradox of the situation is this: we are extremely busy but are unable to expand in Vermont,” John Goodrich, vice president and general manager of Weidmann Technology, wrote to Gov. Jim Douglas.

He said Vermont needs to figure out how it wants to handle tax credits as well as other issues. For now, “Companies are left in limbo; they don’t know what is possible and what is not.”

Goodrich said the company, which makes insulation systems for high-voltage transformers, had been looking to expand for about a year. Six sites were considered and Vermont came in second to Switzerland, where WICOR Group, Weidmann’s parent company, is based.

“While our productivity proved to be equal or better on a cost basis, once taxes were factored in to the decision, we lost out on this investment in Vermont,” Goodrich wrote. “Our corporate taxes are among the highest in the nation … It is fundamentally critical that Vermont re-orient to bring our state into a modicum of competitiveness.”

Douglas replied in a letter Friday that Weidmann’s “letter hit home for me.”

“As you know, I have worked hard since becoming governor to erase the perception that Vermont is unfriendly to business,” he wrote. “It is an uphill battle: the political philosophy that has been in place in the General Assembly for many, many years results in well-intentioned but often heavy-handed actions that have made it extremely challenging for business owners, both large and small.”