My work in the Legislature

Climate change will create multiple challenges for rural Vermonters. I’ve dedicated most of my life to improving the environment and advocating for energy efficiency and carbon-free approaches to energy generation and transportation. We need strong government programs both to help Vermonters reduce our carbon emissions and to mitigate the impacts of climate change. We need state financial and logistical support to weatherize our homes, to reduce our dependence on expensive oil to heat our homes, and to develop as much renewable power generation as our landscape can reasonably accommodate. I supported and will continue to support the Affordable Heat Standard or similar state legislation.

Affordable housing is a problem affecting everyone. Schools and other employers report prospective new employees turn down jobs because they are unable to find housing. The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board needs more funding to support affordable housing development. Vermont needs to make it easier to build in our town and village centers. That means putting federal infrastructure dollars to work helping communities fund site development costs (water, roads, sidewalks, and sewer) in appropriate locations. It means those who restore dilapidated properties to create fresh new affordable housing units should receive assistance and tax benefits. And it means helping young families burdened by student debt and childcare costs to become homeowners.

Our economy in our three towns and throughout rural Vermont will depend on excellent internet and cell connectivity, something the free market alone has not accomplished. I strongly support CV Fiber’s efforts to provide broadband connections. I believe we need to do more to ensure that the Public Utilities Commission helps extend cell service to underserved areas. At the same time, it’s essential that local residents have a meaningful voice at the PUC concerning the location for cell towers.

Vermonters generally have a sensible attitude about guns. But we have a ways to go to ensure our children are safe. Guns are the primary cause of Vermont’s high suicide rate, and many of those who die are young people who utilized their parents guns. We’re the only New England state without a law addressing secure gun storage. We need open carry laws. And we need to bar the ownership and use of assault style weapons. I believe that automatic weapons with high capacity magazines have no place in a civilized society except for the military and police.

Our central goal must be focused on rural economic development. A livable wage contributes to that goal, but it isn’t everything. The minimum wage in Vermont is higher than in many states, but it’s not yet a livable wage.

I ‘m delighted that reproductive rights are now enshrined in the Vermont Constitution. Decisions about whether and when to have children belong with the individual, not the government.

We need more funding for rural transit, but we also need to deal with the reality that in rural Vermont people often must drive long distances to work and to shop. Many of us pay more than we’d like for gasoline, sending large sums of hard-earned money to out-of-state gasoline producers. The best solution for Vermont is to increase subsidies further make it easier and cheaper for Vermonters to buy hybrid or electric cars as they become more available. The State should also offer grants to local governments and businesses to facilitate installation of automobile charging stations.

Helping rural Vermonters succeed will require the availability of affordable childcare, pre-K, and after school care. Parents pay too much and childcare workers don’t earn a living wage. The State Department of Children and Families provides some financial support, but we need to substantially deepen the subsidy substantially to reach more families and pay the wages necessary to young people to a career in childcare.

Too many rural Vermonters, especially children, are food insecure. Many live in “food deserts” requiring driving long distances for groceries. The supply disruptions of Covid have revealed the weaknesses in a food system that relies on bringing in our food from far away. Let’s strengthen our local food system so that more of our food is produced locally. We need state action to provide more local markets for Vermont farms, increase the local consumption of local farm products in our schools, and enable more on-farm processing and storage.

To get things done in the Vermont Legislature you need to LISTEN to other legislators, to be honest, civil and straight with people you may not agree with. That’s the way you build the coalitions you need to put state money and state policies to work for Calais, Marshfield and Plainfield. I’m a consensus builder. My life has prepared me to build coalitions to create good policies for our towns.

We need a family leave policy that is broad, deep and affordable.