Priorities for 2025-2026:

I am committed to increasing the fairness of Vermont’s tax structure and to taking that and other actions to maintain affordability and quality of life for all Vermonters.  I also am committed to increasing government accountability to ensure that the State’s programs and services are being provided in a manner that achieves their purpose without wasting public resources. 

I’ve listened to my constituents and my priorities for the next session include:

• Operate and Fund schools so we can maintain top quality public education without taxing Vermonters out of their homes. Our current structure of financing schools is not sustainable. At the same time, we need resources and a strategy to support our public schools. Public schools are fundamental to our democratic system and they are also a consideration when families look to move to Vermont. I hope that the Commission on the Future of Public Education will be thorough, creative and unvarnished in its recommendations.

• Add a top income tax bracket and a second-home surcharge to make Vermont’s tax system fairer and to pay for increased essential services without having to increase taxes paid by lower and middle income Vermonters.

• Implement, monitor, and modify (as necessary) Act 250 reforms to promote more housing and sustainable economic development projects. Prioritize relocation of development outside of the floodplains and river corridors and help small towns build water and/or sewer services.

• As a member of the County and Regional Governance Committee, continue to advocate for systems that would address capacity challenges of small towns while retaining the strong local self-governance structure of Vermont towns. Prioritize models that would increase the accountability of regionally-focused state programs. Expand options for towns to work together on projects and programs.

• Identify and implement affordable initiatives to address climate change.

 o   The Clean Heat Standard has become quite controversial. The legislature will need to vote to continue next year and I will only support legislation that would reduce costs to middle and lower-income Vermonters. The purpose of the standard is to create a market-based incentive to reduce the expense to Vermonters of heating their homes. It would do this by gradually reducing the amount of fossil fuels used for heat through weatherization and installation of alternative heat sources. Oil and gas prices are not regulated like electricity rates. We experienced price increases to more than $5/gallon in the past few years, and too many Vermonters are dependent on oil as their only source of heat. Vermonters who can afford heat pumps pay less in electricity for heat than if they heated with oil or wood.

 o   We need to get serious about reducing the impacts of flooding on Vermonters. We passed a bill last year requiring the state to manage river corridors and the implementation needs to be expedited. We need to build more restored floodplains like the two in Brattleboro that have reduced storm impacts in and around downtown. Our communication systems need to be better prepared to coordinate between towns and the state when disasters hit. We also need the state and towns to be financially sustainable to handle these events. We can’t rely only on FEMA and we don’t know where the private insurance industry will end up after it adjusts to the increasing natural disaster pattern nationwide.