I am excited to return to the Vermont House of Representatives in January to work on the critical issues facing Vermont. Tesha Buss ably served the Windsor-5 district but she decided not to seek reelection. I decided to run for “my old seat” because of the urgency of the problems Vermont faces and the need for moderate voices to forge reasonable, sustainable solutions.
It is going to be a rough legislative session – the State has to tighten its fiscal belt, but at the same time we need financial help to build a new school. The way we pay for education has to change – we cannot afford education property tax increases of 25-35%. The lack of attainable housing continues to dampen our economic growth and population stability while stressing household budgets. We need to renovate existing housing stock and build new units. Health care costs continue to skyrocket with insurance premiums going up by 16-20% every year while we still have a shortage of primary care physicians to take care of the state. More frequent extreme weather events are not only destructive, expensive and stressful, they are forcing Vermont towns to re-think development patterns and building codes. I’m ready to dive in, to fully evaluate these issues, and make the right decisions for Vermont and for my constituents. It won’t always be popular or easy, but I will be candid with voters and stakeholders about the options and their impact.
Of course these are not the only issues facing Vermont, but I believe they are the most important ones to solve in the next two years. In the next legislative session I will join other legislators to draft legislation for reasonable, sustainable solutions, as well as advocate for the interests of constituents in other areas.
On the lighter side of things, my son-in law continues to advocate for a new Vermont flag. It’s not at the top of the priority list (I’ve told him that) but he’s right that Vermont’s flag is not distinctive from a dozen other state flags with the same blue background and state seal in the middle. And symbols are important. What would a new Vermont flag look like? I’ll be exploring this idea in between the more serious discussions in the Capitol.