 Hi, I'm Michael Sabron. I'm speaking to you in front of the Capitol here in Montpure on a lovely October day during the election season. I'm coming in front of the Capitol because I don't want folks to think that just because I'm not an incumbent, that doesn't mean I'm new to the place. I've been following legislative issues here for probably a good decade. Mostly primarily on the mental health issue. I know folks here. I know legislators. I know folks in administration. I know folks that are heads of committees. I know folks in different aspects of the government. I know agency heads. I know folks in the Department of Forestry and Fish and Wildlife and whatnot. You know, I've been the President of the National Anthemological Society for quite a while, so I know folks throughout the state in various capacities. Public service. Most of my lifetime has been public service, whether it's been being a letter carrier, which I very much think is public service, to being a postmaster, which is a whole lot of public service. And then the last six years, I have worked as a psychiatric resident representative for the remote psychiatric service in the Department of Mental Health, and that has me going into different facilities and various homes in the state to see how folks are doing and there's anything that I can help them with as far as needs and issues and whatnot. Because part of what I'm running is because of this past legislative season and the passing of Act 287, which became Act 192, and it's the Code of Judicial Process Law, but it was really another involuntary medication law where they shortened things and sort of like made a class out of certain people and those kind of things. And as part of that process, you know, legislation passes for various reasons, good and bad and those kind of things, but as part of the process that I was involved in, the main impetus or reason for the legislation passing was because it's something that the governor wanted. I, myself, don't personally care what the governor wants outside of it being good for what I would call my constituents. And in this bill, I would certainly like to give the incumbent the benefit of the doubt that, you know, she was somewhat persuaded in voting for this legislation because it was something the governor wanted, but it wouldn't be how I would work. I kind of placed myself in the political spectrum in the middle, you know? Meaning that, you know, I'm somewhat of a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative. You know, I think I have different fiscal views than most liberals do, that's for sure. One reason why I'm running as an independent is because, you know, the parties are real entities and they have their own agendas and their agendas aren't necessarily for your benefit, but for some, you know, goal that they may have to pursue, you know, regardless of how it affects its constituents, their constituents. Well, I think the mental health work is very important in the sense that you learn how to relate to people, not only do you learn how to relate to people but you learn how to get things done, who to talk to, you know, how to talk to people, you know, where to go talk to people, you know? And I think it also, you develop an understanding for various ideas, you know, without being judgmental and even sometimes even an appreciation or compassion for different viewpoints. You might have your own viewpoints but, you know, in my work, I'm not an advocate for myself, I'm an advocate for other people so I have to set myself aside and I think that would pretty much do the same thing if I was a legislator, it's like, you know, I'm not here for myself, you know, I'm here for them or for you and to do what can be done to, you know, make things better for folks. So, like my poem, I'm in favor of universal health care in single payer but I don't feel they have to be synonymous with one. I don't think if you don't get one, you have to lose the other kind of saying and also I think I'm more open to various ways of paying for universal health care like not just depending on the progressive income tax which probably doesn't exist now or in the future. We don't have one now. I don't see where we're going to have one. The political will is not there. But, you know, you talk about having a pool of money so my idea is literally to create a pool of money from various sources. You could still have, you know, some kind of income tax. We could keep the premiums. We could have a sales tax dedicated to medical issues. We could even divert, you know, current taxes like the cigarette tax. And no, it hasn't been said much during this election cycle but, you know, I tend to be supportive of making marijuana legal because as a state we can't afford not to. One, I think it's very wrong to be incarcerating people for marijuana related issues. And B, I think there's, you know, quite a bit of money there to be had as a state. I'm not foreincreasing the property tax, those type of things. I think that we need to create new income into the state. I think that we, you know, we need to bring back the capital gains tax that was dropped during the Douglas administration. I think we need to bring in money through marijuana legislation. I think we need to look at all avenues of bringing in money. I don't think it can, you know, be you and I that are continuing to pay what's happening in this state. I think we need to make Vermont health care as affordable as possible. I mean, even now under the current system with the dropping of VHAP and count amount we hear of premiums being too high and folks not being able to bring their kids to doctors and stuff like that because they can't afford it. I think as a society we really all need to buy into this universal health care and all have a similar, you know, experience when we seek mental health care. I think we should do everything we can in physical health care. We should do everything possible to make it affordable for all the folks in this state. I don't think we should be concentrating on car valves, whether it be Medicare or Medicaid or, you know, I think universal health care is, you know, we're going to consider it in a literal sense. I think we should maybe, you know, think what that means before we start doing the car valves. One thing that separates me from my opponent is I am not supportive of the Vermont Gas Line in Shen Plain Valley. I think as a state we have made the decision to not support gas fracking and whether it's in-state or out-of-state, I think that, you know, I think as a people we know that it causes harm to people. I don't think that we should be supporting it. Not only that, but I think we should be taking opportunities. I'm going to be talking about, you know, in such a year, you know, being 90 percent alternative fuels and stuff like that and then we have something handed to us on the plate as far as getting us in that direction and we just totally, you know, bypass or ignore that opportunity. I think the current administration has been very tied to special interest groups that tend to support those in power and, you know, I mean the gas pipeline people might be one of those groups. Another one of those groups is the Vermont Hospital Association. I mean they were a big, big thing behind the S287 Act 192 passing and that's also one reason why I'm not so sure of universal health care really or single payer really happening because, you know, the people that are supposed to benefit are you and I. The people that will likely benefit are, you know, the hospitals and the insurance companies even when we have these things called, you know, universal health care and single payer insurance will probably be the least persons out of when these things come forward. Well, if I become a representative for one thing, you know, I'm not there to do what the governor wants. You know, I'm not part of the administration. I'm not part of the Democratic Party. I'm not even part of the Minority Republican Party. I mean, certainly I know how to work with people that, you know, maybe cut deals and stuff like that but, you know, the governor says, you know, he wants something. I'm going to say so what until, you know, I think it meets the needs of my constituents. Some of the things I support are, you know, continue to support public funding for weatherization. I support a person's right to consume raw milk. I support the state divesting from fossil fuel. I think that we should expand the whistleblower protection law to cover people that are temporary or part-time employees so that they can feel safe to report things without losing their work or a source of income cap on the statewide education property tax because I think the taxpayers, you know, can't afford it. Like I said, we just need to look for new revenue systems. I very much support, you know, public transportation and like rail and doing everything we can as a state to, you know, every, you know, on a regular basis, you know, just keep on, you know, incrementally increasing our devotion to those things. I mean, even it means, you know, diverting of funds from other transportation projects. I think that, you know, we're going to divest from fossil fuels. We have to make things that, you know, go in that direction priorities versus, you know, continuing to, you know, act like we have on a regular basis and think somehow that, you know, just at the end of the road we're going to be divested from fossil fuels. I also support the expanding sick leave and annual leave benefits. And on a national level I pose a national ID system. I think over here across the street where it's kind of, you know, getting towards that direction was, you know, needing a passport and a social security card and a birth certificate just to renew our licenses, which, you know, I guess it's a federal thing, but it's, you know, it can be very onerous for folks and very expensive too and, you know, low-income people and people in, you know, coming out of hospitals without IDs and all those kinds of things. It's quite an issue for them to get a personal ID, which is, you know, pretty important to get housing and whatnot. But on the topic of housing, I think certainly the state needs to have more housing, more public housing and probably needs to invest more in public housing. Needs more vouchers for, you know, getting people off the streets, you know, and also even on a local level, I know this isn't very popular, but, you know, my peeler needs a homeless shelter, you know, and even in Washington County District 6 needs a homeless shelter. I mean, I'd certainly be supportive of somebody getting something, you know, a homeless shelter going in my district. That would be very important, I think.