 Hello, my name is Annie Cooper. Welcome to ongoing election coverage by town meeting television. This is one of many forms we are bringing you in advance of the primary election on Tuesday, August 9. The primary elections select party candidates for the general election on November 8, where voters will elect state and national officials from your local state rep to the US Senate. Town meeting TV election forms introduce you to community decision makers and connect you with the issues that shape your local community. If you'd like to ask a question you can join the webinar via the links shared via social media. If you'd like to ask your questions verbally, please raise your hand, and we'll get to your question shortly. If you'd like to submit a written question, use the Q&A feature in zoom webinar. If you're on the phone you can raise and lower your hand by pressing asterisk or star nine on the number pad. Watch town meeting TV on Comcast channel 1087 Burlington telecom channel 17 and 217, as well as online at town meeting TV's YouTube page. Today, we are here for the general election 2022 Vermont Senate seat primary. We have the state Senate Democratic Party. I'm not sure if that's how it's pronounced. And it is Wednesday, June 29 2022. The candidate participating today are incumbent Senator Phil Baruth. Don Ellis. I'm going to ask the candidates to please keep their responses to 1.5 minutes or less. Depending upon the time available candidates may ask follow up questions of each other with 30 seconds to respond. We have the federal medical order today, which also gives us the ability to invite the incumbent to go first, and for each successive question I will move that person to the back and go through in that order. Senator Baruth as an opening statement. Will you please tell us why you are running and what experience you're bringing to the position. For the people of your district or the state as a whole, because you have been elected to this position and what qualifies you to make those changes happen, please. Thank you, Annie. Can everyone hear me all right. I'm delighted to be here tonight. This is not my first channel 17 debate. And I always appreciate the way the channel keeps people informed. This is actually my seventh election. And in those years, the 12 years that I've already been in the state senate. I've been on a number of committees, but right now I'm on judiciary and appropriations and on the judiciary committee I've been working on judicial reform corrections reform, trying to reform things like bringing out of state senators back to Vermont, trying to expunge offenses that are old and don't reflect people's current behavior, trying to get rid of things like life without parole on the appropriations committee. We have obviously had three years of a pandemic. And fortunately, our federal government and our federal delegation got us a generous amount of money to get us through. All of that money had to be processed through state government, and the appropriations committee was the vehicle for all of it. So if, if you received federal help in the PPP loans, or the cares act or the ARPA money. In part that's the work of the appropriations committee. It's not done yet. We committed most of the money mass last session, but not all of it. So, I feel that I need to go back and do that. But the most passionate reason I would go back is gun safety. After Sandy Hook, I became a passionate advocate for gun safety reform in our state government. And I hope to talk more about that later. But I will also just say I'm delighted to be here with these other candidates, all of whom have significant experience that they bring to the table. And I'm happy to be running with them. Great. Thank you so much candidates I apologize I did not start a timer so I'm going to give you the same grace I just gave Senator Baruth, and we will just be direct and informative in a narrow amount of time. Next on our alphabetical list would be the same opening statement questions for Don Ellis. Why thank you miss Cooper. So I'm Don Ellis, and I am delighted to be in this forum with all of you and with all we can't see. This is going to be a really important election and I am standing up because we're at a crossroads, truly, with the Senate here in our state, turning over with a third leaving and all the new energy coming in. We can make new choices, we can create new priorities, this is a once in a lifetime moment in our state in terms of leadership change and possibility, and I wouldn't miss it. I am standing up. I stand for in this run I'm really considering us coming out of COVID and what are our needs as we're sort of blinking into the light and imagining how we rebuild if our worlds were shattered. Mine was, I know there are many of you who had sectors closed who had loved ones lost. We are coming out and we're coming out strong and it's our chance to rebuild. So I think about how government has a role in this time to really make some upstream kinds of investments that we've never really prioritized because it's so easy to do what we've done again and again. And in three areas, people, place, and planet. And so with people, when I think about upstream, I mean, way upstream in, if we think about health and healthcare, what are we doing for wellness, what are we doing so that you can have balance in your life, what are we doing so you never get to that dark place where violence is even on your plate and we have to talk about things like how do we control the weapon. How are we helping you stay healthy and balanced as we come out of the world being rocked and there are many things that government can do that we haven't. How are we investing in learning because it's a time of pivot, no matter how old you are learning is critical to wherever we're going so that's education whether you are a baby. And we want high quality care if you are not with your parents and we want your parents to have all the, all the knowledge they need to have the high quality care at home if you're home with them. All the way to if you're in your third career and you don't know where it's going to happen because the sectors of close that you've been in so people investments, place investment, we are coming out of a narrow time when we were just hunkered down with only a few people in our circles so those third spaces are incredibly important and planet health, I have been studying and thinking about sustainability and permaculture since you last saw me in the public forum and he have a lot we can do to include everyone in the next economy that is a healthy planet economy. Thanks. Great, thank you so much Don Ellis same opening statement questions to Martin, the rock you like. Thank you, Annie, you did a great job with my name so thanks. I believe the question is why am I running and why am I qualified to run so yeah. So, first of all, why I'm running is because I've been called to action this year for sure, living in Burlington as many of you know, we've been in a crisis for the last few years without a high school without a technical center. We had to pivot and sort of reimagine our space at an abandoned department store we were lucky to have it. But I this call to action really comes from the knowledge that we're living in a state with a lot of aging infrastructure a lot of aging schools. I don't want to see this happen in any other Vermont community. It was really, really horrible and I can tell you that many families struggled and many students struggled with the isolation of not being able to be with their peers with their teachers. During what was already a crisis a pandemic so it was a, you know, double whammy that we had going. I always really believe strongly that education is kind of an undergirding of our society it supports everything that we do. And, by the way, all of the items that we're talking about tonight all of these issues are incredibly critical to our society. But to me education is sort of this undergirding that holds it all up. So it needs an incredible amount of focus it needs an incredible amount of support and expertise. That said, I have worked in education for 30 years. I have been on the school board I'm a three term school commissioner in Burlington, and having spent some time at doing some advocacy works and testifying in Montpelier. You know just drove home the need for that kind of support and guidance in Montpelier that support to families and children, and I'm not timing myself so please give me a, give me a little not if I'm way over I'm good. You're on you landed you landed your mark. Wow. Excellent. Thank you. And what I learned, Martin and thank you for being so gracious about it as I probably should be repeating the question so I will do so for the next two candidates please forgive me Don and Martin. As an opening statement, I will shift now to air hard. Monica, please tell us why you are running and what experience you bring to the position, what will be different for the people of your district or the state as a whole, because you have been elected to this position, and what qualifies you to make those changes to happen, please erode monk. Thank you, Annie. And thanks to all my fellow candidates and to CCTV for hosting this and all the viewers out there really appreciate this time to talk about what I bring to the table. First, a little bit of background. So I've lived with my wife, Sydney in Burlington since the mid 1970s. There's two children here adult. They're now adults living out of state very successful. And we have two grandchildren. Both our kids went through the Burlington school system K through 12 it's been a great system until some of the problems that Martin just referenced and pardon my dog in the background but he's about to act up. And I'm from an immigrant family born in Germany. English is actually not my first language came over here fleeing fleeing devastation in Europe in the early 50s for a better life in the United States and I'm also the first in my family to graduate from college and actually came to study at EVM and have a master's from UVM. I have dedicated my professional career to public service I've worked for close to 40 years in housing in community development and municipal affairs. And first got involved when Bernie Sanders was mayor got involved in political activism, and in community community process was inspired by Bernie, and was part of group of community leaders back in the 80s that helped really transform Burlington into what it is today which is still one of the most livable communities in in the country and a place that we've been proud to call home for, like I said, over 40 years. I served as a planning commissioner. I served on the city council in Burlington. I did a stint as president of the of the city council. I've also for the last, well for 24 years worked at the State House as a State House advocate on issues around affordable housing and homelessness, and generally on poverty and low income issues. I also worked for 11 years as the advocate for the city of Burlington at the State House where I worked actually on a number of education related issues. I bring extensive State House experience to the table. And in this time of change with so many folks not returning to the Senate and the House I feel it's important to have that level of experience so that I could, for instance, hit the ground running when I get to the State House. I agree that this is an absolutely transformational moment in time in the state of Vermont's history. We cannot go back to business as usual, and my dedication my career, working and trying to bring about systemic change. I think uniquely qualifies me to help help write the next chapter for the state of Vermont. So thank you. Thank you so much. Tonya I will give you a choice would you like me to read the question again, or do you feel solid. Thanks. So I would like to introduce our fifth candidate Tonya Bihowski. Thank you so much Annie and thank you everyone for being here I'm running for Senate because we need to expand the voices that are represented at all levels of government. I want to make changes that will build stronger more just sustainable and resilient communities and serving as a state representative has affirmed to me that we have a lot of work to do. When I grew up in a single parent working class home, I did not see anyone like me fighting for what was important to my family, and working as a school and community social worker I see daily how this lack of representation does harm to Vermonters by creating systems that do not work for the people. As a state representative I have fought for the people of Vermont, many times, and many times I was alone in bringing the perspective of struggling Vermonters into the conversation. On the House Government Operations Committee I made sure that we included the voices of tenants who had been evicted in the just cause eviction charter change. I made sure that when we talked about expanding voting access through mail in voting and including ballot hearing that electronic hearing options were available so that people who simply did not have time to go vote again, could still have their vote count. And I passed Act 117 to streamline the mental health licensure process, require anti-oppressive practice education and develop a workforce development task force to expand and diversify Vermont's mental health workforce. And in my first session I stood boldly against a plan to gut teacher and state employee pensions, working directly with our teachers and state workers to protect their pensions. As a senator I will continue to be a strong outspoken and unafraid voice for everyday Vermonters who are struggling with the status quo. I will continue the fight for intersectional, economic, social, racial and climate justice. I know how the state house works. I've worked outside the state house developing statewide programs in the wake of tropical storm Irene and the opiate crisis as an advocate and as a state representative. I have the skills and relationships needed to hit the ground running and continue our fight for a stronger and more resilient Vermont that welcomes all of our voices. I know how to navigate complex bureaucracy while holding the multiple perspectives of someone who does grassroots community organizing holds elected office and operates a small business in a state that's more and more unaffordable each year. I've spent years helping individuals advocate for themselves both as a state representative and as a social worker, and I'm eager to continue doing so as your next senator. Thank you so much Tonya thank you all for your grace your integrity and your time that you took here today to introduce yourselves and in your opening statements. I'm going to move on to question to I will repeat the question for each candidate at this point I think it will be best from now moving forward. And so, I'm going to start with Don Ellis with this question. What are your specific priorities for the next biennium out of thousands of bills introduced each year. What is the most important piece of legislation the House can take up and why please don Ellis thank you. And I think my most important priority taps into the fact that I have done evaluation and assessment work across the country in the public arena where we're trying to help people but sometimes we miss the mark. One of the things that you see is one of the critical needs in our state is being able to tell how we're doing as we do things with our public investment. If we create laws, but they're not enforced. It's as if we hadn't created the laws at all. If we create programs, but they're doing more harm than good. That actually ends up worse for Vermonters and for our country, then if we had done nothing at all. And so the first thing that I would do in whatever committee and committees that I sit on is bring in the perspective of how are we going to measure how we're doing. We're going to put teeth into keeping people accountable to the purpose of the governmental program intervention policy, you name it, because that's a need throughout our state there's been a culture of where Vermont. We don't need to keep track of this because we're utopia, but it's not utopia. There are many times as the human rights commissioner that I am for the state that I've seen where we've gone awry. And so, however, and wherever I'm going to put accountability so that we are ensuring that our public dollars are helping are helping in the areas that we intend them to. And are improving over time and we're asking the questions of those programs, how do we improve so they'll be teeth that will be funding that'll be measurement. Thank you so much, Don Ellis. What are your specific priorities for the next biennium, biennium question for Martin Larocke Gulick out of thousands of bills introduced each year. What is the most important piece of legislation the House can take up and why. So, you've obviously noticed the theme here. Education is very important to me and having worked this year on the bill s 287 that passed the House in the Senate and also got signed by the governor I would work really hard to make sure that those student weights are implemented and just for those who might be watching and don't know what student weights are. You probably all remember back when Act 60 was passed around 20 years ago or so. The state had before Act 60 we had these gold towns and we had towns that were not gold. And we have these inequities in the way that we funded education at 60 really tried hard to level the playing field and provide an equal education to all of Vermont's children which is enshrined in our Constitution. In 2019 the legislature asked to revisit that that plan and that structure and specifically to look at student weights which is how various groups of students are funded. And obviously some students cost more than others high school students cost more than elementary school students for example to educate. So, when this combined study Rutgers and University of Vermont came together to put together their findings. It did show that these weights were just inadequate they weren't actually funding certain groups of students appropriately. So, it was really wonderful when the legislature passed as 287 and signed by the governor, but I want to make sure I want to ensure that the weights are implemented. So there's still, you know, things can happen over time. And I think it's really important that we keep our eye on the ball and make sure that those weights are implemented to provide equity to all of our students. I would lift up sorry I know you said one but boy, it's hard. I would lift the moratorium on school construction aid, and I would certainly also speaking of housing which I know is a hot topic I was in the BHC webinar last night with Airheart and Tanya. So many issues around housing that I'd like to speak to but I won't because I got your signal I'll stop. Thank you. Thank you so much, Martin. I appreciate that. I will be the same question for Airheart Monca. What are your specific priorities for the next biennium out of thousands of bills introduced each year. What is the most most important piece of legislation the house can take up and why. Thank you, Annie and Martin thanks for your work on that. I actually spent a bunch of time working on that probably over 10 years ago when I was the legislative liaison for the city of Burlington, it's been a perennial issue and not just for Burlington but other towns with a large proportion of folks that are low income and new Americans. So thank you for that. My, first of all, the single most important bill every year, pretty much is the budget, the budgets of moral document, and it states what our priorities are as a people as a state as a collective community. So the next question is going to be about budget so I'll not go too deeply into that but for me that's that's going to be the most, most important bill each each year that outlines the spending for the state. In terms of my priorities they fall in three kind of major categories. One is economic and housing justice. The second category is climate change and climate action and the third is social and racial equity. And I see your finger already. We got time. Well, I can talk more about each of those in the in the following questions but let me just talk briefly about housing. We are in the midst of the worst housing crisis I've seen in my over 30 years in working in housing and community development in the state of Vermont and given my background and experience I'm hoping to really lend a voice to that crisis and help help solve that. I'll pass it back to you any. Thank you, Eric. Tonya Vihovsky. What are your specific priorities for the next biennium out of thousands of bills introduced each year. What is the most important piece of legislation the house can take up and why. Working as a social worker what I know is that all of these issues are intersectional my platform is based on a holistic solutions to economic justice racial and social justice and climate justice. Before there is no one single most important bill we have utilized siloed solutions for complex systemic problems for decades, and it's only made those problems bigger. We need a holistic multifaceted approaches when talking about economic justice, justice, it is not just about livable wages, it's investment in affordable housing affordable high quality childcare. It is investment in paid family medical leave without these things we simply people cannot afford to live and work here. Racial justice is not simply about police oversight or removing school resource officers but about making direct investments in the businesses and ensuring access to the home ownership market and climate justice is not just about electric vehicles it's about clean statewide waterways protected for us local sustainable farming and investments in strong union jobs in the green energy sector and beyond. We're not going to solve 2022 problems with the same siloed solutions that made these issues as big and as complex as they are. We simply must look at intersectionality and how all of these issues play into one another. Thank you Tanya. Senator Baruth. What are your specific priorities for the next biennium out of thousands of bills introduced each year. What is the most important piece of legislation the House can take up and why. Well, it would be the Senate. The house is going to decide for itself. But speaking for the Senate. I've been somebody who's for the last 10 years, been working very hard every session every minute of every session on trying to reduce the problem of runaway gun violence. I feel what happens is you have an event like the event in Uvalde, Texas, and suddenly everybody brings it to their forefront of their consciousness, and then it drops away in a very bizarre fashion. And it doesn't drop away for me. Andy Hook. I had relatives and friends who lived in that district, and I decided I needed to do something here because presidential candidates from the Republican Party were using Vermont as an example of Nirvana because we had such weak gun laws. We did, but I just want to quickly run down for people, what we've been able to do in the last eight years. We passed universal background checks, a ban on high capacity magazines, a ban on bump stocks, red flag laws. We raised the purchase age to 21. In the last session we banned guns in hospitals, and we also gave explicit authority in domestic violence situations for police to remove those guns. So, we've done great work we're safer now but what I want to work on next session is called safe storage. Safe storage is requiring people, especially people who have children in the home to lock up their guns, so that they can't be taken by someone who didn't pass a background check, or who is too young to buy a gun. And that gun then being used to commit one of these horrific massacres. So, safe storage is something you'll hear a lot about if I have anything to say about. Within my sincere apologies we are here with general election 2022 Vermont Senate seat primary candidates for the Senate for the Democratic primary for CHI dash CT, we're going to move on to a question about the budget. And I'm going to start with Martin, the rope Gullick if I'm correct, I believe I am. Martin, the rock Gullick about regarding the budget, given possibly unprecedented revenue and expense challenges Vermont faces over the next few years. How will you propose approaching the budget. Is it important to balance the state budget and how would you do this. Yes, and you, I thought you might be struggling with my name so thank you for persevering. So, one thing that I wouldn't do and with all due respect. I wouldn't give a one time tax refund to citizens of Vermont, especially in an election year. I really thought that money, money that's taken from the Ed fund as a one time. Refund or rebate should be invested we have as we as we are all discussing tonight we have so many issues so many problems unprecedented housing crises and so on that to me. We need to be looking at investment and we a quick fix or a quick pat on the back is not what we should be looking at so that is one thing that I would, I want to say. I think we need to look at alternative revenue streams, such as expanding the cannabis market we've got to start there but I think that needs to, to grow. And I know that corrections are, we have one of the highest corrections costs in the state or sorry in New England. So I really think it's important that we look at why those costs are so high and look at alternatives to, to that situation. I do and I, Tony, I hope you don't mind me mentioning this but I thought last night you, you made a really, really good point at the, at the VHC webinar, which is that because we are in a crisis a housing crisis, looking at folks from out of state who have second and third homes and, and taxing those those homes and those investments or vacation homes whatever they may be, that is a way for us to provide some revenue in this time of crisis we need to be creative and look outside the box. Right so I'm giving you credit on that one Tonya thank you. And I think my time is probably close to up so thanks so much. Thank you, Martin. Same question for the budget is going to come to air heart Monica, given possibly unprecedented revenue and expense challenges Vermont faces over the next few years. How will you propose approaching the budget. Is it important to balance the state budget and how would you do this please and thank you at Monica. And yes, it is important to balance the budget. We, while we don't have a constitutional mandate to do that. We have always balanced budget and must do so. The fiscal states bond rating is one of the things that would be imperiled if we did not. So, what I'm really worried about. We've, we've had we're coming through and continue to have unprecedented unprecedented amounts of federal funds coming into the state through the cares act through our all of the coven relief dollars. And thanks to Center Sanders and Senator Leahy, we had 1.25 billion dollars in state and local fiscal relief funds, and they are making, allowing us to make unprecedented progress in a number of areas. But really we're playing catch up ball because there were so many different ways in which our state budget has been chronically underfunded housing being a primary example. So one of the things I am really worried about is when the federal dollars and how are we going to continue to sustain that progress and martin referenced a couple of things that I think we need to look at in terms of new revenues. I think we need to look at whether or not wealthy Vermonters are truly paying their share whether they can afford to pay a little bit more. One of the things I proposed a couple of years ago and was taken up at the State House, like to propose again is a mansion tax on homes that are above a certain square footage, and above a certain value. We should be adding a surcharge onto these luxury homes. And as Martin and and Tonya last night said, I agree that we should be looking at a vacant homes tax which would look at the second homes that are often vacant for most of the year. We need to increase our social spending and rebuild our safety net. And as Tonya mentioned before, it's all interconnected. And we really need to work at all levels of economic development housing and climate justice spending. Thank you, Eric Hart. Same question for Tonya of the whole ski. The budget, given possibly unprecedented revenue and expense challenges Vermont faces over the next few years. How will you propose approaching the budget. Is it important to balance the state budget and how would you do this. Thank you Tonya. Absolutely, thank you. The budget is the statement of what is important to us as a state where we make investments says to Vermonters what we value. When we look at the budget the very first thing we need to look at is what does Vermont need. From there we need to make budget priorities and make strong investments in those areas as has already been stated we have under invested in the people of Vermont and the systems that support them for decades. And we are seeing crises across sector because of it health care mental health care housing substance use, I can go on and on. And if we don't make the investments to lift those things up they will just continue to get larger and more expensive. And a balanced budget should be what we strive for there are times when we may need to bond we may need to borrow we may need to choose an unbalanced budget in order to make foundational investments that will pay for themselves over time and lead to a less expensive future. We have an opportunity with federal money to make those investments in the people of Vermont and what we know is that when the people have what they need. They are more resilient, they are stronger and they cost the taxpayers and systems less. When we have affordable housing, people can afford to work here which grows our economic base and so, starting from a point of what do we need, what do Vermonters need, I think is how we must approach building a budget. Thank you so much Tonya Vihowski. I have a question for incumbent Senator Phil Baruth on the budget, given possibly unprecedented revenue and experience challenges Vermont faces over the next few years. How will you propose approaching the budget. Is it important to balance the state budget and how would you do this. Thank you Senator Baruth. As Earhart said, we do balance the budget every year. It's a point of pride but it's, it's also a financial necessity, because as Earhart pointed out, the bond rating that the state enjoys which is a high bond rating would suffer dramatically if we were to miss that goal. Senator Jane Kitchell who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee would never ever consider a budget that didn't balance. So Vermonters are lucky in that way to have good stewards. The outgoing chair, Mary Hooper was also very, very careful about that. So, what I would say is, we enjoyed a huge amount of federal revenue, we still have some, but the bulk of it has been spent. And so we had a relatively easy time, putting the state's budget together this past year in that we could fund just about without robbing Peter to pay Paul, as we often have to do. So for instance, hundreds of millions for broadband, you know, tens of millions for housing raises for mental health providers and designated agencies and on down the list. But the really hard part where the rubber is going to hit the road. There is a projected recession, and our state economists have told us that over the next two years, that possibility of a recession goes up. So two years out is when they project we will have shortfalls in the state budget. So, part as it may be, you have to fix the roof when it's not raining. And so we have to try to have a certain amount of care that we don't spend ourselves into a future crisis. And I have one thing that I'll bring up later, which is back to Martin's point on the cannabis tax, but I'll get there in a minute. I appreciate that so much Senator Brewer. Thank you so much. And for Don Ellis, the same question regarding the budget, given possibly unprecedented revenue and expense challenges but not faces over the next few years. How will you propose approaching the budget. Is it important to balance the state budget and how would you do this please don Ellis. Thank you. Yes, it's important to balance the budget. That's what we do at the state level and yes there are exceptions that happen but they have to be extremely rare. And then they are investments in rebuilding after crisis after tragedy. It's different than the federal government. And so, taking that kind of approach and bringing my own small business background now the owner of two businesses one that started in COVID. We have to think about what investments government makes that actually make money. Because if we are dealing with a revenue problem. One way to tackle that is to really think about where have we missed opportunities, not just where are our issues and problems but where are the opportunities that we've missed, and they often have been in people who are not at the table. People who aren't represented by a bunch of professionals who are in Montpelier making sure their interests are well represented. And so, if I look at that I think, as I talked to people around the district and around the state. There are so many people who are like, This is the time that I want to start that business, you know I am, I am a person I've been working on my life I have this idea. I want to start this business, but they lack the little bit of capital to do that. Or, there are people who are still shackled by healthcare because although we've had healthcare reform. And so, one of the ways that we can still have gatekeepers and not a lot of choices for that soul entrepreneur. And so, one of the ways that we can make sure our investments in tough times matter is to help everybody who is working, who also wants to start a side job business or move into that business. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm, my mother raised me to be polite it's a hard, hard call for me to stop you all when you're speaking your mind so fashionately. I would like to remind the first of all thank you Don, and thank you all for answering these questions so nicely and for bearing so kindly with with me in this, in this forum. I would like to remind people that were seated here with the five candidates for the general election 2022 Vermont Senate seat primary for the state Senate Democratic primary for CHI dash CT. I would like to move now on to education, and I will start with air hard Wonka and regarding education, the legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. We need for changes to how we fund education, and how would you use your office to move changes forward please air heart Wonka. Thanks Annie and also thanks for that reminder just a quick reminder this is actually for the Democratic primary on August 9 coming up. So, we've done. We've been served well, all, all around by act 60 and by act 68 which have been in place since the mid 90s and the early odds in the case of act 68, and they've really achieved a pretty high degree of equity between between I know there's a lot of, there's some towns that have felt disadvantaged by that in the past but I would say generally, we've been served well by it. In terms of our education funding and creating really a world class education system for Vermont, one that both my adult children went through and have done really well by. I think that the system we've created is extremely complicated. It is hard to understand there's maybe five people in the state of Vermont that understand exactly how it works. And I do think that we can move towards a more equitable system that relies more on less on the property tax, and more on the income tax, which basically taxes people based on ability to pay. The best that we could to take a property tax and make it income sensitized and have a large percentage of folks in the state pay more or less based on their ability to pay but I feel strongly and have always felt strongly that if we move towards more of an income tax based system for funding education it would be more equitable and would be more based on ability to pay and those folks who are most able to pay who have the most would be paying proportionately more. That said, in the work that I have done at the legislature, I have always fought to maintain income sensitivity to make sure that lower income Vermonters are insulated from some of the cost of education that's born through the property tax, and I spent quite a bit of time saving the renter rebate, which helps low income renters and insulates them from some of the costs of of funding education our state. Thank you. Thank you so much. Over to Tonya view of ski education, the legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes to how we find education, and how would you use your office to move changes forward please Tonya view of ski. Absolutely, I believe strongly that we need to continue to shift our education funding model away from a property tax to an income based model. I was lead sponsor on h 388, which would have done just that. It would have moved the current property tax funding model to an income based funding model based on the Brock study completed by the tax commission. This does fund its education system in one of the most progressive and fair manners there's work to be done. Our current model is income sensitized for about two thirds of Vermonters with the largest share of the burden on working Vermonters to pay into our education system by shifting to an income based model that asks all people to pay a fair percentage. We can lower property taxes and ease the cost burdens on the lower two third of Vermonters, and by simplifying the tax system we would also be more immediately responsive to changes in income. Under our current model as your property value goes up over time you will eventually meet a point, likely retirement when your income will go down. And a model that is based directly on income is much more responsive to changes in in our income whether it be unemployment illness or retirement that shifts our ability to pay by making the model more directly linked to our income it creates a more just fair and transparent system. I will introduce another bill in the Senate to do exactly that to move us to a, an income based transparent and simplified education system. I was sad that we didn't do it all at once as we were looking at people waiting how we spend the money to also look at how we raise the money but I will continue to fight for that as I think it's incredibly important. Thank you very much, Tonya Behovsky. Moving on to incumbent Senator Phil Baruth, the same question about education, the legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes to how we fund education, and how would you use your office to move changes forward thank you, Senator Phil Baruth. I will repeat some of what others have said because using the property tax for education is horrible in at least three or four different ways, but I'll just talk briefly about one. So, if you ask the average person about, say the agency of human services, they have no idea whether that budget has gone up or down. They have no idea whether the people there are paid well adequately. Not well at all. But when you talk about education, everybody feels that they know the economic situation, because they're tracking one tax that they associate with education. And that's where ultimately the demonization of teachers and the whole education system comes in. So people when they see their property tax go up, they associated exclusively with teachers with the teachers union, and you get an entrenched kind of infected situation. And I think that's at the root of a lot of our political troubles. You know, in Vermont, if if you separated out the property tax issue, I would think there would be far fewer fights between the Republican and the Democratic parties, for instance. But what I'll say is, it is difficult to move from the current system which is income sensitized, and the majority is income sensitized. It's difficult to move to a completely income based solution because first of all, the change is disruptive but also income tax is not quite as stable as property tax. And those things have been used as impediments and reasons not to act on. But I'll just give a shout out to Anthony Polina, Senator Anthony Polina who's leaving the Senate this year. He has been a fierce advocate for this. And when I was chair of education, several times I forwarded his bills out of my committee to the Senate, and those reasons were the reasons it was allowed to die, but agree with everybody else that that's where we need to go. Thank you so much, Senator Bruce. Moving to Don Ellis, Don Ellis the same question regarding education, the legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes to how we fund education, and how would you use your office to move changes forward thank you Don Ellis. Thank you. Education at the state level is incredibly important while it's funded at the local level and we get support from the federal level, the state level really is the one that has the lever that can make or break how a system is funded. So, as a Senator, I'll bring the expertise I have degrees in education, education research across the country in looking at, you know, how are we doing with those dollars, because there are some inspiring teachers out there that struggle away with the resources they have. And there are some systems. And again as a human rights commissioner I see when it doesn't work, who are not meeting the needs of all the students with disabilities of all the students of backgrounds in terms of equity, and that gets lost because there's not a lot of transparency in education. And so at the state level, we can do more to delve deeply into, when is it working, and raise those ideas up high, and create the ability to share those solutions around and for the ideas that we do fund like the digital divide was something we could step into because we had virtual learning experiments going on, but I saw it shift over time during the pandemic. Students and families couldn't all of a sudden take the courses they wanted if their gatekeeper wasn't going to allow them to do that and that really suppressed the quality of education in the digital divide. So, I would use my role to bring in the accountability questions of where is it working where isn't it working, how can we incentivize it working better when it isn't working well. I'm recognizing the profession because it is undervalued. It is one of the most important roles in our society, planning for tomorrow by bringing our youth up with all the skills and knowledge they need for tomorrow. Thank you, Martine, so much. Oh my bad. I'm sorry, Don Ellis, thank you Don Ellis. I was so nervous that I get to Martine that I thank you Don Ellis for your statement regarding education. Moving on to Martine Lerach Gulik. The same question about education. The legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes to how we fund education and how you use your office to move changes forward. Thank you Martine Lerach Gulik. Annie, I just want to say you're being incredibly gracious. As board clerk on the Burlington School Board, I often have to cut folks off because we have a two minute limit on our public comment and I just pretty much blurt out your time is up so you're being very kind and you're doing a great job so thank you. I'm not sure I have all that much to add. A lot has been said. I'm a little bit loath at this moment to completely redo our education finance system just because I am so pleased with S287 and reimagining the implementation of student weights. But having said that, obviously, given the financial crisis that we've been talking about all this evening, it may be time for us to be creative and look at other ways of funding. I certainly see education as Don mentioned, it probably the most important investment that we can make as a society. In particular, I want to highlight the need to invest in technical education. This is a great way for folks to enter the workforce without taking unbearable burdens financial burdens because of college expenses and as Earhart said earlier I'm a first generation college graduate as well. And back when I went to school, I think, you know, tuition was maybe $4 or $5,000 a year it was affordable for a family that, you know, we were poor, and we made it work. So, having said that technical education is a great alternative, and I do believe that that is one area that we really really need to invest in and I know that Governor Scott has talked about that. Senator Leahy gave us a grant for $10 million to build an aviation site out at the airport, but also federal funding is critical we have a school in our city that actually has a dentist's office in it to provide dental services to our students that's from a federal grant. Okay, I saw that any I'm done. Thank you. Thank you, Martin. I appreciate your response to education Martin. Good. I'll remind her out to the public that we are meeting here today with a very important forum running for Vermont State Senate for the primary general election on August 9. This particular group of five is running for the Vermont State Senate Democratic primary for CHI dash CT. It's such an important forum that I am a little nervous and I am shy to cut you off when you're really giving of the service of yourselves to serve our state and it's with great respect I'm like I'm like I'm so respectful of the fact that you're all willing to do this very hard work in a very hard time. I will be moving on now to the topic of health care. I will begin with representatives of Tonya, he hopes key. And in regards to health care, Tonya, the increasing cost of health care is putting pressure on Vermonters and the state's economy. COVID has sharpened our focus on inequities in health care. What is next for health care changes in Vermont. Please be specific Tonya of the whole ski. Thank you so much. This is such an important issue to me health care is a basic human right in 2011 Vermont past Act 48, making healthcare a public good in the state and yet 11 years later we have not realized this. This issue is deeply personal to me as someone who has personally had to face making health care decisions based on finances rather than my medical need. COVID has showed us the flaws in linking healthcare to employment as we saw people across the state losing their jobs and their health insurance while a pandemic raged. It is well past time that we came back together and do whatever it takes to finally guarantee every Vermonter has the health care they need when they need it. Two possibilities that I know have been discussed in past bienniums are universal primary care and an idea of Dr. Dinosaur 2.0 or Dr. Dinosaur for all. I know we've also discussed regional compacts. The thing is is investing in single payer health care is a prime example of an investment that saves us money over time, both at the individual and state level. Instituting a universal income based fee to pay for universal health care will in order to finally realize Act 48 will be less expensive for the vast majority of Vermonters who pay thousands of dollars in premiums and co pays every year. Right now a full one third of our health care dollars go towards administrative fees and those costs keep rising and another benefit to the larger system for universal health care is a significant reduction in those administrative cost burdens. I don't know the exact path forward to realizing Act 48, but I know that we absolutely have to do it. I also know that we have a study out right now around health care inequity. And so implementing universal health care is not the only answer here because there are inequities within the system and so we need to take that information and implement that into all our health care fields. Thank you. Thank you so much, Tonya Bioski. I will move on to incumbent Senator Phil Baruth regarding health care. The increasing cost of health care is putting pressure on Vermonters and the state's economy. COVID has sharpened our focus on inequities in health care. What is the next for health care changes in Vermont. Please be specific incumbent Senator Phil Baruth. Thanks, Annie. I will say with reference to Act 48 and the promises that it made, I was one of the people in the legislature at that point, and I was incredibly optimistic. Governor Schumlin had brought on Dr. Schau to help us figure out a path to single payer health care. It was going to take a payroll tax to pay for it, but it looked like the benefits would far away what each person would pay. Governor Schumlin had a state of the state speech where he pulled out a card and he showed people this will be your card for for single payer health care in Vermont. That of course crashed and burned because Governor Schumlin pulled his support from it and no one's been willing to go back to that dream yet. But when people talk about how to get back there, the thing most often mentioned is universal primary care. So you wouldn't pay for everything in the system, but you would guarantee people a certain base amount of care. And then from that you would reduce long term expenses, because people are getting the preventive care that they need. So universal primary care is something I've been talking with people about trying to work with people on. The other thing I'll say in the little bit of time I have left is there is a nursing crisis out there in the sense that COVID made it far more lucrative for nurses to go on the road and travel then to stay where they were and care for patients at the hospital where they were employed. So we tried our best to deal with that last session. We tried to make a better situation for most nurses, and we tried to create programs that would do loan forgiveness and other things to attract nurses to the state. That's, that's a long term and a short term. Moving on to Don Ellis, Don Ellis, the same topic of healthcare, the increasing cost of healthcare is putting pressure on Vermonters and the state's economy. COVID has sharpened our focus on inequities in healthcare. What is next for healthcare changes in Vermont? Please be specific. Don Ellis, thank you. Thanks. This is really important to me. Upstream investment in health before we even need the healthcare that we're used to talking about is where I want my energy to go. Chronic disease, it's like diabetes, kill more people and have killed more people over time for a very long time. Then, momentary, even pandemics that we focus on, and yet they go under understood under policy solution. We can do much more by considering how the working family that has no time and no access to high quality food, or to the recreation time to walk with their children could have both. Access to the change in food and the change in activity level, access to our parks, access to the time to have to invest in your wellness could go a long way to those chronic diseases that cost us a lot. I imagine when we start talking about healthcare with me there, there will be a piece always that's talking about upstream housing is healthcare. If you are not getting snowed on, you aren't going to catch as many colbs. So, if we can make sure when we talk about healthcare we are doing everything we can with our investments to prevent some of the needs, then we start to help with the cost I think universally we need to have access, but it can't be monolithic access because I've seen healthcare uses a weapon in our state, and I've talked to providers who have been pushed out as we've centralized to the point that they can no longer do their business. People who know you best should be treating you close to home, if at all possible, universally, we need access. Thank you so much, Don Ellis. Martin Lerach Gulak, the same question on the subject of healthcare. The increasing cost of healthcare is putting pressure on Vermonters and the state's economy. COVID has sharpened our focus on inequities in healthcare. What is next for healthcare changes in Vermont? Please be specific. Martin Lerach Gulak, thank you. I appreciate that this question is focused on Vermont, but let's face it, this is a nationwide problem, it's a nationwide crisis. And I sense an overarching theme here, which is that our country suffers from greed and certainly corporate greed, and when you look at profits in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as insurance, etc. We're never going to get anywhere until as a community, as a state, as a country, we can come together and decide that we want to take care of each other. So, you know, that just needs to be said, first of all. I want to give a shout out to Vermont Health Connect. Last summer, unbeknownst to us, we had a young man living here who was uninsured. I'm certainly not advocating for that at all. But he did contact Lyme disease. He was working in the farming sector. And it was amazing to see the way our system works. It was very, we felt safe, he was taking care of, he was safe. And I just, I was very impressed because honestly, before that time as someone who is insured, I didn't know how the system works so that was fantastic. I am in favor of single payer. I think it's what we need to go to there is no perfect system. There never probably never will be but to me that is seems to be the best option that we have at this point for taking care of everybody from cradle to grave. Thanks. Thank you so much, Martin Lerak Gulak. Moving on to air heart Monica. The question is in regards to health care, the increasing cost of health care is putting pressure on Vermonters and the state's economy. COVID has sharpened our focus on inequities in health care. What is next for health care changes in Vermont. Please be specific air heart monk. Thank you. Thanks, Annie. And like others, I start from the basis that housing, excuse me, health care, as well as housing is a basic human right, and is something that we need universal access to I support my current boss center Bernie Sanders, recent introduction of Medicare for all at the federal level and as Martin points out, obviously, so much needs to be done at the federal level, in terms of reigning in the just the incredible pricing of prescription drugs that is just, you know, pop puts puts people basically in the poor house because they can't, they can't afford life saving medication. I am also was deeply disappointed that act 48 was abandoned during the shumlin years by the governor, the promise of that and fulfilling that in Vermont was enormous and it was enormously disappointing. When the governor backed away from from that. We're going a little more into specifics around our current situation. So right now, we have this entity called one care Vermont that has been looked at. It was supposed to be very innovative and rain in both health care costs, as well as increase access to health care specifically in Vermont and it does not look like it has lived up to that promise. So I know that members of the legislature have been looking somewhat critically at one care, and I would, I would want to take a close look at one care. Also, the husband of a retired nurse so I'm acutely aware of the nursing shortage that is that we're gripped by right now and really happy to see that University of Vermont Medical Center is going to be is providing a large and well deserved increase to our in state nurses. Last but not least I just want to say a quick word about interconnectedness and how housing and health care are interconnected homelessness is actually dry helping to drive. I'm so sorry I'm not very good at this but I have to be fair thank you so much for your passion and your statements are a reminder to those watching that we're here in a forum for the general election 2022 for the Vermont State Senate Democratic primary for ACT on August 9 2022. Moving on to the top of topic of accessibility, I will start with the incumbent field, Senator Phil Baruth, a vibrant democracy realize on widespread understanding of complex issues and participation by many. How can we improve accessibility to local politics at a statewide level please, Senator. Well, I will give Jim condos great credit for the way he handled our democratic functions and voting at, you know, all levels during the pandemic. It was a, it was a crazy time it was unprecedented. There were health challenges there were political challenges but we managed to get ballots out to everyone in the mail, and we saw big increases in our voter participation. So the number one detractor of vote by mail is Donald Trump, and he has made it an article of faith among his followers that voting by mail is insecure it's subject to corruption. And nothing could be further from the truth. This last national election that we had was the fairest and the most accurately documented in history, because we had nearly everybody using paper ballots. And that's one of the great things about both by mail is that it's inherently a paper ballot, and you're going to be able to track it. So, I absolutely think pandemic or no, we should go to universal mailing. There was a decision made not to mail ballots out for the primary. And I understand that because in Vermont, they would have had to mail all three parties ballots home to people and it was a great waste. And I think that's something that we should absolutely work on is universal vote by mail, early voting included, and have primary voting included there as well. We're, we're wonderful in many ways in America but we are a disgrace when it comes to the percentage of people who vote in national and local elections. If you go to India they have incredible participation. No reason why we can't and vote by mail is the way to do it. Thank you so much Senator Bruce on the top of topic of accessibility. Moving on to Don Ellis, the same topic of accessibility a vibe in democracy relies on widespread understanding of complex issues and participation by many. How can we improve accessibility to local politics at a statewide level. Please don Ellis. This is particularly related to the democratic functions of voting and serving it sounds like although access for me has been a career focus access inclusion how can we reduce barriers to every aspect of our society and participation in it and a lot of the principles remain the same. We can identify barriers that are accidental and move them and then identify barriers that are on purpose and be really hard nose and accountable to be like, no, we're not slashing tires here. No, we're not doing voter intimidation here. No, not in Vermont, not in USA. And so we have two kinds of different access needs and they take different sorts of solutions. We have to be with mail in ballots that time that we had them all, and we did not because I've been talking to people who don't have a regular place to live so you can't just mail to where you were 12 months ago, because you may be three housing situations later to have multiple ways to access but mail in was a good way to get balance in people's hands for some people, but with the mail being not so regular, we have to be thoughtful about what's the accountability now as a state we can press the federal government to be like, we must have a mail this is our country we must have a regular and accountable mail system. I think we should have had those primary ballots mail to us I was concerned when that was changed, because it's easier if you've got the choice coming to you. That said, I think there's a digital divide, and those folks who have the smartphone and can't get voter registered on the smartphone as I'm out talking to people they do it in two minutes. If you need paper, you still need to have access to your towns to do that so I believe, like healthcare navigators, we could have democracy navigators. Martin, the rock Gullick. In regards to accessibility, a vibrant democracy be lies on widespread understanding of complex issues and participation by many. How can we improve accessibility to local politics at a statewide level. Thank you any 100% vote by mail that needs to be standard practice. I am completely in favor of that. A quick anecdote in the 1980s my mother was a non citizen French Canadian immigrant living here and had a green card. She decided that she had to become a citizen so that she could vote against Reagan. So she was fortunate that she was able to do that she could speak English she could navigate the system and she was able to become an American citizen. I'm in favor of non citizens having the right to vote we have non citizens in our state who are incredibly important to our workforce they own small businesses they have families. They just participate in our democracy and in our society in so many ways. I think it's time that we give them the right to vote they are critical to, to the makeup of our country and and many of us are immigrants come from immigrants first or second generation and I just think it's very very important. And I'm, I'm, I applaud when you ski for their for their efforts. Thanks, I'm on failure. Thank you so much Martin Lerach. We like the same topic of accessibility moving on to air heart Monica for accessibility of vibrant democracy relies on widespread understanding of complex issues and participation by many. How can we improve accessibility to local politics at a statewide level please air heart Monica. Thanks any. I am going to wholeheartedly agree with everything that was said so far in terms of universal male male and ballots. Non citizen voting. I myself a naturalized citizen, I know it was one of the proudest moments of my parents life lives when they were naturalized and and able to vote didn't always vote the way I would hope but they were really proud to be citizens and to be to be voting. I'm going to take this just in a quick little bit of a different direction and talk a little bit about what I label as zoom democracy which is what happened during coven and the last two years and my hats off to the incredible Vermont legislature that figured out how to make its processes so open through through being online being on YouTube. Citizens in the comfort of their own home on their computer or on their phone can watch all the proceedings of the state house and inform themselves about what's going on and I think that needs to continue. If I were to be selected, I would also commit to making sure that our young people are more directly involved in in the process. Also, traditionally marginalized communities, especially people of color in Vermont have not always been at the table. And quite a few years working with the Vermont Center for Independent Living which is our premier disability rights organization in the state and their, their slogan is nothing without us, excuse me, nothing about us without us and to me that would inform my, my service as as a senator to make sure that folks were included and involved and and at the table. And lastly, I'll just say that I brought many folks with lived experience in through the many legislative days that I organized at the state house and have experienced doing this. Thank you so much their heart, Monica. Moving to representative Tonya V. Hobsky on accessibility, a vibrant democracy we lies on widespread understanding of complex issues and participation by many. How can we improve accessibility to local politics at a statewide level please Tonya V. Hobsky. Thank you. This is a deeply important issue as a state we have made important strides forward in expanding voter access with same day voter registration ballot curing and universal mail balloting for our general elections. And while there were significant concerns about this in last year's voting bill, I was able to amend in committee to have included a feasibility study for adding in primary and local elections to universal vote by mail. We also saw an increase in accessibility through the streaming of meetings and these things do need to continue forward allowing people to participate more easily and go back and access meetings after they've happened. In terms of local politics, this is largely up to each municipality. However, I would encourage charter changes that expand access participation and transparency things like resident voting and local elections expanded, expanding local elections to include younger voters, increase civics education in all of our public middle and high schools reasonable and livable pay for the work of sitting on town boards councils and commissions and providing childcare to those who are serving. These things as well as many other things will go a long way to expand access not only to who can participate in testimony but who can serve. At the state level one thing I have begun working on and plan to continue over the coming years is universal civics education standards for our schools in order to engage and educate our youth to be able to to feel fully prepared to be fully active and participatory in our democracy as I think this is incredibly important for moving forward with the many complex issues facing us. Thank you. Thank you very much, Tonya Bihovsky. Same topic. Nope, my bad. Thank you all for your comments and passion regarding accessibility. Moving on to the topic of racial equity. Don Ellis. Don Ellis Vermont pass some racial equity legislation in the past few years. Are you satisfied that the Vermont legislators doing enough to dismantle systematic and institutional racism in the state. Do you support reparations and apologizing for Vermont's role in slavery and systematic racism. Please don Ellis. So, Vermont is not doing enough, not nearly enough in the way of racial equity, and to add acid to it. We pretend we are. We don't want to talk about our state as if we are the most progressive, but what I have found in looking behind the closed doors, sitting at the State Human Rights Commission is we talk one thing. And when it goes wrong, we're doing another. And it is, it's, it's awful. While that that has been passed is a good start, we are missing holding the state accountable to inclusion at all levels, and to holding state government employees accountable to are you giving one kind of service in one instance and another kind of service when the person is of a different demographic. It's really not where it should be. And so with teeth with accountability with laws that we have that are modeled on federal laws in terms of discrimination, it will help, but it's not enough, because racial equity isn't a committee. It's a MI being brought up to believe that you and I are human and that we all have a place in the state as neighbors as people care about each other and so I think that comes to the education piece of it people will raise their families as they raise their families and they will fight for the right to do that however they choose, but we in our public spheres can hold the torch high of we believe Vermont is for all of us. And so there is much we can do to stop the abuse. Thank you so much. I'm going to Martin Leroc-Gulick, the same topic of racial equity. Vermont passed some racial equity legislation in the past few years. Are you satisfied the Vermont legislature is doing enough to dismantle system systemic and institutional racism in the state. Do you support reparations and apologizing for Vermont's role in slavery and systematic racism. Please Martin Leroc-Gulick. So, we're moving in the right direction but of course we have a lot of work to do. There's just no doubt about it. I am completely in favor of acknowledging our past acknowledging the genocide of our Native American peoples, as well as our role and, you know, our behavior of slavery. Frankly, we have to acknowledge it and we have to apologize. I don't really understand why folks can't embrace that it is empowering it would be empowering as a country as a people as citizens of this United States to collectively look at our past know that we had a hand in these atrocities. Acknowledge them apologize and move forward reparations would be great. I don't know what that would look like but yes 100%. And unfortunately, you know these issues are now being used by the right to to divide and to so you know just a venom in our society and it's very troubling. So yeah, in terms of here in Vermont. I do think we're moving in the right direction and I can say that some of the things that we've done for example, I'm in the Burlington School District as we set up a safety task force and we looked really closely at having police and schools. It was a task force made up a variety of folks in our community and they came together with again a collective voice coming from a variety of folks and cute including students. They recommended that we remove officers from our schools and I can say as someone who worked in education, especially for our new Americans and some of our students who were in refugee camps seeing an armed officer was very disturbing. And I will stop. Thank you. Thank you so much Martin Lerach Bullock. Same topic for air heart, Monica on racial equity, Vermont has some racial equity legislation in the last few years. Are you satisfied that the Vermont legislature is doing enough to dismantle systemic and institutional racism in the state. Do you support reparations and apologizing for Vermont's role in slavery and systemic racism. Thank you. Thanks, Annie. Yeah, no, we, we have a long ways to go. As, as Don eloquently put it, I mean I'm really glad to see that we finally apologized for Vermont's role in the eugenics movement, which did such harm to our Native American communities. I am really glad to see that couple of years ago, when Philip was chair of the Senate Education Committee, we passed a racial and ethnic studies bill that actually requires us to have a curriculum that honors the different ethnic and racial minorities within our within our state, and actually had the privilege of being able to testify on behalf of that bill together with my, my son, Zev whom you so kindly allowed to testify from his, his home in Baltimore. We also just passed a truth and reconciliation commission and I really look forward to the to the work that that's going to do. This is really personal. For me, I, the white dad of young African American man who's social worker living down in Baltimore and one of the reasons that he left the state is because he could not find the right role models and did not find a welcoming not and did not find his identity as a young black man until he went to a historically black university down in, down in Baltimore. And I want to make sure that as a senator I do whatever I can to make our state more welcoming so that we are not, as Don said, pretending one thing and then doing another. In terms of welcoming our black and brown siblings in the state. We also need to reform our zoning so that our local zoning is not exclusionary, which disproportionately people color. Thank you so much. Tonya view of ski. In the same topic of racial equity Vermont has some racial equity legislation in the past few years. Are you satisfied that the Vermont legislators, legislators doing enough to dismantle systemic and institutional racism in the state. Do you support reparations and apologizing for Vermont's role in slavery and system racism. Please Tonya view of ski. Absolutely thank you all the legislature did take some important steps we absolutely have not done enough and there is so much more work to be done racial inequity spans every system in Vermont, as well as nationally and until that is not the case we have more work to do. As a white woman with a partner of color, nothing was more eye opening to me than walking alongside him and seeing the racism in Vermont. While everyone has what they need feel safe welcomed and protected in our state and nobody feels oppressed, we won't have done enough. We need to take a hard and honest look at every policy we make listening to the people who are telling us over and over again that we have not done enough. And we need to make real tangible investments in equity, only with constant and continuous personal and structural reflection, reflection and centering of the voices being most harmed by racial inequity. Can we continue to move forward to a point where perhaps we will have done enough. It's critical that we listen openly to the communities being most harmed by racial injustice. We need to raise their lead, lift their voices and enact policies like reparations mandated regular equity training for all state employees organ and organizations that receive state funding, and all professions that have the power to do immediate social harm. One of the biggest disappointments to me is how little, little tangible action and investment we made on racial injustice. We apologized and we acknowledge, and now is the time that we must act to make actual change. Thank you so much, Tonya Vihosky. Moving to incumbent Senator Phil Baruth. Same topic of racial equity. Vermont passed some racial equity legislation in the past few years. Are you satisfied that the Vermont legislature is doing enough to dismantle systemic and institutional racism in the state. Do you support reparations and apologizing for Vermont's role in slavery and systemic racism please Senator Baruth. So, listening to everybody I think we're all strongly agreed that not enough has been done there's huge amounts of work left to go. But I do want to acknowledge, you know, over the last six years or so I would say, there has been a renewed and a huge amount of energy going into this issue in the state house so I appreciate Earhard mentioning the ethnic studies bill. That was something I worked on a lot. That's coming from the education sector, but we also created the Office of Racial Equity and Susana Davis is now the executive director there. She's got a portfolio to look at all of government in terms of systemic racism. We also this last session created something called the division of racial statistics. And what that is is, it's taking the racial disparities panel that we already had, but it's giving them the, the expertise and the backing of full time employees in government who will process the data, and to go back to one of dawn's major points knowing where we're doing well, and where we're not doing well. So, those things I think are are all to the good, but Earhard also mentioned the truth and reconciliation committee. It's something that we put forward with an estimate of $5 million for their work. And what they're supposed to do is in a broad based way look at eugenics racial disparities going back hundreds of years and associated problems, coming back to us with recommendations around things like reparations and changes in state government. Thank you very much Senator Bruce. Thank you all so much for your strong and passionate comments in regards to racial equity. We are moving on to the topic of gun rights. I heard in opening statements a lot of deep passion for this topic. I ask that you do your best to be succinct. Let's live within a minute 30 so that I can be the fair person my mother raised me to be. I don't feel that I am being fair let's all work together on this one to stick with the 130 and then we will really be sure that we are treating our fellow candidates with respect and our moderator and channel 17 and our viewers. In regards to gun rights I'm going to begin with Martin the rock Gullick. What is your position on gun control legislation. Do you think that there should be further legislation please Martin the rock Gullick. I know this is an issue that's very close to my heart my family's heart. We often think of folks being affected by gun violence as an as another as the other, but I am someone who has lived with gun violence my father was killed in 1994, who is a victim of a violent crime so I can tell you that it's, it's here. This is my neighbor, your friend, a family member. So I am in favor of some stricter gun legislation, I won't go through the list that Bill Baruth mentioned earlier. There's a lot that has been done. And I'm proud of some of the work that's been done red flag laws, etc. I think that we can do more. And I do want to reiterate, I grew up in Vermont I know that hunting is part of our culture and you know I'm not someone who wants to take guns away from hunters or farmers but you know, there, there's just a lot of work that we can do and again I don't want to go through the whole list but I am in favor of them legislation, yes. Thank you so much Martin Lerak, I'm sure I speak for all of us when I said I'm so sorry about your dad. Moving on to air heart Monica, in regards to gun rights. What is your position on gun control legislation. Do you think there should be further legislation. Thank you air heart Monica. And yeah I just have to shout out to to Phil for his leadership on this issue it's it's been. It's been great and we have made progress, like Martin my family has been hit by gun violence as well my son's older birth brother that he had just become close to I was tragically murdered in Philadelphia. We, and watching him go through that was just, it was just gut wrenching. So yes, I am a strong proponent of additional gun safety. There are more things we could do unfortunately the governor vetoed the first bill that would have fully closed to Charleston Charleston loophole this year. I get a veto proof majority in the house next stop next biennium and maybe we can bring that back and strengthen and build on the good work that's that's already been done. Like Martin I do not advocate for taking away hunting hunters guns but nobody needs an AR 15 really to hunt deer or bear or or anything. One other thing I'll add is other states have instituted buyback programs and I would like to see us take a look at buyback programs they've been proven to be effective in other states I know California. Governor Newsom is just recently unveiled a major buyback program and I think we need to look at that in Vermont. Thank you so much air heart manga and we're sorry for the loss in your family as well. Moving on to Tonya of the Hobsky, the same topic of gun rates. What is your position on gun control legislation. Do you think there should be further legislation please Tonya be Hobsky. Thank you as someone who grew up in a home with hunters and responsible gun owners and as a gun owner myself, and as someone who's also been personally affected by gun violence, I believe that we can protect the traditions of hunting and recreation well also in acting common sense legislation that helps keep our communities safe. I personally took many hours of professional training in gun use and safety but before becoming a gun owner to make sure that I had the tools to safely own store and use what can be a deadly weapon. And I don't believe that it is too much to ask that gun owners do this we ask people who drive cars to do it. Why not gun owners as well. I believe that we need to look at full background checks and expanding the time we have to get those back and fully closing the Charleston loophole there are plenty of things that we can do that are not reactionary policy on either end of the spectrum but are really truly looking at what is effective and will allow people to continue the traditions of hunting and recreation in Vermont, while also doing much more to ensure that our communities are safe and our students and teachers are protected from violence. Thank you so much Tonya be Hobsky. Moving on to incumbent Senator Phil Baruth on the same topic of gun rates. What is your position on control legislation. Do you think there should be further legislation please Senator Baruth. Thanks. This is, as I said at the outset, this is my number one issue and has been for the last 10 years. I will say that Governor Scott, ironically, has been a partner on this in that he's been willing to sign much more gun legislation than Governor Shumlin, a Democrat who was terrified honestly of signing a gun safety bill. He signed one bill in 2015 behind closed doors S 55 which Governor Scott signed he signed on the state house steps. I was there it was an ugly crowd. They yelled at him, they threatened him, and the governor spoke through it all and signed that legislation that's where we got my universal background check legislation into law was S 55. So, I do want to give him credit but every failure we've had has also been at Governor Scott's feet. So he vetoed many of the things that were in the bill we just passed as for two or three times. And I think one of those is a waiting period for firearms of 48 hours. That's the number one thing we can do to prevent suicide, because Vermont per capita has horrible suicide numbers by firearm. So, I want that 48 hour waiting period. And as I mentioned earlier safe storage especially in homes where there are children. Those are two things we can put on the governor's desk. And if he wants to veto both of them he owns it. Senator Bruce, moving on to Don Ellis on the same topic of gun rights. What is your position on gun control legislation. Do you think there should be further legislation please don Ellis. A gun is a tool. We have many, many tools in our society that can be used for good and can be used to harm. I consider this violence related policy, and I would take us upstream to take a look at where does violence happen. People to people in our state, when it's when it's guns it's domestic violence and suicide. And so we would look at how can we improve how we tackle domestic violence which is behind closed doors and for many years was considered legal. It still is under reported and under helped suicide. I would take it so that we have no longer got these long waiting lists for mental health care professionals there's high quality professionals there's accountability when they don't do the right thing, and that our borders are porous most of the states do allow you to see the professionals of health care in any of the region. Vermont has closed its borders and said not here so people go uncertain. We should not get to the point where someone is considering suicide, and has the opportunity to grab a gun or not. We need to go upstream in that awful awful place that people get. I have called a suicide line and gotten voicemail. I was calling for someone at that darkest hour. We can do better. We must do better. And with guns as a tool. I also see the opportunity for us to raise up people who are part of the food system of Vermont and have been forever. We have the hunters, the fishermen, we have the foragers. What if we were to raise them up and create more opportunities for people who don't have large backyards to learn how to use these tools well we could, we could create less divide about the tool and really focus on the violence. Thank you so much. Thank you for your thoughts on gun rights. I believe I have hit my mark for all five candidates on the topic of gun rights. The next topic will be challenging for you to fit into a minute 30 because it's two topics pushed together as one it's proposition two and proposition five. Great. I'm very sorry that's on me friends, I have been nervous to move along and I apologize for losing your time on those two last topics of the propositions and COVID-19 and three topics in citizen legislature. So let's wrap up for closing statements. Can you help me am I giving each person a minute 30 for closing statements. Let's go to one minute. I'm starting with, I think I'm starting with your heart. Am I correct. I'm sorry I'm panicking. Great. We're going to start with. I know we're going to start with your heart monkey in for a closing statement of one minute please air heart monkey. Thank you. Okay, well thanks, Annie thanks viewers thanks fellow candidates really appreciate this time together. So, just again, we are in a unique moment in time. We cannot turn the clock back we've got to move forward with the state of Vermont. I feel like I bring a lot of experience to the role of senator, I can hit the ground running. One selected will not need a lot of on the job training, having spent over 20 years on a day to day basis, working at the State House on issues for helping working families in Vermont, low income folks, people with disabilities, seniors, and also working on climate change, because as Tony pointed out earlier, it's all interconnected and housing is connected to just about every topic. I will hope to help alleviate our housing crisis through additional investments and through alleviating our housing crisis help with our mental health issues, and all our education and everything else that is connected to housing so thank you for listening and I asked for your support in your vote on August 9. Thank you so much air heart monkey. Tonya Vihowski closing statement one minute please and thank you. Thank you so much for hosting the this forum and for all the candidates and viewers who were here I am looking forward to continuing to ensure that we make space for all voices in Montpelier, especially those that have been traditionally under representative. I have this in order to make the foundational changes that we know that we need to build a Vermont where we all can thrive. I have the tools and the skills for my work as a social worker my experience as a young person who couldn't get my needs met, and who struggled to move back to Vermont and afford to live here and who still struggles to be able to afford living here I am a renter because I cannot afford to buy. I walk beside someone who regularly feels unwelcome in our communities and I bring those experiences and my experiences in the state House to build a more just and sustainable Vermont to center holistic solutions, so that we can finally realize a Vermont that is prepared resilient, equitable and sustainable that welcomes all of our voices and builds a Vermont that is for all of us and secures all of our futures. I asked for your vote for the Chittenden County Central Senate seat in on August 9 and I look forward to continuing to serve Vermont. Thank you so much Tonya V. Hobsky. Moving on to incumbent Senator Phil Beruth. Please, your closing statements for one minute. Thank you. I think the voters of this district have an amazing opportunity because 10 out of the 30 senators in Montpelier are not coming back. And it's a time of great change great new energy and enthusiasm. In the case of this race you can see there are exciting people who are on your ballot. What I will say for myself is that I feel that I'm at a position now to be effective immediately in bringing solutions to some of the problems we've talked about. I will commit to everybody here tonight including everybody on the screen, whoever is elected. If I'm a part of that delegation. I will do everything to make sure those people are brought in as quickly as possible and empowered as quickly as possible. So, that isn't always the case but I will make that my, my personal mission and make sure that this delegation is one to be reckoned with. Thank you very much Senator Beruth. Moving on to Don Ellis for closing statements in one minute thank you so much Don Ellis. Thank you. I'm Don Ellis. I believe in the best of Vermont, the best in all of us, and we put forward a high high bar of what Vermont can be and we have some of the most beautiful natural resources on the planet. Air, soil that grows. I would invest upstream so that we can realize those visions of our Vermont as a place for all of us at a place that attracts people from all walks of life that holds on to its people and shepherds it through. As you go from young to learning to forming careers, we need to be a place for all of us to be sustainable. If Vermont craze out. It's not sustainable. I will invest in people places and the planet with an eye of accountability, get rid of the things that don't work hold people accountable to the mission and inclusion. Are we missing places to bring everyone in through government, good government practice. Thank you so much Don Ellis. And for our closing closing statements. Team Lerach Gulick, please in one minute. Thank you. It's been lovely to share space with all of you and Annie you, you as well you did a great job and and the five other candidates. Thank you. You know just to reiterate, I, my focus is on education, early education, health care investing in people inclusion and equity and solving our housing crisis so these are things that I would focus on. If I were to be elected. I also just want to say there's never been a better time to elect a woman into our state government. And I, oh boy, I'm losing my. Okay. As you know, the Supreme Court made the radical decision and dangerous decision to overturn turn row versus wave. Women can speak to their bodily autonomy better than anyone and so I would love to see the one third of the Senate that is now made up of men. You know, I'd like to see some parody in the Senate and I'd love to folks for to vote for more women. Sorry, that was not as eloquent as I wanted it to be, because I'm losing my, my earphones but anyway, thank you everybody and that was fun. Thank you so much, Martin Lerach Gulick. Thank you all so much for sharing space so kindly with me. I appreciate and value you and your time. Thank you so much for the public watching. Thank you for tuning into town meeting TV ongoing coverage of local community candidates, budget and ballot items. You can find this and more forms at www.ch 17.TV. And I would honor before the second Tuesday in August, August 9 2022. Early voting by mail is available available by contacting your town clerk's office. The polls will also be open from 7am to 7pm on August 9 2022. Thank you all so much my respect and apologies for shortening your time but thank you all for being so graceful and have a great evening.