 Good evening and welcome to town meeting televisions continuing coverage of election 2022 November 8th is election day And of course you have the opportunity to vote between now and then you don't have to wait till election day You can send in your ballots. So hopefully you have not yet made up your mind or maybe you have about This particular district chitin in 24, which is s6. It's s6 district S6. Yes, exactly. And so we have two candidates We have an incumbent elisa black who's a democrat and roger dreary who's a republican and we welcome you both We let people know that you can give us a call at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 if you have any questions for the candidates We're very happy to hear them, but we've also prepared some which we have provided in advance So we're going to start with you. Alyssa just to start tell us why you're running for the state legislature And what qualifies you well? Hello. Good evening. Thank you for having us in today. I'm representative. Alyssa black I am currently serving my first term as a legislator It would just be an absolute honor for me to be able to continue into the next biennium during the past two years I've advocated and I voted in support of key economic recovery efforts for our state and take an action and Voted to ensure that we have a Vermont that works for all of us If elected again, I plan on continuing to build on the foundation that I have created continuing to listen develop continue develop relationships within the state house and Represent the values of our community. There's a number of really key critical issues that are on the horizon coming up issues such as climate action gun violence prevention housing Access to affordable health care and affordable child care And of course reproductive liberty and that's just naming a few I think our community will really benefit from having a steady now Experienced and thoughtful leader and someone who shares their values to represent them. That's why I'm running again for re-election Thank you, Alyssa black. Thank you Roger Drury. Tell us why you're running and what qualifies you for the position of state representative Lauren. Thanks for having us today Well, my name is Roger Drury. I'm a father of three boys all in elementary middle and high school I'm a 36 year veteran of the Vermont Army National Guard I have activated three times one in homeland defense right after the 9-11 attacks The second was in Afghanistan as an embedded trainer training the Afghan National Army and the third was as a Medevac company commander helicopter commander in Iraq so I've had some experiences with multinational work and of course a Homeland Security work I I offer my experiences in collaborative leadership for the for the voters of Essex and For this November, I don't have all the answers But I do promise to listen to multiple points of view before casting any any votes if elected And do you have any particular issues that are driving you to the legislature? There's nothing really particularly driving me to the legislature. I felt it was a Just the next step in my in my career of public service Okay, awesome. Well, let's start with the next question which would begin with you and that's about education The legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide I don't think we've ever stopped talking about how education is funding And so do you see a need to change the formulas how we do it? And how would you use the office to move that? education financing agenda forward Well, I think most Vermonters will concur that our current tax model is It's pretty difficult to follow and I am still learning a lot a lot of the ins and outs about it So I'm intrigued about a concept of moving to more of a income-based solution But I would want to learn more how it would affect the second and third over effects on on Vermonters on on the agricultural You know on farmers as well as folks who live more in the towns. I No matter where or how we choose a tax model for for the future I would like to see the legislature leverage a little bit more on alleviating Some of the administrative burdens that I that I feel are on our schools and help them reduce costs that way All right. Thank you very much Alyssa tell us your your approach to education financing and how you move it forward well first of all I believe that you know fundamentally we have a collective responsibility for ensuring equitable outcomes for all of our students and Moving forward on some of the work that we did in the legislature this year last session we updated the weights including significantly higher weights for multilingual and Students and those that are living in poverty the weights are You know, they acknowledge that there are certain students who are more expensive to educate And people waiting not people is pupil waiting. Yes And I think that in the upcoming biennium. We're gonna have to work on Tweaking refining all of the progress that we made last year I think it's just really important that we are creating our next generation to become productive and Successful members of our community it benefits every single one of us So we've created in Vermont a system of funding education that is actually really tax progressive however It's also really confusing and people don't understand it I did a three-day webinar just to be able to understand the basics of how our system of education is funded I am in favor of simplifying it and in we had several studies that were put in in this year and they'll be coming out soon one of those is Looking at income-based financing rather than property tax-based financing of our education system I'm really looking forward and interested in seeing that one come out You know, I also know and I trust that our committees on Education and ways and means are going to be doing Looking at this very hard and doing their due diligence on it And I look forward to the possibility of possibly moving towards that type of financing system Thank you. Well, let's move on to the health care question because again health care is the largest Budget item that we have in the state in many respects and whether it's our personal budgets or the state's budget And I wonder what you would like to pursue in terms of alleviating the cost of health care for Vermonters Well, I could probably spend the whole 30 minutes on this topic Can I do a real quick PSA as we're getting ready to go into open enrollment here? There are much higher income qualifications currently in order to be eligible for tax subsidies and Helped pay for premiums if in the past you have not qualified for these tax premiums Please please reach out to Vermont Health Connect Because most likely if you weren't in the past you are now so PSA over So I wanted to talk about health inequities a little bit during 2021 we established a health equity advisory commission and One of their charges is to provide guidance Coming up in the next year for our newly created office of health equity the commission is has been meeting and continuing to meet and Next session we will be working on moving forward with their recommendations We also have renewed partnerships with the federal government CMS Center for Medicare Medicaid services This is federal money that we are going to be able to use to provide More resources to Vermonters I mean including you know, we are receiving funding for wraparound services That are connected to housing, you know keep people in stable housing You know, I sit on house health care My overarching goal when I sit in that committee room and I listen to testimony I'm constantly asking myself is this equitable Are we providing the right care at the right cost in the right place and the right setting in the right time and You know, we talk a lot about what our values are And we say and we talk about what services and types of care that we value and I'm always questioning are we prioritizing these things in our budgets You know, if we say we value primary care or mental health care Where are they in our budgets? Thank you very much Roger jury, why don't you tell us your approach to addressing the inequities in health care and The financing model for the state Well, as far as the financing component goes I I don't have a lot of experience in how the state is funding their their health care. I do have I Have spoken with some some experts in the field I can't tell you that I can pair it back everything that they have told me but one of our our biggest challenges is The individual accepting ownership for their own health care and I'm not talking about Paying for it and I understand we've got some some solid programs that can that can truly help people What I'm talking about is heart disease diabetes Those types of Self-inflicted and I understand that some of it can be hereditary, but we are eating ourselves To death in this nation and we need to be able to provide some sort of incentive and whether it's Jim memberships or whether it's Just making sure that when someone goes to the doctor that they are truly Following their doctor's advice Those are the what I see and what I hear are truly driving up health care costs not taking care of people We're going to take care of people, but we've got to help folks takes an ownership in their own health All right. Thank you very much. I'm going to just remind people you can give us a call at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 That's 8 6 2 3 9 6 6. We'd love to hear from you if you have any questions for the candidates for state rep from Essex Criminal justice reform next question for you Roger. How does Chittenden County address crime in your view? Do you think there's a problem with policing that needs to be reformed and? Another very big question. How would you address community safety? I believe we've created Several no-win situations between crime and law enforcement right now with our present situation I believe we have well-trained police. I believe they're hard-working and Understaffed there's several reasons for that our politicians have created a situation where citizens do not trust the police and There are some Understandably reasons why but at the same token putting up rhetoric calling our police names Defunding them is not the right and proper way to address some of the problems that we're having. I support Excuse me while I support our police But we need to create a situation where Criminals understand that there are repercussions for their actions and I don't feel that in Chittenden County We truly have those repercussions now that being said I fully support restorative justice I think it's an important component in law enforcement as well as Paying back the community that being said we still need to trust our police and keep them well resourced All right. Thank you very much Listen your response to the question about community safety and police reform. Yes, this is one of those questions You get and you think oh goodness So one thing you learn immediately when you enter the legislature is you can't be an expert on everything I am not an expert on this But I am really really fortunate that I serve with four other absolutely remarkable women as part of our Essex delegation And we rely on each other a great deal to be able to represent all of the constituents in our community and Utilizing the strengths of each of us on this issue. I rely on a representative Karen Dolan This is her issue. She guides me on this. I trust her on this You know in Chittenden County, I think we're very fortunate every county is different But we have a really large toolbox in to address crime Restorative justice like you mentioned with drug courts, you know the traditional sentencing court diversion probation Having all of these tools are really essential Because crime is a really complicated issue the overwhelming majority of crime is nonviolent and It's really rooted in You know the gaps of care that we have in our communities Poverty mental health just inequitable system access We need to address crime and community safety by filling those gaps and Creating a more equitable system of justice. Thank you very much All right, our next question has to do with the ballot issues ballot questions One is proposition two and the other is proposition five What's your position on those two and maybe you could shed some light on what they are just as a matter of public education So I fully support both these constitutional amendments Proposition five Will enshrine reproductive autonomy health care in our constitution Proposition two clarifies Remove some ambiguous language. That's currently in our constitution around slavery So I Will tell you I remember The day that I voted on prop five I remember waking up in the morning and just sitting with my coffee and this, you know, the enormous weight and responsibility of my vote on this and What an honor it was to cast that yes vote I just kept thinking For evermore that house journal is going to say Representative Alyssa black of Essex votes yes It was this enormous feeling of pride and I Wish that every single voter that walks into that voting booth or fills out your ballot at your table is able to sense the same amount of pride that I Was able to feel when I made that vote on the house floor Enshrining reproductive liberty and the removal of this ambiguous language and clarifying Slavery related language from our Constitution is absolutely essential and I encourage everyone to vote yes on Both these constitutional amendments. Thank you very much Roger Drury your positions on proposition two and proposition five Well, my position truly relies on on the Vermonters The vote will be in the Vermonters hands. It won't be truly in Roger Drury's hands That being said I've done a little bit of analysis on it and as far as prop two I Agree with you. I think it does remove some ambiguous language. I've read a few essays on it And I at first I won't pull any punches I was very concerned that it would affect our restorative justice programs where it wouldn't allow for community service Some of the essays have come back and said that won't be the case because it's a mutual agreement So I can get fully behind prop two and and remove that ambiguous language prop five I Disagree with it Hold hardly. I'm concerned that an amendment that is designed to protect abortion Does not include the word abortion in it at all and it enshrines itself in reproductive liberty It's not defined. It's leaving it up to the courts to define and the legislature I feel did a punt where they could have simply said We want to enshrine abortion and the legislature will make no laws Restricting abortion. They didn't do that. They chose the language very specifically. So it would go to the courts I don't know where that would come out of but I don't think that that's something the court should be Handling personally I am a pro-choice Republican, but I am against prop five All right. May I respond just a little bit? I just want to clarify something. It is really important for people to understand You know the language of preposition five or article 22 These rights are already in statute what Changing what adding article 22 to our Constitution does is it takes it out of the hands of future fickle legislators to Remove and do strike calls from our statute That is why we are putting it in our Constitution. It changes nothing from what Current law is it just makes it so that current law cannot be changed So can you just clarify without going through another constitutional amendment? Yeah, so the the proposition doesn't mention abortion Can you just talk a little bit about Why that it removes the government from the decision-making around reproductive health it is a decision between a Family a woman her husband her partner it is a decision between healthcare providers and that person it removes it from governors and legislators and Courts or anything else That's what it does Just the last line in the proposition says unless otherwise deemed by the state So the state is retaining the ability to make changes as it see fits for the for the fickle for the fickle legislators I trust the people of Vermont to continue to vote in legislators To uphold their values. I don't believe we need to add this ambiguous language in it All right, let's move on to the next question. Shall we? Language access what is the value to Vermonters and supporting language access to information about health local government and Education issues Roger I Think it's an incredible benefit to make sure that new Vermonters can have access to services So I would I would support it in many ways as feasible and reasonable You were telling me just before the interview some of the ways that you guys are taking care of it I think that's absolutely wonderful. I Do think it's equally important though that we provide English as a second language for those who would like to like to take it Mike's experiences in Afghanistan were were kind of Unique and fun where we would have we would work through interpreters and our interpreters had Every good intention to trans translate as best they could But as Americans we sometimes would use some idiomatic expressions that just did not translate well And there is a there's a benefit to being able to to speak the local language Then that's not it. That's not a dig I just want to encourage and figure out ways that we can allow that to happen So you mentioned that you're translating into 16 different languages. I Barely speak English I'm gonna have a hard time speaking with with Vermonters or Essex constituents who can speak You know another language than myself But if they have the ability that we can at least communicate somewhat and through Google translate or any other Options I would love to see that happen. All right. Thank you Roger Alyssa So language access benefits absolutely everyone and I have learned over the last two years So at the beginning of the COVID outbreak in multi-lingual communities the health flyers Press releases press conferences. They were only in English I mean there were entire families that lost their income our health department and our hospital resources Were incredibly impacted by this and stretched Because there were entire communities that weren't receiving the information People got sick people died because of this I Personally worked on a bill in 2021 to expand access to Dr. Dinosaur for pregnant women and children Regardless of their immigration status We allocated money for coverage in the first year for that the problem is it wasn't utilized Because there was no strategy to be able to communicate it to the affected populations. I Mean there were women who could have had coverage for their premenatal care and they didn't get it And it's not just languages This year the health care committee did a bill on expanding coverage for hearing aids While we're taking testimony, we realized that the deaf and hard of hearing the very community that we were trying to help They couldn't be at the table Based on the current setup we had for communication We thought we were being accessible by being on YouTube, but if you can't hear us that's not accessible We ended up bringing in sign language interpreters. That was that was actually a lot of fun So, you know, I mean when everyone has equal participation in our government our schools The health care system it absolutely benefits everyone if we can ensure that every voice has a seat at our tables Thank you very much We're gonna go do the lightning round So, Alyssa, why don't you tell us what your top priorities are for the next biennium? We have 30 seconds So if re-elected my top two priorities that I personally am gonna be working on our gun violence prevention and suicide prevention I actually am already already working on these things in anticipation and Hopes that I'm re-elected very good. Thank you Roger. How about you? If the speaker of the house provides me the opportunity I would love to work on encouraging emerging emerging technologies into Vermont Our citizens truly care about the environment and I would love to capitalize on that to see how we can do anything from Hydrogen generation to some of the the high-temperature salt storage for for energy I'd also like to see us Working more on encouraging more more housing development The median income in Essex is 77,000 You know if you use Dave Ramsey's model of 30% expenses for housing and taxes. We're looking at Mortgages of about 275,000. There's not few there's not houses that are 275,000 in Essex We need to figure out ways to reduce those costs and get those houses built. All right. Thank you So let me ask you this on COVID-19. What are your top takeaways on What you saw enacted during the pandemic either improvements or things that you learned that you think should be brought forward into policy I think we witnessed an incredible state response in in getting multiple resources to bear from the food support To the financial support to just the the messaging. I think I think our state did a very good job They got to put a plug in for the Marami National Guard and the Vermont Air National Guard for the efforts that they did for immediate action response and for building that secondary hospital over at the fairgrounds the That being said, I also know or believe that truth has a date time group And as we as we learned and we as we learn more about this disease I think that we could have done a little bit more to open our economy in our school system sooner But that's using hindsight. All right. Thank you very much. Alyssa Black. You're learning take away from COVID Oh, well my my biggest thing was the benefits of telehealth for health care access mental health care access that has been incredible Also, you know the need what we just talked about the need for language access and That we've also had this incredible transparency in Governing with zoom access I mean, I am on YouTube every single day when I sit in committee and that will be there forever and ever and ever For anyone to watch at any time that they want it will be if they are private properly. That's true Quickly we have one more of these opiates and addiction. Do you support safe injection sites in Vermont and Chittin County? Yes, absolutely. I do I support Anything that will lead to less deaths. All right, Roger. How about you? I do not nations and other states that have tried this are pulling back on it. It's a failed model. Okay, so why don't we? Go to closing statements. Oh Yeah, I know we're two minutes left So Roger we're gonna start with you if you don't mind Roger Drury Republican candidate for state representative and Chittin in 24 Well, I'd I really like to thank you and the rest of the channel 17 staff for for having us over here today This has been an incredible opportunity. I thank Alyssa for her time We're not going to agree on every issue There are multiple issues and lots to learn that are about this the whole processes But I do promise that I will always listen and take multiple points of view and account before making any decisions Looking forward to the opportunity. Thank you so much Alyssa black you're closing comments. Yeah, and also I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to allow us to come in and Roger For being here. It's always great talking with you You know, it has been my greatest honor to serve as a representative I mean, frankly, it is one of the most important things that I've ever done in my life and I hope to be able to continue to represent our community our values in Montpelier I'm humbly asking for your vote on November 8th or beforehand with your Malin ballot and I want to really be able to continue the work that I feel like I'm just getting started on Wonderful, I want to thank you both for joining us. This has been very interesting I love doing these forms and I appreciate that you're both here tonight Alyssa black as a Democrat and she's an incumbent and She is running for re-election Roger Drury is a Republican and he is that challenger and we are talking about today the district 24 it's hard to imagine that there's so many districts in Chittenden County But there are and we are also wanting to encourage you to be sure to vote on Or before November 8th and of course to tune in to town meeting TV's continuing coverage of all the candidates in Chittenden County And also election night results on November 8th starting at 7 30. So thanks for watching. Have a great evening