 Major sponsors for Ableton On Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton On Air include The HOD of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, The Orthodox Union, The Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, The Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Roosevelt Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Ableton On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton On Air is part of the following organizations, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton On Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the different label. I've always been your host, Lauren Syler. And on this edition, before we get to our guests, Mayor Anne Watson and her senatorial bid, let's thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the partnership of Division for the Blind and Vermont, Association for the Blind and Vermont, and today our partners are the, one of our partners is the City of Montpelier, Vermont. We would like to thank Anne Watson, Mayor of the City of Montpelier for joining us again on Ableton On Air. Welcome to Ableton On Air. Well, thank you so much, Larry. Okay, so tell us more. You're going to be running for senator, and let's start there. Why the Washington District? Why did you decide to expand and become senator, or wanting to become senator? Well, yeah, so the Washington County District has three senators, and one of them recently stepped down, Anthony Polina, and I have been thinking about making the jump to working at the state level, in the state legislature, and just knowing that Anthony was stepping down, it seemed like the right moment, seemed like the right opportunity, and especially because I'm really passionate about a lot of topics, one of them being climate action. I've been able to make a lot of progress with the City of Montpelier, but we need bigger change, and in order to make bigger change on the issue of climate, I need a different seat, so I'm happy to be putting my name in for the Washington Senate District. Talk about the bigger change that you want to make now. Obviously, being mayor is a big responsibility, even though we're in a small town, but explain the bigger change and bigger responsibilities of that you want to make. Yeah, sure. Well, so I just mentioned climate action, so certainly being able to assist folks particularly who are renters in being able to make changes to their spaces, ideally without having rents jump up, that's going to take state support, I believe, to weatherize buildings and do some fuel switching, particularly for renters to get folks out of fossil fuels and carbon-based heating systems. So that's one thing, but another thing that I am very interested in is healthcare. So I don't get to do a lot of work on healthcare at the city level because that's not within the jurisdiction really of what the City of Montpelier can do and what we can affect, except for offering our City of Montpelier employees good health insurance. But beyond that, we don't get to really affect the policies that govern it. And so I think folks know that there are lots of ways that our healthcare system could be better. Weight times are significant right now, so we need more... Weight times in hospitals? Sure, in hospitals to be seen at all. So we actually just need more doctors and nurses and healthcare facilities to accommodate that. We need to make sure that prescription drug prices are not exorbitant. We've been able to put caps on the price of insulin, for example, but that needs to happen for a host of other types of prescriptions. And yeah, I mean, ideally my goal would be to work towards universal single-payer healthcare and... What does that mean? Yeah, what about that no copays on medications? I mean, I think that's something that we can certainly look at. I think what's tough is when the copays are significant. Or if the prices for prescriptions end up... If the amount that the insurance company is paying is not enough to cover what would be an exorbitant cost for the person who needs the prescription. So that's... Yeah, those are things that are absolutely on my radar. And yeah, folks should be paying... Hospitals should have one price that they pay for a certain type of procedure. And right now that depends on the type of insurance that a person has. There's a lot of issues that I think can be addressed. Yeah. Let's talk about... Before we get to our next question, let's talk about the issue of gun violence. Yes, yes. Recently, Ableton, we've had Senator Rebecca Ballant on talking about that very issue. What your stance on gun violence and how do you see it in your stance in wanting to become senator? Yeah. Well, thank you for that question. I, as a teacher, have been through many lockdown drills and active shooter drills. Lots of trainings on what we can do in my own classroom should an active shooter be a possibility. And we even had, at the school where I teach, we had a shooter on campus. It didn't end up... That must have been kind of scary. Oh, it was very scary. It was very scary. I mean, that whole situation was just very sad. But I will say that it is not a solution to have teachers just doing drills. That's not enough. Okay, since you said that, a lot of states want to give teachers guns. Yeah, no. As a teacher, I do not want a gun. I think having more guns in classrooms... Yeah, I don't blame you. Yeah, I think that just increases the risk of accidental shootings and increases the risk of violence, particularly against historically marginalized students, students of color, LGBTQ students. So that just seems like all kinds of a bad plan. Are you still going to be remaining a teacher even as you become a senator? So I realize this is a little bit of a diversion, but yeah, if I am able to become a senator for the Washington District, I would teach for part of the year and I would have a long-term sub for a part of the year. But we'll make it work. But coming back to the question on gun violence, I'm absolutely for stronger gun safety legislation. I think there's quite a few kinds of laws that we could be and should be adopting. I think about banning the online sales of guns, increasing the age for purchasing guns, mandating safe storage, things like universal background checks, waiting periods. Because now that, here's the thing, with guns and I also discussed this with Chief Pete, ghost guns are a problem. What a ghost gun is, if you have access to a printer that prints 3D models, you can print the gun and then go on Amazon and get the parts for the gun. And then it don't have serial numbers, it doesn't have data and that's a problem. Your online sales of guns, are you going to do something with that as well? I think that is absolutely worth looking into. I think that's a tough thing to try to regulate just because of the nature of the availability of those kinds of files. But I think we ought to try. I would be interested in working together with experts in that field to see what can be done. What is your stance? Did you want to start asking questions? What's my take on abortion? Yes, and did you hear the news today? Yes. Oh my gosh, that was just gut-wrenching to hear. What is Vermont going to do with legislation and senators? There's actually a reproductive rights, a reproductive liberty bill, Proposition 5, that is going to be on the ballot this November. The public will have an opportunity to weigh in and I hope that folks pass Proposition 5, which would protect the reproductive liberties of folks. That is a step towards a constitutional protection for people's right to an abortion and abortion care. But I have just my heart breaks for the folks around the country that are losing their access to abortion care at this point. And the laws become more stringent. For example, what if someone is raped? And then also the laws become more stringent. What if someone is special needs and can't think for themselves and needs a guardian? If their age, I should say capability, if they're an adult, but they think as a child, for example, if they're lower functioning, what happens to them? How does that abortion rule? Yeah, absolutely. It's so tough. I was encouraged to hear that there may be more access, since Vermont has protection of abortion care in this state, that folks are potentially ramping up telemedicine, which I think is going to be really important. Particularly to help folks in places where they may not otherwise be able to see a provider. Anyway, tough, it's a hard day here in this news. Go ahead with more of your questions. Can you repeat your question? Condoms, you mean... Elementary school. Okay, I'm going to repeat the question. Since you're a teacher and you're wanting to become a senator, what is your take on children wanting condom, or I should say elementary schools now, they're going to be having condom machines or teaching kids more about sex and that kind of thing, and the laws in terms of that. Yeah, no, I take the approach that we should be providing safety measures. Sorry if that threw you off. No, it's fine. I think making condoms available to kids is important. Any... I mean, making them available I think is fine. So, you know, if the sex education at younger ages I think is done in a developmentally appropriate way, I think is fine, yeah. Now let's get to your stance on the environment. Yes. Okay, and other things within that. Go ahead. What is your stance on the environment as it stands now as mayor and then what are you planning to do as senator? Yeah, well, so the main driver for me in being in politics at all actually is addressing climate issues. So, we know that climate change is happening, global warming is happening, it's not in some far off distant time, it's happening right now and it's an emergency and we need to be acting boldly and significantly basically as soon as possible. So, I am proud of the work that the city has done. We've actually been able to reduce our total energy consumption since the time I've been on the council and at this point we are sourcing about 40% of the municipal operations energy and renewable sources, which I am very encouraged about. But we need more help, especially if we are going to hope that the community at large is able to transition, especially for those without the authority to make decisions in their own homes, thinking about particularly renters, as I mentioned earlier, and also thinking about our transportation sector. You know, we have, of all the sources of carbon emissions from our society, from Vermont, transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gases at this point, so we need better transportation solutions as well. Yeah, so, I mean, this is, I realize it's just one aspect of the environment, but you know, I think that also, you know, we need to be paying attention to what's happening with PFAS, which is an emerging PFAS. Well, so it's an acronym for a type of chemical that is unfortunately toxic at very low concentrations and cancer causing. It's pretty pervasive. It's actually, when you think of like Teflon, it is Teflon. And certain things, for example, we talked about lead and other things, like years ago, a lot of people became learning disabled, learning a challenge, I should say, because of the, I don't know if you remember, I don't know if when you were a kid, you ate or bite on a lead pencil to do that? Well, I knew a lot of kids who would chew pencils. Yeah, right. But I know we're not doing that today. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What is your stance on like, well, lead paint they don't really use anymore, but asbestos and all that kind of thing. Right. Well, so a lot of homes. Go ahead. What are you saying? Yeah, noise reduction and all that. That's part of the environment. Oh, part of the environment. Well, let me speak to the asbestos part first. A lot of homes are in Vermont have still asbestos in them. And yeah, yeah. Well, the idea is that as long as it's not airborne, then it's probably fine. So you just leave it alone. But especially if homes are going to be really thoroughly weatherized, that it's got to change. And so I think, you know, folks need greater support in terms of being able to remove the asbestos from their homes. That's not a small task. But that's certainly on my radar. And then as far as noise pollution goes, I think about things like, well, so in Montpelier, we have a noise ordinance. But one of the things. What is that? The noise ordinance? Yeah. So yeah, it's between certain hours of the day, basically at night, noise of a certain decibel level is prohibited. But there are certain exemptions. And one of those exemptions. I think this might, yeah, I guess it's not. I think it is during certain hours. But anyway, one of the exemptions is things like lawn equipment. And so Burlington, just as an example, has done away with the exemption for leaf blowers, because electric leaf blowers are much quieter. And I think we can be making some progress on that as well, especially now that electric options for lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed whackers all exist and are just as effective but much quieter. I think we can think about repealing some of those exemptions to say that this is not acceptable noise. What is your take on, now, there is a lot of low income housing. There is a lot of people that are homeless, possibly, in Montpelier. Yeah. What is your take in the Washington County District being the factor you're running for, Senator? How are we going to deal with that? And also, as of this week, there was a big situation on WCAX with the college being up for sale, a college in fine arts, and the extra space. Go ahead. Oh gosh, I have so many thoughts on this. So one of the things that, I don't know, no, it's great. Well, so I know that the legislature did just spend a lot of money on housing in the last budget and that is very encouraging. I would love to see us continue to support additional funds for housing and particularly going towards home ownership because a lot of Americans build their wealth through owning a home. And so as much as we are supporting rentals, that's great, but it mostly ends up building the wealth of landlords. And so if we can be supporting home ownership that helps spread out the wealth, that's a good thing. I think the state needs to be doing a better job in terms of supporting services for folks experiencing homelessness that has, I think, fallen by the wayside too much. And there's a lot that can and should be done to support folks that are in that situation right now. I also, just in thinking about how we can make it easier to build housing right now, particularly because just even building housing in this economy is very expensive. And food is going up, too. And food is going up. I'm actually really worried about the oil prices for those who are stuck paying fossil fuel. The what? Oh, baby formula shortage. Yes, and I've heard that that is coming, that it's getting better, which is good, but oil right now is really high and I think that's going to be really expensive for folks this winter. And so I hope that folks that are able to make changes to get off of oil are able to do so soon. Because this is all the ways of heating your home. Absolutely. Repeat that again. There's a mustard shortage. A what shortage? A mustard. Uh-oh, online there was a mustard shortage. What? Really? I did not hear about that. Oh, my gosh. That's another mouth. But let's also talk about the pandemic. Before we do that, just bringing it back to housing real quick, one of the things I'd love to see us do is make it easier to build in downtowns and especially downtowns that have zoning already with good environmental checks on that. If a town, for example, like Montpelier, has good environmental checks in their zoning, then I think they should be exempt from... What's an environmental check? Oh, so, you know, thinking about stormwater and, you know, environmental impacts, that kind of thing. They should be exempt from Act 250 in the building in the downtowns. Because, for example, back in 1982, and I've done research, 1992, Montpelier had a horrible flood where the bridges were broken, other things happened and people got flooded and people were using rafts to get to work. Hopefully nothing like that ever happens again, but what is going... How is the city of Montpelier prepared now for something environmentally... Yeah, so we do have an emergency management plan that lists the resources and basically procedures that would happen should we find ourselves in an emergency like that. But we've also since then taken some measures to help prevent that kind of flooding again because that was caused by an ice jam. And so we... A nice jam, explain. So in the spring as the river starts to thaw, you know, there's a layer of ice at the top that starts to flow, but as that ice flows, it might get all jammed up, might get packed together and then cause flooding behind it. So we have some measures to help prevent that at this point, which is good. But you wanted to also talk about the pandemic. Yeah, the pandemic is for the environment now. During the pandemic, the city of Montpelier lost some people or furloughed some people in terms of employment. Now the situation is price gouging, talking about things going up. Are you going to work as district senator to maybe talk to business owners about how not to price gouging? Or are we going to work on that? Because toilet paper went up, food went up, detergent is sky high and it's just soap. Yeah. So I think your question has some layers there. I'm sorry. It's okay. For example, price gouging at gas stations, for example, that's illegal. That's not supposed to happen. Now, are companies allowed to make profits and unregulated profits on their items? Yeah, sure. That feels immoral, especially when it's the kind of product that people need. But I think they're... And then on top of that, the supply chain issues that we're experiencing anyway. How is the supply and inflation... Is it changing at all? Well, so I couldn't say specifically. I don't know if it's getting better. But yeah, interested in keeping a thumb on that to see how that's going. Because ultimately, folks need to be able to afford essentials. And when you're on low income, it's hard to afford... If a person is on low income, for example, it's hard to afford the basic necessities of life. Yeah, absolutely. Now, go ahead. Do you want to ask any other questions? No, not like that. Okay, I'll continue. City of Montpelier, how are some of the services getting better with City of Montpelier as a whole, as far as you being mayor and the council? Yeah, that's a great question. So during my time as city councilor and as mayor, so we've done a number of things. There's a lot I could say here. We formed the Social and Economic Justice Committee, and we also formed a police review committee. And so the Social and Economic Justice Committee did an equity needs assessment to see... Which is what? Well, so to evaluate the city for how we were doing in terms of really looking at whether our procedures and practices were inequitable. Like to see if they were discriminatory in any way and what could be done to make them better. And so they've made some recommendations and we've actually started to implement some of that. What do you mean by discriminatory? Well, so structural racism or things that... Ways that our processes are not accessible to people, even particularly for folks that are differently abled. So we're looking at getting a new website and one that might be better in terms of accessibility for folks, so that's one thing. We also recognize that people who are participating in local committees in the city government are probably either over-employed or retired or wealthy enough that they don't have to be missing out on work to participate. And they also might not need to be paying a babysitter, that kind of thing. And so we're actually piloting a program... To pay people to be on. Yeah, and an as-requested basis to pay folks for their time for participating in city committees. And hoping that that will increase the diversity of folks that are able to participate. So that's one way. Also, the police review committee came up with a number of recommendations for us. And so we've started to implement those, thinking about... So we actually approved having body-worn cameras for the police. We're getting better training around how to... What best practices are for crowd management around dealing with youth, and also with folks that are having mental crises, that kind of thing. And we've expanded our street outreach position, which I think is... Well, it's been successful so far, so I'm really pleased to see it expand. And so we're also getting sanitation within the city of Montpelier. Yeah, so we've... The garbage cans were flowing. Yeah, yeah. So the pandemic was really hard for trash collection because we saw a significant spike in the amount of trash that was showing up in city receptacles. So we have a contract that has... We've set up once a week. And sometimes that's enough, and sometimes it feels like it isn't enough. But just even in terms of sanitation in general, we formed a group that is looking at adding public restrooms to the downtown, which I'm really excited about. And we've set aside some money that hopefully we can use some of that to go towards public restrooms. And yeah, so we were waiting to see if we would get some state money for that, but unfortunately we didn't. What about... Oh, so we're not going to have public restrooms? Well, so we were waiting to see if we would get money for that, but we have other money set aside that could go towards that. And so now the committee is going to be meeting to discuss what ought to be done. So stay tuned on that one, hopefully. Yeah, no. In terms of... We have a couple of minutes left. You're a big, huge supporter of jobs, employment, you know, for people, and you being a teacher, you're a big supporter with the NEA. Yeah. Or the S... The S... So the Vermont State Employees Association? Yeah. VSEA, yeah. Yeah. I just got endorsed by them. Yeah. Okay. So that's fine. But people with special needs having jobs. Yeah. Or, you know, because they want to be... What is your take on a person getting a job? Because the percentage of people with special needs is extremely low of people working that are challenged. Mm-hmm. You know, what is your take on that? You know, I support folks that are differently-abled being able to make, you know, whatever the going rate is. You know, if it's minimum wage or more, you know, really we need to be increasing what minimum wage is right now. It's not livable. It needs to be livable. I think it's... So more than $15 an hour? I think it's more than $15 an hour. I think the time of $15 an hour of that being livable is past. Because years ago the minimum wage, I remember living in New York, minimum wage was like either 10 or a little less than that. Yeah. Especially now I know Montpelier doesn't have or doesn't have very much fast food restaurants. Yeah. What is your take on like the fast food workers? They make less than minimum wage. Yeah. Right. So you're having a child and you have... Yeah. So there's this exemption, right, for service workers that particularly that get tips, because the idea that the tips are supposed to make up for that. But that system is rooted in racism. How so? Well, my understanding is that it was a way to end up paying servers of color less. And that is unacceptable. I think folks ought to be guaranteed to make at least the minimum wage, if not, you know, more. And again, the minimum wage ought to be a livable wage. And food service workers should not be exempt from that. I think the idea of... Are people taking or the company's taking the tips and just paying them the salaries? You know, I think the tip system is not necessarily a great way to pay people. So that's... I think folks deserve to be paid fairly, just like everyone else. And the tip system is, I think, unfair and inequitable. Okay. Yeah. You know, having no income tax, such as New Hampshire, or tax in itself. The tax in Vermont has gone up. Like you have a liquor tax that's like nine or 10 percent. And then you have a lodging tax that's six or seven percent or more. Is Vermont changing their taxes to go up because things have gone up? Well, that's a great question. If I said it wrong. No, no, that's fair. So I know this is certainly of concern, particularly for the towns that are right along the border there with New Hampshire. But, you know, just in terms of what's happening with taxes, I mean, I think about the income tax. And, you know, we have a governor right now who is not in favor of any new or additional taxes. And I think that's unfortunate, particularly for those folks who can afford it. You know, things, there's, you know, regressive taxes are like sales tax can be tough for folks that have limited incomes. But, you know, I think about the possibility of generating more income for the state by adding a fifth tax bracket. We used to have a fifth tax bracket, and then it's gone away. And I'm not entirely sure why it went away. But being able to collect more taxes from the wealthy in Vermont, I think, is the way to go. Yeah. Go ahead. What are you saying? Repeat your comment. I'm sorry. Yeah, she said the rich should pay more. What's your take on that? Yes, no. There's a certain percent, like less than one or two percent, or the richest people in the world. Yeah. Do you think the, I'm sorry if I said... No, no, yeah. Do you think the rich should pay more? Yes, I think the rich ought to pay more. Absolutely. The wealth inequality in America is worse than I think people even imagine it to be. So you think Warren Buffett and other people pay? Oh, yeah. No. The wealthy absolutely need to be paying a higher percentage of their income. And not get a way of not paying a tax. Yeah. Right. Right. Because all the rest of us are shouldering burdens and paying for services that could easily be paid for if we had a better tax structure on the wealthy. Okay. Now, not mentioning names, but certain politicians get away with certain things that they shouldn't. In terms, because a national politician, for example, you have to show your income tax or if a court asks you to... What is your thought on that and privacy with... Even politicians deserve privacy, but do you think, is there changes? Do you think there's a law with that? Well, that's a good question. It's not one that I've spent a lot of time thinking about, but it seems to me that... Why do they have to show income? I'm confused. Why do they have to show income tax or taxes and what people make? Because like presidents... Yeah. Well, I think it's useful to know what the sources of income are for somebody. I think that also helps with knowing whether, where there may be conflicts of interest and that is, I think, that's important. There's been this national conversation about preventing politicians from owning stock or their spouses from owning or trading stocks or those kinds of securities. And I think that makes sense, especially if they are privileged with particular information about regulations, et cetera, that are going to happen in a certain industry that would affect the prices of those stocks. They absolutely should not. It also... I think about politicians that have a lot of stake in oil or fossil fuel industries. Yeah, right. Fossil fuel industry is that they have an interest in those laws. Sorry, sorry. What was that? Warren Buffett is one of the richest men. Yeah, Warren Buffett. Yeah. But okay, getting back to the environment. Yeah. Fossil fuels and some time ago, if you remember the Exxon oil spills. I do. I remember that. And that was nasty. What... It's not in the air. You don't... Wait, hold on. I'm getting to that. What... Go ahead. How are fossil fuels going to change with your... Like I said, you're working on certain... Or you will help with certain legislation. Yeah, I think we need more solar. I think we need more wind turbines. We have right now a cap that any one off-taker can only... Explain what an off-taker is. Oh, sorry. One customer. So, you know, a customer being like a business or a person can only have 500 kilowatts of solar. And just as an example, the city of Montpelier has double that. And that's not enough to cover our electricity bill. So we need to ramp up our generation of renewable energy sources. And we need to upgrade our transmission lines to make that electricity more accessible. And then I think we need to support the electrification of both the transportation and heating sectors. Once we have renewable sources, or maybe simultaneously, to the renewable generation. Yeah. So these are... I think there's a number of ways to do that. And all of them... I think there's policy ways that we can do that to make it easier for folks to both increase the generation and to do the fuel switching. And I think there's also funding support that will be needed to help make those transitions happen. Okay. Well, we would like to thank you for joining us again on Ableton on Air. For more information on the City of Montpelier Vermont and their website, you can go to www.montpelier.vt... Actually, www.montpelier.vt.org. Thank you. www.montpelier.vt.org. And there's lots of services that you can pick from the City of Montpelier. And we thank Ann Watson, Mayor Ann Watson for joining us today on this edition of Ableton on Air. For more information on Ableton on Air, though, you can go to www.orkamedia.net. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Andre. See you next time. Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support comes together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include God of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, www, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, www.h.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists.