 Hey, you down there. Yeah, sitting on the couch. Do you care about Vermont politics? Yeah, I don't either but believe it or not right in there. There's a lot of people who do and Every day every stinking day. They're making the decisions that affect you We're gonna be talking with these weirdos about everything they believe in and how it will affect us the Vermonkers My name is senator Martin LaRocke-Yulik I am a senator for the district of Chittenden Central, which is Burlington Wenewski Essex and a small part of Colchester And I should say the city of Essex as well as the city of Essex Junction and the town. I am on two committees I am on health and welfare and Senate education in health and welfare We've been doing we've been writing a lot of bills hearing a lot of testimony everything for everything from banning flavored tobaccos to protecting reproductive rights to Providing you know safety for our hospital employees. It's it's a wide range of topics in that committee You talked about banning tobacco flavored products Why do you think that so many teenagers these days are doing such things as like e-cigarettes and vaping? Well, one of the reasons that I think Vapes and e-cigarettes are so popular is that tobacco companies companies have really used predatory Tactics to get young people to to vape and to smoke As you probably know a lot of these flavors are very appealing to young people cotton candy Green apple You know fruity flavors. I think there's one called dragon Dragon breath or something like that. So there are varieties of flavors that are just sweet and very appealing to young people and why would you say that like Teenagers like me should care about what you do within the within the Senate and just in that state capital That's such a great question. I think you should care because it affects your lives Sometimes directly for example with the flavor tobacco bill that is something that will have a direct impact on your life Hopefully in a positive in a good way But there's a whole host of bills that will affect you if not right now this minute Then as you age and you know as as you grow up and start buying houses and Or renting apartments and so on and so forth. It's really really important And how do you think youth like me should get involved within these issues? That is a great question. I'll give you a couple examples. We actually have A senior from spalding high school who is our committee assistant So he's using the flexible pathways program that the state has put together for students and he's spending Tuesday through friday here in the state house working in our committee. He goes to school on mondays But that's like an incredible program younger folks can be pages For a portion of the session And they are you know very active in helping us when we're on the floor That's another opportunity coming for a visit shadowing us doing what you're doing an interview with a legislator All of these things are super important What are your thoughts on the newest clean heat standard that went that went through the legislature? So we just voted on it As you know, it started in the house and that sorry it started in the senate Then it went to the house and now back to the senate today with some amendments But I did vote yes on it. It is as Some of us like to say it's not a perfect bill, but we feel that it is taking us in the right direction I don't have to tell you that the climate is an extremely urgent issue And we have to be doing everything that we can to try to You know eliminate carbon from the environment and slow down climate change Can I have a quick rundown of what you do here? Sure. I'm a lobbyist um, I work for a firm Called necrassing group and we have about 40 different clients that we represent here. We've been working on Uh gun violence prevention, um, we've been working on universal child care Been working on some solid waste bills, um household hazardous waste and the bottle bill Been working on some smaller kind of not as exciting bills related to health care Um, some labor bills in support of labor unions another big one we've been working on is around school funding um, trying to address some issues related to tax dollars going to religious schools What has been some challenges in putting forth this legislation? I've been doing this for about 30 years. So Uh, you know, it's about building a coalition of lawmakers It's about getting grassroots support You know, you have to get all your ducks in a line and making sure that the people in the community support it That you have support in this building that leadership supports it. Ideally the administration supports it So it's a lot of that work that we do before the legislature Convenes so that once they're all here we can move our issues forward So it takes a lot of work in the off session to get things lined up. So No new barriers this year. It's just a lot of the same. There's a lot of new lawmakers and so they're Trying to work with them to help them understand how the process works That's been a little bit new this year actually What are your thoughts on current governor phil scott's and his recent vetoing of the clean heat standard? Uh, he hasn't vetoed it yet because it just passed the senate today, but he's going to veto it He's been clear that he's going to veto it. Um, it's a little bit frustrating because I'm not sure that um The reason that he's been giving um, I think is kind of splitting hairs the the bill will the The clean heat standard will be coming back to the legislature for review. Um, and that seems like that's been his big Concern and I feel like the legislation that is passing today addresses his concern So it's a little bit frustrating because it's not exactly clear what he's objecting to And what is some legislation that has recently passed that you think um local vermonters should care about? Uh, well not a lot has passed yet a lot is moving forward, but one bill that I worked on that just passed that um, probably Not a lot of Younger people would care about but it would I work on um end of life choice issues Something called death of dignity or allowing people that are terminally ill to hasten their death um by taking medication And um, we just passed a law the governor is probably going to sign it next week. Um That would open up the law to people that don't live in vermont. So that was a big deal I think you know other laws that are Moving through the process a couple bills that are moving through the process and the governor is likely to sign protect, um health care providers and patients that are getting reproductive hair and Care and gender-affirming care and those are really important and those are going to have a big impact And it makes vermont a really safe place for people that need gender-affirming care and health care and uh reproductive health care Why do you think there have been so many new legislators recently? Um, I think the pandemic was really hard and it was tiring Uh in 2020 when the pandemic hit the legislature met remotely and they met until like September and usually we're out of here in may so it was exhausting And and the pay is very bad. So I think some of it was natural Um retirement people that have been around a long time and other it was just I think people were just exhausted and um, there's also been a lot of effort like through organizations like emerge and other to train young new younger people To become lawmakers and so that energizes people so a lot of people ran and I think that's probably I mean that turnover wasn't hugely unusual but it was By magnitude more than usual, but there's always some amount of turnover Speaking of um, the lousy pay or whatever. Um, what are your thoughts on the recent Proposal to raise pay for lawmakers? I think it's a great idea. Um, I don't think people should have to sacrifice their ability to Earn a living wage and support their family in order to be part of our democracy So I fully support that Do you think this action will help democratize Legislature as it'll allow more Vermonters to begin work here? Yeah, I hope so, you know, they're also talking about part of that bill would also um Allow lawmakers to get health insurance and that's a big issue. There's a lawmaker here this year that um is um fighting cancer And in order to keep her health insurance from her job she had to Continue to work a couple days a week at her regular job and work here While she's struggling with cancer in order to keep her health insurance and that that just that's just wrong You know, you shouldn't have to you know kill yourself in order to be a lawmaker like that And just overall, um, why do you think um local Vermonters should care about this work that we do here? Because there's a lot of things that go on in this building that impact people whether it's the budget Which is funding of schools school meals funding of school construction Whether it's roads and bridges, you know, all that comes through the budget There's also laws that are passed every day that impact You know your ability to to fight for your for fair wages and To to be protected against discrimination Like there's all kinds of things that are going on in this building that impact people regularly Um addressing climate change, you know, just important big issues child care that people That impact people's lives and they should care about it My role is as a policymaker um, I do research I learn more about the issues and I try to um Help create legislation that is going to help vermont Um, what would you say some of the challenges of creating policy in the state is? Oh, absolutely lots of challenges. So we have limited funds. Um, we are Statutorily required to pass a balanced budget So if we take money from one pot, so to speak, we have to put it into another So in order to have money for one pot, we have to take it from one So that's a challenge. Also a challenge is working across party lines Certain people have certain mindsets that that they have Things that they're trying to accomplish that maybe they've promised their constituents or maybe They have Promised other legislators that they would work with them on certain things So it's a lot of give-and-take here in the building. I heard you're a policymaker So I was wondering what's some recent policy that you've been working on or have created That's your that think will be interesting to look over monitor. My committee deals with a lot of municipal issues. So my committee is government operations So recently we've been working on Some bills to help towns amend their charters Which I believe Essex was one of them that we recently passed and that goes to the voters of the town first And if they vote to change the charter, which is what their town operates by the the set of rules that their town operates by If they vote to do that Then they get to bring the bill to us in the legislature and we help them Create whatever change or amendment it is that they want recently The senate and the house passed the clean heat standard. What are your thoughts on that bill? Well, I'm actually not in favor of the clean heat standard for a number of reasons and the primary one being is that All fiscal analysis all financial analysis seems to point to that right now in at least in the very beginning It's going to really hit vermoners hard in their pocket books Particularly up where I live which is in the northern part of the state where it's extremely cold Even the cold climate heat pumps aren't working great in my area There are a lot of folks who are on fixed incomes that i'm afraid for them that they're not going to be able to afford these retrofits of their heating systems or The price of electricity which only seems to go up. It does not have a downward trajectory Why do you think your peers have voted this in? I think I think the people who have voted this in which is a majority of folks here in this building I think that they are convinced that this is going to be the way to stop climate change and to bring vermont to a higher standard of Reducing carbon emissions greenhouse gas emissions. It's a noble idea It certainly would I think entice more people to go into public service But in in a way in my opinion public service in vermont as a citizen legislature We don't do it for the money. We do it for the love of serving our constituents And I think even though that might be financially unattainable for some folks I'm not in favor of raising my own pay. Um, I am Sympathetic to the needs of folks who want a higher income need a higher income need some benefits But at this point when there are many other people in other areas of vermont who need Uh, assistance and we have a limited budget. I really don't want to raise Our salaries at the expense of other people and I think I explained earlier the balance budget thing If you give this much more money, you have to take it from somewhere else And in this case it probably will be an increase in taxes, which I am not in favor of Why do you think like teenagers like me should care about the work you guys do in this building? Oh my gosh because it affects you it affects, uh, the schools that you go to the jobs that you might get when you graduate It affects your family's lives if um, any of you need any assistance from state agencies We're the ones who control the funding for that. Um, so I really think that What we do here should be known by all all kids in school I'm the vice chair of the house education committee Fortunately, I think one of the challenges is there's a lot of um anti public education sentiment in the state and in Montpelier and I am a fierce advocate for public education. Um, so that has Been a surprising challenge this session Why do you think there are some legislators that are opposed to it? I don't know if it's opposed. I think it's a I think that um Because public schools are public they're transparent the good and the bad gets out there The news tends to only focus on the bad and so folks who are not um in schools on a regular basis I think can have a sometimes warped perception of you know, what schools are like, of course There's things to improve and things that go wrong. I'm also a high school teacher Um, and I have kids in public schools myself, but I think people focus on that devoid of the bigger picture and the fact that Public schools are serving all kids public schools are facing a myriad of challenges What do you think of the recent push for Moving tax dollars from going to public schools to private schools two thumbs down You know, I think that our public dollars need to be invested in public education And especially in a small state like ours, you know The the power of pooling in some level of scale is really important And so the more that we diffuse our public tax dollars into more directions more little buckets more schools I think the less impact it has overall And you know, I think that one of the challenges of our system right now And there's you know, some real challenges being a rural state, but some of the move You know of a move towards choice or saying that Family should be able to sort of take their public dollars anywhere is that We just further create division in society It tends to be more of a sort of have and have not of who can access that kind of you know Understands what that what's out there what they might have the right to can navigate applications or Campus visits that kind of thing to me doesn't speak of like just public schools that serve all kids I supported it. I'll be watching this sort of check back process carefully. I'm not an energy expert I certainly understand the existential crisis that is climate change and I understand, you know, that the volatility of energy prices And so I just don't have the expertise to say, you know, what what is the best way to go about that? I trust the work that the committee has done that the Vermont Climate council has done And so, you know, I think it's going to be hard work But the reality is that climate change is here and is costing us And so, you know, if this is a move towards more stability and Towards a more stable energy future then that's you know, that's progress we need to make even if it is challenging What are your thoughts on the recent idea to pause testing of PCBs? Um, since you I'm impressed, you know your stuff. You've been following the legislature closely Um, that is what we were just talking about in committee and that is a passion of mine Which is a strange thing to be passionate about but I think it's um, I think it's absolutely imperative that we Pause the testing because we are I think poised to finally reinstate a school construction program statewide Which we have not had since 2007. Um, I think if I have my facts, right? We're now I know we're the only state in the country that's Proposing to test all schools for PCBs And I think we might be the only state in the country now that doesn't have some kind of construction aid program and so The work that the house education committee did this year was to say we got to do all this stuff together Like you can't sort of just do, uh, you know Check for this one toxin at the same time that we're getting ready to hopefully invest a lot in public schools And in improving some really aging infrastructure So, you know the fact that the testing keeps moving forward in a minute you find that you've got to react We have this happening in schools in the state So they're spending money to cover windows to, you know remove carpet to do things Maybe to a building that we may not want to invest in in the future And that may not you know, I think they're even having challenges that this the short steps they take May or may not even really move the action levels Which are still significantly lower than federal action levels. So all of that is to say Certainly, we need healthy learning environments and our public schools are really important But it's really important that we do all of this work together because we can't afford to disrupt students learning We can't afford to disrupt schools and we can't afford as taxpayers to say We're going to be the only state in the country that's going to search for this toxin that we know is out there Because we live in a very chemical laden world And remediate all of it at what end I mean, we could be talking hundreds of millions of dollars And I I think we need to have a coherent plan and vision around school construction in our facilities And the environmental health is part of that, but it can't be separate from that The way that we're set up to do the work now is that you know, I think that the the sort of next step of school construction Is that a group of experts on it that school experts that's funding experts that's building experts will be convened And we'll take a look at this inventory we have coming in So the state's going to get really detailed information this fall about all the needs in every single school And we know it's going to be huge And and they're going to take that information and sit down and make strategic decisions around Okay, so how do we move forward? Obviously, we can't do everything that's going to be on that list How do we invest state dollars and there will still certainly be a lot of local need and local spending on facilities But how do we invest our state money? Are there certain things that we want to incentivize? Do we want to incentivize? You know schools of a certain size and a little bit more consolidation Do we want to incentivize space for pre-k and allowing public pre-k in our schools? You know, what are what are the biggest priorities and how can we create a funding mechanism? Perhaps, you know, it's a Graduated tax credits. Maybe it's a bonding thing But how do we create mechanisms that then kind of incentivize the sort of building and facilities work that we hope to see statewide? And then what is that mechanism going to be? I think the exciting thing right now is that all this work is set to happen with the treasurer's office And not just be a little categorical grant that sits at the agency of education But it's a really combined effort of our agency of education and our treasurer's office who's an expert on You know the state finances and bonding And that those working together I think give us more leverage and the ability hopefully to invest more in our public facilities But it will be hard work because It's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars probably if deferred maintenance is what we will find out And obviously we will not be able to do that all and we won't be able to do it, you know quickly So how do you methodically make a plan forward and how do you best use public taxpayer dollars for it? What would you say the values of the current legislature are? That's a good question in total the legislature is incredibly hard-working. I think people are very well intentioned I think it's especially on the house side. There's a very thorough committee process And so even if you don't agree with it in the end, I do think there's a opportunity for pretty robust testimony and conversation before we reach decisions I think there's you know generally a will even those who I disagree with on you know policy of To do what's best for vermont, you know to represent our communities to help I hope see our state You know to see our state grow. We have a demographic crisis. And so how do we Keep the good things and and grow from there so that we have a growing economy that we have a growing workforce We have a growing population of young people in the state a representative from chitin county I represent the south end of burlington. I think that the protections that we have extended to health care providers As it relates to abortion and gender affirming care are really really important. I think that they're groundbreaking nationally at a time when We many states are passing anti trans legislation So those protections are really important To me in part because I have a non-binary kid and We are advancing child care and paid family leave very proud of the paid family leave bill It is time. I can't believe that in 2023. We're still talking about that I believe that we have made huge investments in housing which are I think can have a really lasting impact on Vermont's housing stock over Many years so that's those are the things that really Oh, well, I'm sorry and the suicide prevention bill I I think I think those to me Given who I am what I've worked on in the past and what this body has Over the long haul tried to get through Um, those are the the bills that I'll remember the most Can you discuss a little more about the suicide prevention bill as I know a lot of like my fellow peers and vermonters? Have not heard enough about it. It is a bill that recognizes that suicide by gun is most often fatal and So it imposes a waiting period for actually buying a gun and it also requires safe storage of guns and This is that we have one of the highest rates of suicide in the state of vermont And the majority of those suicides is by are by guns and anything that we can do because it's It's it is also it is often an impulsive Decision to buy a gun and commit suicide And so anything we can do to slow the process down where somebody can intervene Um, I think we need to do I sit on the appropriations committee Which is responsible for coming up with a budget for the next fiscal year. So Pretty much everything comes into our committee and it makes it really interesting because you you know, you have a pretty broad view of how all the pieces fit together, uh, and And it feels like a lot of responsibility to make decisions about where are we going to spend money? Because that kind of shows well Where our values are right and so We wanted to shape a budget that reflected our values And what do you think the values of the vermont legislature are? Well I think Uh, I can't really speak to the I mean, I think you would get a different answer from every legislator as it relates to You know the values of this body or well, and it's two bodies, right? It's the senate and the house but I um The values that that are expressed through our budget that went to the senate is now just been voted out of the senate And we'll come back to our committee. Um I think reflect a Deep appreciation for and and value of the helping professions. Um, so social workers and teachers and The medical workers um kind of across the spectrum Um Because we bumped up their Medicaid reimbursement rates significantly this year and that Will do a lot to try this to stabilize the salaries of people who work in those fields. Um, and they have Uh, they've never made enough and I think that this will make a difference It's it's not we didn't go far enough but I think That we made a statement about You know people who are really important and doing incredibly hard work And are in short supply in this state. Um, the investments we've made in housing I think reflect a belief that housing is a human right and we need to make Do anything that we can to make housing available to people. Um, and I think the investments that we've made in workforce development reflect that we think people should be able to pursue their passions and um And get help in accessing careers. They may not have ever thought of Those are just a few. What are some of the obstacles in making some of those values shine clear within our budget? Um, not enough money and unwillingness on the part of the administration to raise revenues, um and um, and I think you know, I mean There are so many needs How do you how do you pick and you are picking? You know, um by choosing to fund this and not that um, and And we work under real time pressure because we're here only for four and a half months And so we have to collapse a whole lot of work into a very short time frame. That's That's challenging and it means that we won't hear all the testimony. We need to it means that not everybody who Um, needs to be heard will be heard. Um, and it and it I think that uh But but Given the constraints of the fact that we're a citizen legislature We're not paid for the days that we're Not sitting in these seats. Um, you know, we're we do our best. I think to make those kinds of choices What are your thoughts on the recent passing of the clean heat standard within the legislature? I think it's a really positive step forward. I think that there are a lot of guardrails on it I know that there are folks who will disagree with me about that, but I think that that my god, we owe it to young people like you to To do more than we are doing to clean up the planet and I think this is a Pretty I think it's a pretty smart bill. Um, and and has been informed by so many different people Over time. So I think it will enjoy a broader acceptance than People imagine that it will and my last question is why do you think local vermonters should care about the work you do here? Pretty much everything that we do Has an impact has a ripple effect on communities, you know We invest in housing Well, that housing is built in all of our communities and regions of the state We, you know, raise Um Effectively wait raise the wages of people who are working in the field of social work or in The medical world. Well, you know, that's our aunts and uncles and neighbors municipalities We see the work Of municipalities, you know, like if if if we've got Potholes in our roads, right? It's really obvious. We get really mad We call the city council And we try to get action, you know to fix that There are all kinds of local issues that um, I think are kind of more, um That touch us more personally But I think that there are an awful lot of things that we deal with in here that are that that have an impact on Almost every vermonter. I'm gay, you know, the fact that we pay we we passed Um gay marriage has had an enormous impact for so many of you know, my friends and and colleagues and That's not something, you know, I mean So this place can do really important work that has a major impact on vermonters Wow couldn't imagine being those people interested in vermont politics the issues that affect me and you every day Could never be me Well, we've heard all of them and they're gobbledygook, but now let's listen to you. What do you think randy? Sitting there on your couch doing nothing Email these people tell them what you think Tell them about their stinking politics and the darn bureaucrats. Tell them all of it And have a beautiful day Look up at the clouds go for a hike quit your job do something Goodbye