 Excellent. So good afternoon. I'm Betsy Bishop. I'm the president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Today we will continue our virtual policy series. Every Monday afternoon through March, we will bring together government and business leaders to get your questions answered, provide access to key Vermont leaders and bring you up to speed on important policy. Special thanks to our series sponsors AT&T, Cigna, and Noyle Johnson Insurance. We are glad to offer this series to our Vermont Chamber members and to all businesses across the state. We collected your questions during registration and we will try to get to all of them. I also encourage you to use the chat function in your sidebar to ask additional questions, selecting in chat to all panelists and all attendees so everybody can join in the conversation. Today is International Women's Day, an opportunity to formally recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of women all over the world. I've been a leader of the largest statewide business association Vermont for over a decade, 75% of my leadership team is female, and our board is 42% women. This has been a long term deliberate ascent toward inclusion and we have much more work to do. And it is within that context today that we welcome Speaker of the House, Jill Kruinsky, and Senate Pro Tem Becca Baylett to our virtual policy series. Having these women leading our legislature is inspiring to so many of us. Speaker Kruinsky of Burlington was elected Vermont Speaker of the House in January, she's the 92nd Speaker and the fourth female Speaker of the House, and has served in the legislature since 2012. Senate President Becca Baylett of Brattleboro was elected President Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate in January. In addition to her responsibilities as President Pro Tem. She also serves on the Senate Economic Development Committee and the Senate Committee on Appropriations. She has served Wyndham County in the Senate since 2015. So now I'm going to pass the zoom mic over to our speakers and I'm going to ask each of you, if you could talk about your top priorities, a little bit, a few minutes each and then we will delve into the questions, who would like to go first. Senator Baylett, would you like to start. Happy to thank you Betsy. Good afternoon as Betsy said, I'm Becca Ballant and I represent Wyndham County live in Brattleboro with my spouse and two school age children. And I realized as Betsy was introducing me that I'm actually the longest serving member of the Economic Development and Housing Committee in the Senate. It was my first choice to be there as a new senator and when I was elected as pro tem I even placed myself back on that committee, because I really love thinking about how to help our economic landscape. And, you know, if I could I want to start with a little story so you can understand a little bit more about me since I am new new to my position. I don't know if any of you out there I know a lot of business leaders with with us today I don't know if any of you have spent any time at home, I stay at home parents. I know I never intended to ever be in that position. I was a teacher for many years, but when my first child was born. My spouse and I kind of looked at our financial picture and we decided that I would be the one to stay home while the kids were really small. And it was not something that I felt particularly good at and being home for hours and hours was pretty hard for my active brain. And I know that some moms and dads can settle into it and really lean into having a slower and sometimes more monotonous routine and I never did I always felt like I was going a little bit out of my mind. And at the height of my stay at home mom delusions. I had these ideas of starting my own business, and I really love the idea of creating something from scratch and in my own mind right it was always wildly successful. And I went through all kinds of plans. One was I was going to do elbow length mittens, you know, totally brilliant no kid would ever lose their mittens again I was so jazzed about this for a few weeks until of course I realized, it had already been done by someone who actually knew a whole lot about manufacturing and business. Then I thought I was going to run, you know kind of a quirky donut shop followed by gourmet ice cream cart. The best, or I could say worst idea was I was going to market a homemade switch all Vermont's old time energy beverage made from vinegar or pickle juice, ginger and some sweetener. It was awful, and not even a flat lander would have purchased it twice in my poor long suffering spouse and my neighbors tried several batches of homemade switch all before I finally give up on the idea. And I mentioned it because fortunately for all of us, all of you are actually talented and have entrepreneurial spirit and ideas and the requisite daring that it takes to be in business. And so we're spared for my bad business ideas. And I'm sure you already know this, but I want to highlight it because I think it's really important data point for us to remember. That for months startup survival rate is about six highest in the nation, and we ranked seventh in the number of people working for small businesses. And these businesses help our economy home, but they also help anchor our communities. So this statistic is really impressive, and it gives me hope for the future. We also know that we need to really target the growth of midsize businesses here in Vermont, because they can provide the good stable jobs long term serve as a base for the economy but also give workers a job that turns then into career opportunities. One thing that I have been focused on for years within my own committee is that we cannot grow Vermont small startups into midsize businesses without a well trained, well educated workforce and I know Betsy and I have talked about this for years and you all know it too we face a crisis on so many fronts because we we need to attract more and keep these highly trained workers. And I venture to guess that almost every single business on this call is having trouble filling openings. And I initially ran for Senate for two specific reasons things in my area scary trends that I became aware of. When was the growing number of kids living in poverty, and my child's at that point I had a kindergarten schooler and at their school, 70% of the children at the school were qualifying for free and reduced lunch. And I found this really alarming, of course, and at that same time, I joined the workforce development committee at the Browderboro Development Corporation. And we realized just how dangerously close to a tipping point we were within Wyndham County, and we did a survey of our count, our county's employers to figure out how many people were in the pipeline, how are we going to replace those workers who are about to age out. And I've been concerned with this I know the Vermont Chamber has been concerned with this it's not unique to my county. And this is one of the reasons why the Vermont Chamber had the foresight to fund the Vermont Futures project and the dashboard which is such a great tool for all of us who work in policy in Vermont. And as I said those trends are not anomalous in Wyndham County, and Vermont's workforce skews over 50. And I'm actually a really good example of that and I don't kid you when I joined the Senate in my late 40s. I joined the Senate Chamber by some of my colleagues as a millennial. And, of course, I'm not a millennial I'm nowhere near being a millennial but the age skews higher, and that's just simply not sustainable. So we have a workforce crisis. And this ties into other three other really important issues that I want to touch on in my opening remarks issues that are on my mind, even as we work through this difficult session. It's the shadow of the pandemic. And that's the great need we have for more housing that also impacts our ability to attract and retain workforce. A childcare system that truly supports the needs of working families, so that we can bring people back in the workforce who want to work but don't have childcare. And the last one which I think is, it's a more difficult and more complicated complex issue to deal with but I feel that we must and that is to attract and cultivate a diverse workforce. So we have made some progress on housing needs and the childcare system we're going to continue to do that and hopefully with this next federal package we're going to have more as an opportunity to continue working on those issues. And we're trying, like the rest of the nation to wrestle with these really hard issues around racial justice and inequity. And it's crucial that we do it, even on the business front, and that's because people of color will become a majority of the American working class in 2032. And that's about 10 years sooner that we thought when looking at long for long term workforce projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So we know we have to make the state more welcoming, more supportive of a diverse workforce or we're not going to have the workers that we need to grow our businesses. And of course, you know, I have hardly mentioned the big elephant in the room right now and that's the year long pandemic that's devastated so many businesses here in Vermont. And it's not because I'm not thinking about all of it, all the time, and in my communities and in my chamber, but because when I'm with a group of leaders like yourself. I need also to give myself permission to think beyond the pandemic to think about the work that still needs to be done as we reopen the economy. We have to do both. We have to address the despair that so many businesses are feeling, but also tap into that innate optimism and possibility that we have we are a dynamic state we are a creative state that's why we do have such a high ranking for successful startups. And I know that we will come out of this with new innovation and new direction and so many on so many fronts. And the federal package it's working its way through the systems working its way through the process we're getting a lot of great news. We are our congressional delegation has been able to secure for us of course as we all talk about the small state minimum, it means that there's going to be a lot of money available for broadband investments. It's going to be for tourism and hospitality, and it's also going to give us the opportunity to free up some general funds and give us more options in the budgets. So I'm grateful to be here I'm grateful for your hard work and your your creativity and also your perseverance during this incredibly hard year. It's been so painful for so many Vermonters. And I want to thank you for what you do for all of your communities and your workers and their families. And I really look forward to your questions, comments and a fruitful conversation between all of us because I always learn something at these events. So, thanks again for the invitation Betsy I really appreciate it. Thank you, Senator. I think you've touched on all of the big topics. I hope to hear from speaker Quincy as well that these these are topics that I think we all share and there's a lot of agreement about what we need to do. And I have a point of reference to both of you and to our audience. I just want you to know that a couple of the issues that Senator Balant touched on specifically the federal $1.9 trillion package. We are bringing in a federal expert next week on this show to be able to talk a little bit through that so we'll touch on that. I think we're doing a panel on diversity, equity and inclusion as well. So, I think it's important to touch on this because this is something that we've really worked on to expand our workforce. And so I'm interested in that conversation too. Before we get too far down that path. Speaker Quincy, why don't you talk to us a little bit about some of the priorities that you see for your team this session. Betsy, thank you so much for having us here today. This is such a great opportunity and I'm eager to start in a conversation with the rest of the crew here today. I do just want to take a moment you mentioned Betsy in the beginning we have two, you know, things we are recognizing and thinking about today, you know, International Women's Day. And I'm really proud that Senator Balant and I are leading our chambers as first time ever to have two women in these roles but also that our leadership teams. All of our house leaders are House majority and two minority leaders are women and we have a woman serving as lieutenant governor and I appreciate all the work you've been doing Betsy to advance women and leadership position so thank you for that. And at the same time, you know we're recognizing and looking that we've been weathering this pandemic for a year now. I don't know about all of you but time during the pandemic has been so bizarre and days feeling like months and weeks feeling like days and months feeling like years and just, you know, remember those first days in the pandemic when we didn't know how this, this, how COVID would impact our state and how long we'd be faced with this challenge and now here we are today. A year into it and I just want to recognize that we saw Vermonters use their past experience and overcoming adversity to find creative solutions to support our families our neighbors and our small businesses across the country. I think it's really important that we take the lessons that we've learned as we've worked through this pandemic and not ignore them but rather use them as we persevere to recover to recreate a Vermont that works for everyone. January 6 was in a historic moment for us for me to gavel in the House of Representatives on zoom and to start governing our remotely for this entire session which is just a thing of its own, I will have to say, and recognize your support for helping give us your thoughts and feedback on this online environment I know it's really challenging my, my goal from day one has been to build a recovery plan that leaves no Vermonter behind and as I started to build what that looked like. And with with House members with Senate leadership and talking with Vermonters and businesses across the state, it was clear that the challenges that we had been working on before the pandemic. We're only made worse because of it access to affordable childcare broadband and infrastructure affordable housing, all key things that we need to have thriving communities and businesses. We still needed to work on and we needed to work work and focus on even more. And I know that our small business community has suffered tremendously during this pandemic. Two things that we can we must focus on is creating space for potential employees and future business owners to enter the workforce and succeed. data has shown us that not only women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. But they were previously not able to access career opportunities because lack of available childcare by creating access to affordable childcare and coupling it with access to targeted workforce training opportunities. I believe we can help a previously restricted population enter the workforce or finally have the opportunity to start the businesses they have long been planning for no matter what they were right Senator ballot. It just Vermont businesses have been consistently discuss the need for more workforce participation and while we continue to attract families and individuals from other states I believe we have the opportunity to create employment opportunities right here at home for Vermonters. And while we work on these policies that help people get back to work. It's also important that we continue to work on our long term challenges like stabilizing our public higher education system, working on social equity and racial justice issues and dealing with our unfunded pension liability. Lastly, I am proud that before we left for our town meeting break we passed a nearly $80 million COVID relief bill that included 10 million for small businesses that receive no federal assistance and that is now off to the Senate for consideration. We are starting to look at what the federal relief bills mean for us and the timing of that funding and how that will look. We have some incredible opportunities at this moment to take advantage of as we continue to build a recovery plan that leaves no Vermonter behind so I'm so excited to be here with you. I hope all of you and your families are doing well and weathering this this pandemic together and look forward to the conversation. Thank you so much and I think where you ended might might be a good place for us to start the conversation. You know, both of you referenced workforces being sort of the key issue and, you know, we've recognized that we prior to the pandemic we had a 10,000 worker gap in workforce participation and we have been working to make sure that we have mature workers and workers coming into the production systems and new Americans, all sorts of populations, those that are in Vermont outside of Vermont will take all commerce. But then the pandemic hit right and I, we haven't seen the numbers yet because they lag a little bit but I feel pretty confident in knowing that that hasn't improved during during the pandemic. And so that becomes a serious issue. But because of the pandemic, what we've seen is one issue rise, even above that, and that is the survivability of these businesses and I think a big thank you goes out to the leadership of you, both of you and your respective chambers in helping get businesses through this with $10 million in grants to help through September 30. Of course the problem has continued so we have ongoing and new debt now and so I guess I'd love to hear from both of you. I know we don't know all the details of what's coming in the federal bill we knew certainly know some but to the extent that there's discretionary funding for the states like there was in the last bill. We anticipate being able to extend similar type economic recovery grants to businesses again from that those funds speaker crew and ski why don't you start first. Yeah Betsy that's a great question we're just beginning to get briefed down what the federal relief bill looks like and what it holds so I can't speak to specifically the issue around grants because the language is pretty broad right now but there were several things that were highlighted specifically like broadband and I think broadband is one that an issue that I've heard about every day since I have been speaker the need to have broadband reaching the end of every road and every town in our state. And there is a specific call out for broadband in there and other infrastructure needs that I think is is going to be really important. I think that the other part of as we learn about what's in this federal relief bill is what money can we spend from general funds that we can. We can move these special COVID funds in to help us free up money to do other programming and or continue some programs that are in desperate need right now because of the pandemic and so we'll be looking at what that looks like as we get this new information. The other thing to remember is that when they pass the bill it doesn't mean that the money just automatically gets transferred to Vermont. And this is the part that we really struggled with last session was the timing that it took for them to put the rules together the specific rules and guidelines of how the money can be used. So even if the money is approved in in April or May we may not get that until later in the summer so that's another piece that we are monitoring closely because that's really important. Well and I will say that we understand that timing and we certainly think that you folks in the legislature acted with the speed that you could. And we saw that not only in May but in the summer and then again in the fall and we're hoping that and working with your committees now to make sure that some of these things are lined up so that the speed can happen when it can so we certainly understand. Yeah and that's something earlier this afternoon the speaker and I were on a call with joint fiscal office and are the chairs of our money committee is talking about this exact thing the timing how we're going to make sure we have things queued up. You know grease the skids so that we have it ready to go and it could be that we have to do. I think it's what anybody wants but it could be that we're going to have to keep the keep the budget open, you know maybe come back again for a short, you know time in August and September we just don't know yet is too early. And so the thing that I was most excited to hear about in this most recent package just because we really haven't had much of a light shine on a light shown on it yet and Betsy you and I have talked about this, the need for more money to our performance and our gathering spaces our restaurants the tourist industry. There is a sizable amount referenced in this package related to those industries and I know those are some of the industries are want that have been the hardest hit and so what we've also learned is we we stand up the we get the money out we're in communication with a CCD and then we find out actually we left out some segment unintentionally, they somehow fell through the cracks and I think we're going to continue to see that as well but I think you can imagine that there's going to be a sizable amount of money going out to to specifically to to our small businesses here in front they really are, as you will know the backbone of the economy here in Vermont and so many of our small towns. So I'm in Brattleboro, and I'm, I'm really concerned about what my main street is going to look like come the fall. And I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about their town so certainly in economic development a CCD is going to be coming in and they're, you know, their best pitch for how best use the money and that's, I think that's the hardest part is the weighing the quick money out the door versus making sure we're targeting it well and that tension feels palpable. As you know because we we do want to get the relief out and we also don't want to look back and feel like we missed the mark on something so it's one of the ways in which I'll give a little plug for the chamber it's one of the ways in which you are the eyes and ears of so many of the people on the call here, because you can be there on all of those in calls making sure something isn't forgotten so the beginning of a long conversation that's going to go through the spring summer and fall but we know that we have to invest in those businesses, because that's what all all of our towns rely on for that viability. So, I think that's important and while we're all seeing the movement of the vaccine and hoping to get more and more and more people vaccinated I think that's something that employers have been asking our governor, you know, what can we do to help how can we help speed that up and in those conversations so I think there's willing partners there. That's the best way to get through this obviously but the pain and the damage is just extraordinary on both the people of Vermont as well as the businesses so thank you both for for remembering that you know part of the goal here is is not just to help people but also to help the places where they work or else those people will need help for for even longer so I think that's important, important to know. Going to the workforce piece a little bit we had several questions from people, Janet Bombardier from Chroma Technology down in Windsor. We have a large place from KPMG up in Colchester. We've had some a variety of questions around the fact that we still have challenges finding employees for all types of jobs. We talked about what actions are being taken to help specific actions to help get those workers into the workforce. The recruitment of talented workers is still an issue college grads either, you know, come for work or stay in Vermont after graduation how do we incentivize them to fill that workforce. And then another question about oftentimes we talk about, you know, the college graduate and how do we get them to stay but if you look at the workforce only 26% of the population of the jobs that are available here need a four year degree so so many of our jobs don't. And so how do we recruit those so Senator Ballant would you like to maybe. You know I think about this a lot, not just as a legislator but also someone who taught for many years and I mostly taught middle school high school and community college. And you can identify at a pretty young age, you know those students in your classroom who really want to be heading into the workforce sooner rather than later and we know in Vermont that we do an incredibly good job of graduating kids from high school we don't do as good a job is making sure that this swath of kids who graduate from high school who aren't focused on college that they have a pathway to get certification or additional training. And so it's it's work that I've done both in the Economic Development Committee in conjunction with our Education Committee making sure there are really clear pipelines for people to get one or two credits at the time and are at their high school and do some hand holding into the workforce, but I know the speaker and I have also talked about that there's an opportunity here with revisioning the Vermont State Colleges. How can we make sure that as we are shoring up the Vermont State Colleges that a really main goal of those institutions is to make sure we're meeting families and students where they're at for the needs in their community in terms of long range employment and so I'm I'm feeling actually more optimistic than I felt in a long time. I think it is the the upside. So I'm in Wyndham County southern part of the state. I know anecdotally and in my community, quite a few people who did flee from Connecticut in New Jersey in New York and know that's not going to that's not going to be the tipping point but we all know that we attract more talent here because of the stories people say back home because it means it's more possible once you've made that move. So I feel like between that boost that we're getting and of course Betsy you know we've done a ton of work in my committee on remote working and it we kind of were ahead of our time and we're continuing to look at that how do we capitalize on this moment and you know I don't know if we'll get to it on the call but a concern I have to is what are we going to do with commercial property long term. We're not going to go back to where we were before we know that how do we capitalize on that so I am eager to hear from businesses on the call. Human resource officers on this call to let us know where are we missing the mark. In terms of the work that we're doing on workforce development because it's not from lack of trying and sometimes I worry that we're putting our energy in the wrong places so I, I'm eager to hear whether it's in the chat or following up with an email. So, I'm speaker kawinsky I want to hear some of your comments around workforce and while you're speaking, Senator about that, if you could just look and there's a couple of questions about the workforce in the chat and specifically the state colleges, and then also comment about finding skill workers in the Northeast Kingdom. So, Senator, sorry, speaker kawinsky could you I just, I gave you a new title how's that sorry. I know how touchy the House and the Senate could be so we won't. We're it's all good we're just working so closely together and you're so much of, we are. Yeah, I think it's so critical, especially during this time and coven that we are all sharing the same goals, and, and, you know, policy positions because we have limited time and resources here. And so, Senator balance is absolutely right we have some incredible opportunities as we look at revisioning and supporting the Vermont State College system, not only how do we create a systemic a sustainable higher education system in our state, but also what do we need to do to help those help those for monitors who want to get into the workforce in those key areas in health care and you know we talk about plumbing and weatherization all of these things make so much sense to come together. And, you know, I understand how, you know, our state college system and where they're located are the core economic drivers and in some small towns across Vermont and that's really important as we think about how we, how we build that out so I think we have tremendous opportunity with the Vermont State Colleges I also think on the retention and recruitment of workers. I hear about childcare, all the time. And I know that we've already mentioned it but I think if we can do more to make childcare more accessible and affordable for people, and we tackle our, our high housing costs and use the opportunity with cove dollars to really put a big infusion into affordable housing. Those are two key things that will help people want to stay here or come here, because it's a supportive system that helps that helps us be able to go to work and so those are the key policy issues that come to mind when I'm asked those that question. There's actually a couple of the really big issues, meaning big issues that we need to solve big issues for the state and really important issues for employers and employees and that's broadband childcare and housing. Every, every discussion I'm on there's very little disagreement about these things we need them all we need more of it we need it all to be more affordable. We've been working at these things for several years. And as you just mentioned, you've, you suggested that, you know, the, with the federal funds coming in huge amounts that we've not necessarily anticipated and, you know, is that the, is that the answer is that where we can find the amount of money just for people listening. There's since there's really little disagreement about wanting broadband everywhere or wanting more affordable or accessible childcare, or more housing options. Nobody disagrees with the need it's a huge price tag. For each one of these we're talking about three to $500 million minimum and that that's a huge amount of money for for this state so where do we get that money from. That's a big point Betsy and when we were on this call earlier with the joint fiscal office. Unfortunately in this package. Well the upside is there is money specifically for broadband in this, this package so it could be that there is a sizeable chunk that we can put. You know the how it's rolled out how you get it to the people who have nothing versus the people who have inadequate versus you know it is that the donut whole philosophy to where you've got some connectivity in the middle of towns and the outline ring doesn't have any so it's it is complicated I sat on finance last session and we wrestled with the issue of broadband but I'm feeling more hopeful there because of the package that's coming from the federal government. Unfortunately for housing there isn't a similar tranche of money in this bill. And so we're going to have to continue to do what we've been doing which is chipping away through a bunch of different programs so we had the very successful, I felt bipartisan support and between the legislature and the executive branch with the housing bond. Many of us are keen to do another big ask it's probably not Betsy smiling because we keep going down that road but certainly know that we still need a bigger investment there. And you know it's a tension that we have a little bit, I don't want to get too far down that the rabbit hole here but it's a little tension that we have with the treasure because part of the reason we're downgraded is because of our demographics issue we can bring more people who don't have housing. And so it is, it is trying to solve several issues at once but we had success with downtown tax credits that we talked about we've got a bill that's looking to do more density housing in in downtown and village settlements. So it's going to be multi prompt but it's, it's not going to be enough. I'm going to tell you it's enough it's not, but I'm going to continue to be you know dying on the sword of more housing, you know until I'm not in the legislature anymore because I think without that we're not going to attract the employers employees that we need so. And what was the other one childcare, I'm going to punt that one to Jill or I'll just keep talking so. One of the, one of the things we learned is also in the bill that's coming is money for childcare and there's a tremendous amount of. Well, I feel like everything is a tremendous amount when we're talking about these aid packages the user numbers that we've never used before when talking about the budget. So money for education that's coming as well and so I think that will be helpful as we work on this puzzle of how we put all of our policy goals and money connected to really put a strong infusion and that makes a difference. So, you know, our childcare bill is moving out of human services tomorrow and they'll be moving through the process and, you know, we talk a lot about what how we can help low income families have access to, you know, more affordable childcare so we'll be able to with these different pieces coming from the federal relief package and what we already have in one time money to see how we can really, really infuse some money that will make a difference in the long term. Hey, Betsy, can I just jump in because I see a couple of things in the chat. Question from have a Walter asking about does the broadband money go to subsidy or infrastructure. We don't have the details yet we just have got the broad brushstroke so far in the coming week. Once it gets through the house will will have more details from the congressional and maybe you'll get that briefing before in some ways before we do if you've got someone coming in to brief your members. The other thing I wanted to comment on is George sales asked about the labor crunch having to do more with less. I'm hoping that within this package there is going to be more money that we can put in to specific technical supports. And again, I know it's we're going to sound like broken records here but there's so much we still don't know yet we're digging into the details. And we're figuring out how we can swap certain money out for other money which might give us more flexibility. So, but we know there's a need. And it's important to note to that our. I'm getting a notice that my internet is unstable which is exactly why I came to the office was to avoid that so hopefully we can just keep plowing through like, like everybody's working on. But it's an indicative of what the problem is right as we invite more people here what are they looking for they're looking for a great place to stay they want to have a great education system. And they want to make sure that there's childcare and sort of all of those pieces to put things in context for our audience a little bit. We received these big numbers speaker Quincy, I think you mentioned these are huge numbers, just to put that in perspective for everybody. We received the state received 1.25 billion with a B last year, and we have a $6 billion budget so that shows you just how amazingly big it is. Thanks to Senator Leahy and his advocacy for the small state minimum, we do know that we're getting another 1.25 billion and a lot of that money is already spoken for in the sense of where it's going at this chunk is going to broadband or education or, or vaccination support so so we understand that we're just hoping that there are enough discretionary dollars to help businesses with additional grants survivability grants that type of thing so that's helpful. Speaking of sort of the workforce one area that we often hear a lot about the workforce, needing more folks you saw in the chat a little bit about needing to your technical students or certifications Vermont tech weight in there. And the area of manufacturing and we have a lot of manufacturing, spread out through all the state in the house the houseways and means committee is taking up the, an expansion on the manufacturing tax credit that's something that seems to be making some progress something that we're supportive of. I'm not sure how how well you folks are in depth into this but speaker Quincy is something that you'd like to chat a little bit about. Sure, I, you know, what we are doing right now and in our ways and means committee led by chairwoman answers looking at some other ways that we can help support businesses across the state during this pandemic and so there is the manufacturing, she was explaining it to me and I have to say, I, she was using hand graphics. It's fine. It was, but it was. I love talking tax policy with Janix I'm always learning new things and she was talking about how we have certain parts of the process covered and not the middle part and that was something for us to look at so they are continuing to do that analysis and that working committee along with some, some other tax bills. Those are just some things that the new genus of tax policy I agree with you. And I'm not sure everybody on the call wants to hear any of us talk through all the details of it. But I guess I would just say thank you for having the tax writing committee the policy committee which we, we don't always find some of the work are helpful finding this helpful is their attitude about how they're looking at businesses and thinking about other ways to help them in this pandemic is certainly helpful. I think to Betsy one of the things I've been thinking about is that, you know, although it's hard to hear if you're a business that's really really struggled. Not all of our businesses have struggled during this time. Some of our advancement manufacturers manufacturers in general actually have gone gangbusters during this time. We are in such a budgetary hole as we thought we'd be and so I think oftentimes in Vermont people forget that we have some amazing manufacturing that happens here and it isn't the kind of old school dirty manufacturing that people think of and it's something that I've been exposed to because I serve on the Economic Development Committee and I get to go out on the shop floors of course not now because of COVID. But that's a story that that you know we have to do better about telling our middle school and high school kids that it is not manufacturing that was their dads with their grandfathers, you know, manufacturing and that many advanced manufacturing is pumping so much needed revenue into our bottom line and so I'd love to talk more after this call and maybe we can pull together a group but a little bit of a think tank on this issue of what are those certification programs that we have that people are not pulling in and where is the you know where is the gap and I know from being a teacher so many of the families in my communities haven't known how to navigate the system so that continues to be a challenge and I know that we are doing a little bit more self reflection I think in education right now realizing we had several presidents who pushed really really hard both both parties Republicans and Democrats pushing everybody to get a four year degree. We know you needed additional education, it doesn't necessarily have to be a four year degree, and it takes some time to trickle down to the educational system at large but it's something that's very important to me. I think it's interesting when you talk about maybe all of us as parents or students not understanding what manufacturing is I think that's probably true for for a lot of jobs and they could probably all benefit from an injection of a big big old traditional marketing campaign to sort of say what you just said for certain marketing isn't always looked upon in a, you know, the strongest need in the legislature. So, I'd like to move from manufacturing to tourism a little bit another really important sector which you've both pointed out that is just been incredibly hurt by this pandemic sort of on the front lines with restaurants lodging and and retail. And we are hoping that as part of the budget this year that we could see an injection of larger funds for marketing to welcome people back when it's time. We realize it's not time yet we wish it were but when it's time because Vermont really prides itself on hospitality and one of the things that we have been doing a lot of lately is saying. No, not now and we're going to have to do something to counter that. So I'm curious if you both would support that initiative to have increased marketing to welcome people back to Vermont. It's something that I'm definitely interested in willing to look at I think right now again I keep on going back to what, what do we know the federal funds can help us with, especially since they did mention tourism as part, helping businesses in the industry. And so, absolutely. Yes, let's look at what that would cover and if this is something that could be part of it for sure. I also think we're starting to learn and I don't know how much of this would cover, but we also know that towns are going to be getting a special allotment of money as well. And so there may be some interesting opportunities there to figure out how towns can use the money coming in to have their own local efforts as well in terms of how you open up. There's a couple different areas to look at to see how we can work together to address the issue of marketing and how we can open back up in a safe way. I think that's what we all want. Senator Ballant. I was thinking about this a lot how we have asked the tourism, the hospitality industry, the restaurant industry to take some of the biggest most sustained hits in this emergency, and, you know, it was so clear from those first few weeks you had Senator Leahy at one point on the news saying, you know, we usually are welcoming you to Vermont we really want you to stay away. And I think we're going to have to rebuild the Vermont brand. And we are we're going to have to do a reboot, we're going to have to figure out, you know, how do we use the fact that we did such a great job during the pandemic that people did feel safe here. We used those stories of those people who fled from Boston in New York and felt like this was a safe place to be there's an opportunity here and I don't want to miss it. And so I think the federal funds are going to give us more flexibility to give the kind of infusion that this industry needs right now people feel completely kicked to the curve and don't know how they're going to make it through and I know, you know, you and I know we've got a couple of folks who've been around for a while who don't believe in investing in in tourism and marketing we all know that that's a reality. I want to continue the smart targeted work that we've done, you know, pinpointing those areas of New York and Boston and DC and New Jersey that we know are coming up here and you and amplifying that with federal dollars so I think there's an opportunity here and I think we owe it to those folks who've really taken it so so hard. So, I'm not going to go back to workforce but the chat is overly active right now with lots of workforce, but we can download that and send that to be great folks have it. But there are two issues that did come up in the chat just now that I think with our last 10 minutes I'd like to try to hit on both of those quickly and sure I'll keep us on on time. One of those issues is about unemployment insurance costs which I'm scrolling back I just see that even if manufacturers have done well during the past year, how can we prevent long term economic impacts, especially on ui costs and we also had Tim Smith the RDC up in Franklin County ask about that in the registration questions and there's some current proposals now that extend relief from charges to employers and also cap the amount of rate upgrades to prevent rate shock. But then there's also a proposal that would increase the weekly benefit amount by 20%, which would cost employers 35 million. And there's no doubt that the unemployed need help but they're getting quite a bit of that help and we've just seen that not only previous bills but this new federal bill there's also additional help there. I'm curious if you want to comment about is, you know, what are we can expect for UI changes this year. So I'll just jump in and say my committee is still very much in the middle of this conversation and we had, you know, fast and furious conversations and emails over this, you know, this break that we were just talking about. So this week in my committee is where we're going to get into the details we haven't we haven't made any decisions we know that this tension is absolutely in play here. And in terms of rate relief like we may have to be doing some kind of a stepped, you know, measurement in so it's not such a shock to the system and so obviously, you know we don't have much time left on the call but we're taking it up in the economic development and housing committee this week, Senator Sorokin is the chair, if you haven't already reached out to him with with your thoughts on this please get that to us. Great, thank you. Speaker Karinsky did you want to weigh in on UI even though it's in the it's in the Senate now or we did you said the Senate would take the lead on this one so we'll be taking that up when it comes over in the coming weeks. One of the other things quickly in the chat that was brought up with something that you folks had brought up and that is about the future of commercial real estate and what we can do innovatively there. I see my chat is scrolling rather quickly but I think that came in from Meg McGovern, who, you know with the urgent need for housing is there any thoughts on how to help housing developers who continue to find timelines that expand due to increased litigation that stall projects, and now construction costs that have doubled where funds going to affordable housing agencies purchasing motels to help vulnerable groups, but wasn't sure if there was any funding for these private developers who could help convert that to help with our housing. Any thoughts on that. I know that within my committee it has just been mentioned in passing it's not something we've had the bandwidth, frankly to take up yet but I know that we're looking at all avenues and it's certainly something offline that we've talked about that you're going to have space that is not going to be used. So, around commercial purposes so where's the opportunity there and sometimes it takes a little bit of being willing to look at it from a different angle, and so we were able to come together with the governor on some, you know, targeted relief to landlords to bring units back online. And so that was you know we were using public funds going to private landlords but we were able to bring up online a lot more units so there's another I think opportunity here and I don't have more than an idea about it and I know my committee feels the same way so again if you have some thoughts on how we can make this a reality, especially as we see what's coming around the federal package, I completely open to that because we need thousands of more units, not hundreds. Yeah, I agree with Senator Ballin I think we need a broader strategy around it but I will say that I am seeing it in the creativity of navigating our COVID world. I mean in little parts across the state and one in particular that I've been watching closely is bringing Burlington High School downtown Burlington into the Macy's building and I mean incredible amount of collaboration to pull this off in a couple months and I have to tell you if you haven't seen the photos or been in there yet please look what a what a transformation of a department store into a high school downtown. And I'm really proud of the effort that we were able to put forth but that's the kind of creativity that we can be using during these times and I've heard and had conversations with people about what you know we're talking about childcare and how does that fit into these open spaces and so I think we have an opportunity here to really look at it in a holistic way and come up with some creative ideas. Well thank you both we're just about out of time I'm going to ask you one last question sort of a quick quick question. We know from what you've what you've said here today that your focus is really going to be how do we deploy the money that's coming to the feds and the right ways and all the systems to help us get through that pandemic so thank you for that. What else would you one one quick thing that you think that we should be watching for that either the House or the Senate is going to be focused on in the remaining couple of months speaker Quincy. Sure, absolutely well I would just want to give a shout out to one of my constituents Megan Humphrey who's a small business. Hello old north end hi Megan I for us in the house pension, our unfunded pension liability is a huge burden on our budget and future budgets and I think it's important that we save people's pensions will also having a strategy to tackle this problem so that it's not taking up more and more of our general funds and leaving out other opportunities to help businesses across the state so that's something that we are we are focused on. Thank you. Senator ballot. Betsy, I had it right at the top of my head and then I lost it but let me think for a minute so it's fine. Oh, I know what it was. I know it was so one of the things that we have been wrestling with for several sessions now is looking at the smaller towns that can't be part of the tiff program and looking at what we're calling many tips and so allowing smaller towns that need a more, you know, targeted investment in their, you know, down down village or downtown has been exciting though it does it always comes up against a brick wall in my finance committee so one of the things that is intriguing to me is that I saw that there is additional money in this federal fund package going to water and sewer upgrades, and that is also the kind of investment that smaller towns and villages around the state need in order to grow and so I'm very curious about how we might be able to employ that. Thank you. Thank you both so very much for your time today we really appreciate it. We continue to think of ourselves as policy partners as we try to do what's best for Vermont and get businesses and people back on the road to recovery. And so as those of you who have attended today this wraps up our virtual policy series event. Thank you for attending. Thank you to speaker and senator ballot we really appreciate your time. Monday at three o'clock the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley will join us to share his perspective on federal policy that impacts businesses. Thank you all and have a great afternoon.