 Good evening and welcome to town meeting televisions continuing coverage of election 2022 November 8th is election day And of course you have the opportunity to vote between now and then you don't have to wait till election day You can send in your ballots. So hopefully you have not yet made up your mind or maybe you have about This particular district chitin in 24, which is s6. It's s6 district s6. Yes, exactly And so we have two candidates we have an incumbent elisa black who's a democrat and roger jerry Who is republican and we welcome you both and we let people know that you can give us a call at 862 3966 if you have any questions for the candidates, we're very happy to hear them But we've also prepared some which we have provided in advance So we're going to start with you elisa just to start Tell us why you're running for the state legislature and what qualifies you. Well, hello. Good evening Thank you for having us in today. I'm representative elisa black I am currently serving my First term as a legislator It would just be an absolute honor for me to be able to continue into the next biennium During the past two years I've advocated and I voted in support of key economic recovery efforts for our state And taken action and voted to ensure that we have a vermont that works for all of us If elected again, I plan on continuing to build on the foundation that I have created continuing to listen develop continue develop relationships within the state house And represent the values of our community There's a number of really key critical issues that are on the horizon coming up issues such as climate action gun violence prevention housing Access to affordable health care and affordable child care And of course reproductive liberty and that's just naming a few I think our community will really benefit from having a study Now experienced and thoughtful leader and someone who shares their values to represent them That's why i'm running again for reelection. Thank you elisa black. Thank you Roger jewelry. Tell us why you're running and what qualifies you for the position of state representative. Hi lauren. Thanks for having us today Well, my name is roger jewelry. I'm a father of three boys all in elementary middle and high school I'm a 36 year veteran of the vermont army national guard I have activated three times one in homeland defense right after the 9 11 attacks The second was in afghanistan as an embedded trainer training the afghan national army And the third was as a medevac company commander helicopter commander in iraq. So i've had some experiences with multinational work And of course a homeland security work I I offer my experiences in collaborative leadership for the for the voters of esx and For for this november. I don't have all the answers But I do promise to listen to multiple points of view before casting any any votes if elected And do you have any particular issues that are driving you to the legislature? There's nothing really particularly driving me to the legislature. I felt it was a Just the next step in my in my career of public service Okay, awesome. Well, let's start with the next question which would begin with you and that's about education The legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide I don't think we've ever stopped talking about how education is funding And so do you see a need to change the formulas how we do it? And how would you use the office to move that? education financing agenda forward Well, I think most vermonters will concur that our current tax model is It's pretty difficult to follow and I am still learning a lot a lot of the ins and outs about it So I'm intrigued about a concept of moving to more of a income based solution But I would want to learn more how it would affect the second and third over effects on on vermonters On on the agricultural You know on farmers as well as folks who live more in the towns I No matter where or how we choose a tax model for the future I would like to see the legislature leverage a little bit more on alleviating Some of the administrative burdens that I that I feel are on our schools And help them reduce costs that way. All right. Thank you very much Alyssa tell us your your approach to education financing and how you move it forward Well, first of all, I believe that you know fundamentally we have a collective responsibility for ensuring equitable outcomes for all of our students And moving forward on some of the work that we did in the legislature this year Last session we updated the weights Including significantly higher weights for multilingual and students and those that are living in poverty the weights are You know, they acknowledge that there are certain students Who are more expensive to educate? And pupil waiting not pupil waiting. Yes And I think that in the upcoming biennium we're going to have to work on Tweaking refining all of the progress that we made last year I think it's just really important that we are creating our next generation to become productive and Successful members of our community it benefits every single one of us So we've created in vermont a system of funding education That is actually really tax progressive However, it's also really confusing and people don't understand it I did a three-day webinar just to be able to understand the basics of how our system of education is funded I am in favor of simplifying it And in We had several studies that were put in in this year and they'll be coming out soon One of those is Looking at income based financing rather than property tax based financing of our education system I'm really looking forward and interested in seeing that one come out Um, you know, I also know and I trust that our committees on education and ways and means Are going to be doing looking at this very hard and doing their due diligence on it And I look forward to the possibility of possibly moving towards that type of financing system Thank you. Well, let's move on to the health care question because again health care is the largest Um budget item that we have in the state in many respects and whether it's our personal budgets or the state's budget And I wonder what you would like to pursue in terms of alleviating the cost of health care for vermonters Well, I could probably spend the whole 30 minutes on this topic. Um Can I do a real quick psa? Um as we're getting ready to go into open enrollment here There are much higher income qualifications currently in order to be eligible for tax subsidies And helped pay for premiums If in the past you have not qualified for these tax premiums, please please reach out to vermont health connect Because most likely if you weren't in the past you are now so psa over So I wanted to talk about health inequities a little bit during 2021 We established a health equity advisory commission And one of their charges is to provide guidance Coming up in the next year for our newly created office of health equity The commission is has been meeting and continuing to meet and next session We will be working on moving forward with their recommendations Um, we also have renewed partnerships with the federal government cms center for medicare medicaid services This is federal money that we are going to be able to use to provide More resources to vermonters I mean including, you know, we are receiving funding for wraparound services That are connected to housing, you know, keep people in stable housing Um, you know, I sit on house health care Um, my overarching goal when I sit in that committee room and I listen to testimony Um, I'm constantly asking myself is this equitable? Are we providing the right care at the right cost in the right place? and the right setting in the right time and um You know, we talk a lot about what our values are And we say and we talk about what services and types of care that we value And i'm always Are we prioritizing these things in our budgets? You know, if we say we value primary care Or mental health care Where are they in our budgets? Thank you very much Roger jerry, why don't you tell us your approach to addressing the inequities in health care and The financing model for the state Well, as far as the financing component goes I I don't have a lot of experience in how the state is funding their their health care I do have uh, I have spoken with some some experts in the field I can't tell you that I can pair it back everything that they have told me But one of our our biggest challenges Is the individual accepting ownership for their own health care And i'm not talking about paying for it and I understand we've got some some solid programs that can that can truly help people What i'm talking about is heart disease diabetes Those types of Self inflicted and I understand that some of it can be hereditary But we are eating ourselves To death in this nation And we need to be able to provide some sort of incentive and whether it's Jim memberships or whether it's Just making sure that when someone goes to the doctor that they are truly Following their doctor's advice Those are the what I see and what I hear are truly driving up health care costs not taking care of people We're going to take care of people But we've got to help folks take some ownership in their own health All right. Thank you very much. I'm going to just remind people you can give us a call at 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 That's 8 6 2 3 9 6 6 We'd love to hear from you if you have any questions for the candidates for state rep from Essex Criminal justice reform next question for you roger. How does chitney county address crime in your view? Do you think there's a problem with policing that needs to be reformed? And Another very big question. How would you address community safety? I believe we've created Several knowing situations between crime and law enforcement right now with our prison situation I believe we have well-trained police. I believe they're hard working and under staffed and there's several reasons for that Our politicians have created a situation where citizens do not trust the police and There are some understandably reasons why but at the same token Putting up red rick calling our police names Defunding them is not the right and proper way to address some of the problems that we're having I support Uh, excuse me. I support our police But we need to create a situation where Criminals understand that there are repercussions for their actions And I don't feel that in chitney county. We truly have those repercussions Now that being said I fully support restorative justice. I think it's an important component in law enforcement as well as Paying back to the community that being said we still need to trust our police and keep them well resourced All right. Thank you very much Your response to the question about community safety and police reform Yeah, so this is one of those questions you get and you think oh goodness So one thing you learn immediately when you enter the legislature Is you can't be an expert on everything? I am not an expert on this But I am really really fortunate that I serve with four other absolutely remarkable women as part of our Essex delegation And we rely on each other a great deal To be able to represent all of the constituents in our community And utilizing the strengths of each of us on this issue I rely on representative Karen Dolan. This is her issue. She guides me on this I trust her on this You know in chitney county. I think we're very fortunate every county is different But we have a really large tool box in to address crime Restorative justice like you mentioned we have drug courts, you know the traditional sentencing court diversion probation Having all of these tools are really essential Because crime is a really complicated issue The overwhelming majority of crime is nonviolent and It's really rooted in You know the gaps of care that we have in our communities poverty mental health Just inequitable system access We need to address crime and community safety by filling those gaps And creating a more equitable system of justice Thank you very much All right, our next question has to do with the ballot issues ballot questions one is proposition two and the other is proposition five What's your position on those two and maybe you could shed some light on what they are just as a matter of public education So I fully support both these constitutional amendments proposition five Will enshrine reproductive autonomy health care in our constitution Proposition two Clarifies remove some ambiguous language that's currently in our constitution around slavery So I will tell you I remember The day that I voted on prop five I remember waking up in the morning and just sitting with my coffee And this you know the enormous weight And responsibility of my vote on this And what an honor it was to cast that yes vote I just kept thinking Forever more that house journal is going to say Representative elisa black of essics Votes yes It was this enormous feeling of pride and I Wish that every single voter that walks into that voting booth or fills out your ballot at your table Is able to sense the same amount of pride that I was able to feel when I made that vote on the house floor Enshrining reproductive liberty and the removal of this ambiguous language and clarifying Slavery related language from our constitution is absolutely essential and I encourage everyone to vote yes On both these constitutional amendments. Thank you very much Roger jewelry your positions on proposition two and proposition five Well, my position truly relies on on the verminers The vote will be in the verminers hands. It won't be truly in roger juries hands That being said I've done a little bit of analysis on it and As far as prop two I I agree with you. I I think it does remove some ambiguous language I've read a few essays on it And I at first I won't pull any punches I was very concerned that it would affect our restorative justice programs Where it wouldn't allow for community service Some of the essays have come back and said that won't be the case because it's a mutual agreement So I can get fully behind prop two and and remove that ambiguous language Prop five I disagree with it Hold hardly I'm concerned that an amendment that is designed to protect abortion Does not include the word abortion in it at all and it enshrines itself in reproductive liberty It's not defined It's leaving it up to the courts to define and the legislature I feel did a punt where they could have simply said We want to enshrine abortion and the legislature will make no laws Restricting abortion. They didn't do that. They chose the language very specifically. So it would go to the courts I don't know where that would come out of but I don't think that that's something the court should be handling personally I am a pro choice republican, but I am Against prop five All right, may I respond just a little bit? I just want to clarify something It is really important for people to understand You know the language of proposition five or article 22 Um These rights are already in statute what Changing what adding article 22 to our constitution does Is it takes it out of the hands of future? fickle legislators to Remove and do strike calls from our statute That is why we are putting it in our constitution It changes nothing from what Current law is it just makes it so that current law cannot be changed So can you just clarify without going through another constitutional amendment? Yeah, so the the proposition doesn't mention abortion. Um, can you just talk a little bit about Why that is it removes the government from the decision making around reproductive health It is a decision between a family a woman Her husband her partner It is a decision between healthcare providers and that person It removes it from governors and legislators and courts or anything else That's what it does Just the last line In the proposition says unless otherwise deemed by the state So the state is retaining the ability to make changes as it see fits for the for the fickle For the fickle legislators I trust the people of vermont to continue to vote in legislators To uphold their values. I don't believe we need to add this ambiguous language in it All right, let's move on to the next question. Shall we? Language access what is the value to vermonters in supporting language access to information about health local government and education issues roger I think it's an incredible benefit to make sure that new vermonters can have access to services So I would I would support it in in many ways Feasible and reasonable you were telling me just before the interview some of the ways that you guys are taking care of it I think that's absolutely wonderful I do think it's equally important though that we provide english as a second language for those who would like to like to take it Mike's experiences in afghanistan were were kind of Unique and fun where We would have we would work through interpreters and our interpreters had Every good intention to trans translate as best they could But as americans we sometimes would use some idiomatic expressions that just did not translate well And there is a there's a benefit to being able to to speak the local language Then that's not it. That's not a dig. I just want to encourage and figure out ways that we can allow that to happen So you mentioned that you're translating into 16 different languages I barely speak english I'm going to have a hard time speaking with with vermonters or sx constituents who can speak You know another language than myself But if they have the ability that we can at least communicate somewhat And through google translate or any other Options I would love to see that happen. All right. Thank you roger Alyssa So language access benefits absolutely everyone and I have learned over the last two years So at the beginning of the coveted outbreak In multi-lingual communities the health flyers press releases press conferences. They were only in english I mean there were entire families that lost their income Our health department And our hospital resources were incredibly impacted by this and stretched Because there were entire communities that weren't receiving the information People got sick people died because of this I personally worked on a bill in 2021 to expand access to dr. Dinosaur for pregnant women and children Regardless of their immigration status We allocated money for coverage in the first year for that The problem is it wasn't utilized Because there was no strategy to be able to communicate it to the affected populations I mean there were women who could have had coverage for their pre-humanatal care and they didn't get it And it's not just languages This year the health care committee did a bill on expanding coverage for hearing aids While we're taking testimony We realized that the deaf and hard of hearing the very community that we were trying to help They couldn't be at the table Based on the current setup we had for communication We thought we were being accessible by being on youtube, but if you can't hear us that's not accessible We ended up bringing in sign language interpreters that was that was actually a lot of fun So you know, I mean when everyone has equal participation in our government our schools The health care system It absolutely benefits everyone if we can ensure that every voice has a seat at our tables. Thank you very much We're going to go to the lightning round. So Alyssa, why don't you tell us what your top priorities are for the next biennium? We have 30 seconds So if re-elected my top two priorities that I personally I'm going to be working on our gun violence prevention and suicide prevention I actually am already already working on these things in anticipation And hopes that I'm re-elected very good. Thank you. Roger. How about you? If the speaker of the house provides me the opportunity I would love to work on encouraging emerging emerging technologies into Vermont Our citizens truly care about the environment And I would love to capitalize on that to see how we can do anything from hydrogen generation To some of the the high-temperature salt storage For for energy I'd also like to see us Working more on encouraging more more housing development The median income in Essex is 77,000 You know if you use Dave Ramsey's model of 30 expenses for housing and taxes We're looking at mortgages of about 275,000 there's not few there's not houses that are 275,000 in Essex We need to figure out ways to reduce those costs and get those houses built. All right. Thank you So let me ask you this on coven 19. What are your top takeaways? On what you saw enacted during the pandemic either improvements or things that you learned that you think should be brought forward into policy I think we witnessed an incredible state response in in getting multiple resources to bear from the food support To the financial support to just the the messaging. I think I think our state did a very good job Uh, I got to put a plug in for the Vermont Army National Guard and the Vermont Air National Guard for the efforts that they did For immediate action response and for building that That secondary hospital over at the fairgrounds the That being said I I also know or believe that truth has a daytime group And as we as we learned and we as we learn more about this disease I think that we could have done a little bit more to open our economy and our school system sooner But that's using hindsight. All right. Thank you very much. Alyssa black. You're learning takeaway from COVID. Oh, well My my biggest thing was the benefits of telehealth For health care access mental health care access that has been incredible um Also, you know the need what we just talked about the need for language access And that we've also had this incredible transparency in governing with zoom access I mean I am on youtube every single day when I sit in committee and that will be there forever and ever and ever For anyone to watch at any time that they want It will be if they are private properly. That's true Quickly we'll have one more of these opiates and addiction. Do you support safe injection sites in vermont in chitin county? Yes, absolutely. I do. I support anything That will lead to less deaths. All right, roger. How about you? I do not Nations and other states that have tried this are pulling back on it. It's a failed model Okay, so why don't we go to closing statements? Oh, yeah, I know we have two minutes left So roger, we're going to start with you if you don't mind roger dreary Republican candidate for state representative in chitin in 24 Well, I really like like to thank you and the rest of the channel 17 staff for for having us over here today Uh, this has been an incredible opportunity. I thank alissa for for her time Uh, we're not going to agree on every issue There are multiple issues and lots to learn that are about this the whole processes But I do promise that I will always listen and take multiple points of view and account before making any decisions Looking forward to the opportunity. Thank you so much Alyssa black your closing comments. Yeah, and also I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to allow us to come in And roger for being here. It's always great talking with you You know, it has been my greatest honor to serve as a representative I mean, frankly, it is one of the most important things that I've ever done in my life And I hope to be able to continue to represent our community our values and Montpelier I'm humbly asking for your vote on november 8th or beforehand with your malin ballot And I want to really be able to continue the work that I feel like I'm just getting started on Wonderful. I want to thank you both for joining us. This has been very interesting I love doing these forms and I appreciate that you're both here tonight. Alyssa black is a democrat and she's an incumbent And she is running for reelection roger dreary is a republican and he is the challenger and we are talking about today the district 24 it's hard to imagine that there's so many districts in chitin county But there are and we are also wanting to encourage you to be sure to vote On or before november 8th and of course to tune in to town meeting tv's continuing coverage of all the candidates in chitin county And also election night results on november 8th starting at 7 30. So thanks for watching. Have a great evening