 good news to talk about today with a wrap up of the legislative session but I wanted to start by commenting on the horrific act of domestic terrorism in Buffalo over the weekend. This is a stark reminder that the embers of hate and white supremacy are still flaring up and that it's on all of us to extinguish those embers when we see them and find ways to stop these horrible acts from happening in the first place. It's important for all Vermonters to recognize this still work that needs to be done and also know that many Vermonters of color could use our support and extra kindness right now. Next I thought I'd spend some time today talking about the legislative session in particular some of the investments that will be made with historic state surpluses and federal funding. I know you've heard me talk a lot over the last year about how we can't squander this once in a lifetime opportunity and about how to make the most impactful transformative investments that will get us the best return on investment for years to come. As I said in my adjournment address to the legislature it's the areas of disagreement that get most of the attention at the end of the session. But in the end by working together we really did accomplish a lot. Last year when we learned about how much we get through ARPA funding I laid out a vision with five buckets I felt would best serve Vermonters. 250 million for housing over 200 million to combat climate change 200 million for water sewer and storm water infrastructure 250 million for broadband and over 170 million for economic development. As you may recall as part of our negotiations last year I insisted the budget include intent language that in principle committed additional money to these buckets again this year so we could follow through on what we started. And I'm pleased the legislature largely stuck to this agreement. For example in this year's budget the legislature funded the second half of the 250 million broadband request which will provide the vast majority of Vermonters with internet access. I also requested historic funding for climate change mitigation and this year they funded my 80 million dollar request for weatherization 10 million for EV infrastructure 14 million for clean vehicle incentives millions for grid upgrades home electric systems and much much more. We'll also invest another 100 million plus in water sewer and storm water infrastructure which will give communities across the state more opportunities to grow and thrive. And even though there were some debates about issues attached to the housing bills we worked out many of our differences and we'll be investing hundreds of millions to build new homes help those experiencing homelessness and make it easier to build in places we want development like downtowns and village centers. Now I didn't get everything I wanted and never do and as a reminder the legislature vetoed their fair share of my proposals as well but in the areas I just discussed Vermonters will benefit for decades to come as a result of the decisions we made this year. There will be more time in the weeks ahead to talk about all the good in many of these bills and those who deserve credit especially as we start receiving them from the legislature to sign. I look forward to seeing shovels in the ground across the state this summer. With that I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine. Thank you Governor. Before I get into my remarks which will span therapeutics surveillance report testing and infant formula I want to first acknowledge the tragic milestone that the U.S. has reached. One million people have died due to COVID-19. It's truly staggering to contemplate that many lives taken by the virus and the even higher number of people who bear the grief their lives forever changed by the loss of a loved one. We should take a moment to remember the now 654 lives lost here in Vermont. Even if we did not know them personally each one was a family member friend and neighbor who mattered and who can never be replaced. So my first update is on Pax Lovid. We've been telling Vermonters regularly about this very effective antiviral pill for those at higher risk for COVID-19. On Friday we reached out to the health care system and through our health alert network to help decrease any barriers to getting this treatment to Vermonters. We provided user-friendly tools to help in the decision making process. We encourage clinicians to prescribe even if symptoms are mild to prevent the symptoms from potentially worsening later in the course of the illness. We also suggest they have a triage system in place within their office so these patients can get the medication as quickly as possible. Now while vaccination does prevent serious outcomes some people also do need an antiviral to keep them out of the hospital and those are of course people who are older or have certain medical conditions so I asked them to not assume that their case will be mild or that mild symptoms mean you shouldn't seek treatment. You just don't know how things are going to progress and don't think you're saving this valuable and highly effective treatment for someone who may be more needy because we currently have a plentiful supply through the state. In fact we just received 4,000 treatment courses this week so please be on the safe side and reach out to your health care provider if you test positive. Our new weekly COVID-19 surveillance report was published last week and as I previewed a week ago this report presents the most valuable data we're using to monitor COVID-19 in Vermont now and moving forward. It shows trends in who is coming to the emergency room with COVID-like illness, an important indicator of virus activity as case counts are no longer reliable. It still includes case trends though, impact on hospitals, numbers of outbreaks, and vaccination rates and there's also information on wastewater monitoring and the proportions of variants over time. You can see at a glance the statewide risk level at the top of the report. As I said previously at this point in the pandemic, you really should not be basing your decision on daily fluctuations in case numbers. The statewide risk level is the most important piece of information needed to make decisions about taking prevention steps based on your own risk assessment, personal circumstances, and risk tolerance. And a reminder that this case dashboard will no longer be updated after tomorrow. The vaccine dashboard however will still be available. We will also begin to sunset other individual weekly reports as the relevant information is already included in the surveillance report. These will include self reported test results, the long-term care facilities report, the pediatric case report, and the weekly data summary. Our teams will continue to collect, analyze, and respond to data in real time. They've managed a huge volume of information and produced various reports throughout the pandemic and we would not have been able to respond without them. I also want to thank Vermonters for paying close attention to this data. Adapting to these changes will be a transition but we continue to evolve, learn, and use the most effective tools to keep everyone safe. Moving to testing. As we move out of the emergency phase of the pandemic and incorporate our COVID work into the regular day-to-day public health work, we continue to evaluate how we can make sure our efforts to protect Vermonters are sustainable and shared across existing systems of care. You've already seen changes concerning vaccination. After our highly successful efforts to vaccinate Vermonters through large-scale clinics, vaccination is now returned to its traditional home, at medical providers' offices and at pharmacies. Our next step will be a similar transition for our testing infrastructure, shifting COVID testing from a state-run system to the healthcare system and pharmacies. Now, our testing efforts in Vermont have been nothing short of incredible throughout the pandemic. From the early days of collaborating with the National Guard for pop-up PCR testing that was sent to the Health Department lab, to setting up statewide sites through our contractor and sending specimens to outside labs, to bringing on healthcare partners to run joint COVID testing and vaccine centers, and finally, in our most recent phase, distributing home take-home tests. We're seeing that demand for PCR testing is slowing as at-home tests are more convenient and give you quicker results. At-home tests are widely available and a critical tool as we deal with an increasingly transmissible version of the virus. Pharmacies have come on board with various testing options on site, and providers can still assess symptomatic patients for testing as well. Remember, our public health recommendations are very focused on who really needs to test now, and those are people with symptoms or close contacts who are not up to date on their vaccinations. This is the most effective way to lower the chances of virus spread so those who need to isolate can do so. Testing is also critical to getting connected to treatment quickly, as we've talked about previously, if you're at higher risk of COVID. So three options at-home tests, pharmacy testing, and healthcare provider testing will continue to meet all of our testing needs. And with these positive developments, public test sites are planned to close in a phased manner through the month of May and most of June. We are fortunate that home testing supplies are widely available and we are committed to this remaining as convenient and free as it is now. We'll make sure people have ready access to what they need since that's the best first option if you develop any symptoms. So you can order a free third round of tests from the federal government, eight tests per order, at covid.gov. You can also make an appointment here in Vermont to pick up tests at a state-run site through the end of June. And for that, you go to healthvermont.gov slash testing. Finally, I'd like to address formula in some of the anxiety that some are feeling about the shortage. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA are taking steps to address these shortages. And with recent news from the FDA and Abbott Laboratories about reopening the closed manufacturing plant, we're hopeful supply to Vermont will increase, but we know that will take weeks to several months. Currently, the situation I understand is frustrating for many parents and caregivers. The health department, including our WIC Women, Infants, and Children program and local health offices is working to support families in keeping babies well-fed with appropriate substitutes and recommendations. In addition, the Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets have been reaching out to local grosses and retailers. Everyone should be aware that small stores in some pharmacies may have adequate formula supplies if they can't find it in some of the larger supermarkets they're searching in. Critical to the safety of babies, I do want to share some important cautions for people who are responsible for their feeding. First, families should not substitute goat's milk, cow's milk, or plant-based milk for infant formula. Second, most important, do not water down the formula you do have. Third, as a general rule, don't make homemade formula. And last, pay close attention to the online retailers of infant formula to ensure they are legitimate and safe sources. Order only from well-recognized distributors and pharmacies. Anyone with questions about formula options should be in contact with their pediatrician's office. You can ask if they have in-office samples or can suggest a similar formula appropriate for their particular infant's needs. In addition to all this, for those who are expecting a baby soon, those are encouraged to consult with a provider about breastfeeding their infant. Our Vermont WIC program provides breastfeeding support and resources to new families. You can find more information at healthvermont.gov. I'll turn it back to the Governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine. And I'll open up the questions. Sorry, who folks in the room? Your decision to seek reelection, how did you arrive at this juncture? And when did you get that? Yeah, you know, I carefully considered my options. That's been along six years. But at the same time, understanding what we're faced with today, we've made some historic investments, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, and investments that I think will give us a high return on the investments. We have to follow through on them. And we need a seasoned team in order to do that. And that's what we provide. It isn't just me. It's many of the commissioners and secretaries that are part of our team that will carry the load. As well, I'm worried about inflation and a possible recession as a result of the inflation. And again, I think we need a seasoned team to get through that and help us through that. So I decided to move forward with another two years and look forward to the opportunity to do that if voters will have me. Will you be actively fundraising, like in the years past, or is it going to be similar to 2020 when you weren't actively fundraising on the campaign? Right. We want to continue to do the work at hand right now and put all these measures into place, put the funding into place, and follow through on our commitments throughout the legislative session. So I would say any campaigning would happen after Labor Day. Governor Scott, only one other candidate has raised thus far. What kind of race are you anticipating or preparing for? As I've done in the past, I typically talk about what I can bring to the table, what I can accomplish, what I think I can do. I don't talk about other candidates who are in the race. We still have a number of days to go. We'll see who else surfaces. I don't believe I've ever had a race throughout my political life where I haven't had a primary. So I'm still expecting someone to surface the challenge for the primary. So we'll see what happens, but we'll learn a lot more over the next couple of weeks. You've said you won't debate, won't start campaigning until after Labor Day. If you do get a primary appointment, will you debate them? We'll see. We'll see if there's a legitimate candidate that surfaces. That might be different. And do you have a litmus test for what defines a legitimate candidate? No. Governor, what did you say that you realized you wanted to run for reelection? Did something you knew several months ago or just something that you knew just several weeks ago you decided? No. I mean, I really was focused on the legislative session and throughout. I didn't know how long it was going to go. I may look back even just a week ago. I wasn't sure whether it was going to end last week or not and whether we would be able to accomplish everything that we had hoped to accomplish. Again, having gotten through that last week brought me to the realization that I had to make a decision, obviously. And I think it's best to put a team in place that can carry this load that is here. And again, I've been concerned about inflation for the last six months and I'm concerned about the impact that has on everyday Vermonters and the recession that could come as a result. So having this team, this talented team that I'm so blessed to have there to move forward, I think is important. And Governor, if you are a reelection for Governor, I guess what are some goals that you would have for you and your team on moving forward? Yeah. I mean, what you see is what you get. Some of the same concerns I had five or six years ago are still here today. Our demographics being one, trying to grow the economy for more affordable or more tax relief. I mean, they're all the same. We haven't, we haven't accomplished all we hope to, but there's still time left in the game, so to speak. Do you have any conversations with anybody at the RGA about this decision? I have not. We're set to see a lot of turnover in executive offices and in the legislature. Did that factor into your decision? Well, in the executive offices, that's somewhat normal. I mean, we see that, you know, these are tough positions. They require a lot of dedication, a lot of work, and so we see that turnover, so to speak. In terms of the legislature, I'm actually surprised at the amount of turnover I was not expecting to see at last count, 11 out of the Senate. That's over a third. That's significant. And many of those who are not seeking reelection in the House as well are committee chairs. So this is going to be a sea change in many respects in terms of institutional knowledge and some of the expertise they bring with them. I offer my thanks for all their years of work. And sorry to see many of them go. It sounds like that concerns you? I mean, it is a concern when so many leave at the same time. And again, when you think about this, it may not be over. I don't know who else is running in the Senate, but 11 confirmed not running? That's significant. A lot of these folks are people with whom you served, when you were in the legislature. To what extent do you lose some of your ability to cooperate and collaborate when these faces aren't as familiar? Yeah, it's just a different atmosphere. Obviously, we'll have to establish relationships with whoever is elected. But as you said, I served with many of them in different capacities, whether it was in the Senate or as presiding over the Senate. Seeing some of them go is a bittersweet. I hope the best for them. They put in a lot of years on many of them. And again, their institutional knowledge and their understanding of the inner workings of the legislature are going to be missed. But as well, bringing new faces is good as well. Different perspectives. So if I'm successful in being reelected, we will work with them in trying to find areas where we have common ground. Dr. Levine, you mentioned a series of steps parents should take should they be unable to find formula for their kids. And I'm wondering, are you aware of any families that have exhausted those steps and still not been able to come up with any formula? And is there any plan to create some sort of like, I don't know, strategic reserve or baby formula to stake and step in where people are truly hard of? Yeah, so at the state level, I'm not aware of the dire circumstance that you just outlined. Though I like others have seen on the national news some desperation. What we've noticed is that around the country, it all depends on where you are. It's not a consistent theme in every town and in every community, everywhere in every state, but the consistency is there's a shortage, but some are affected more than others. So at the moment, we don't believe there's any one of them want to is at that point of desperation. But obviously, we're in tune with what's going on. We did discuss this during a staff meeting this morning. And for anyone out there who is having difficulties finding formula, give the health department a call or give us a call at 828-3333. We're working across different agencies to see if we can develop some sort of an inventory. So we know what's out there and where you can get it because there are certain niche places where you may not have considered that have formula. So we are going to reach out and trying to develop some sort of a list working with the health department in order to accomplish that. So give us a call again, 828-3333. And we'll point you in the right direction or we'll have some information for you, but we're developing that as we speak. No, no, no, just find out where it is. And because as Dr. Levine said, we don't think we are at that point of being highly concerned in the state at this point in time. But we want to make sure that in certain areas, there might be further need than others. And we just want to be able to point them in the right direction so they can find the formula that they need. Warnings to parents not to, are you seeing increased doctor's visits of parents doing that right now when they can't find a formula or are you just saying that it's a cautionary thing? It's mostly a cautionary thing, absolutely. And I'm sure there's been more connection between parents and their pediatrician's offices because this is a stressful time. So they're getting a lot of guidance as well. And the pediatrician's national organization is putting out helpful media reminders for parents as well. But the problem with this, of course, is there's plenty of things we can tell parents not to do. And at a time of shortage, as the governor was alluding to, we try to be helpful in directing them to where they can find this valuable commodity. But it's very hard to tell them something proactive they can do in terms of the formula itself, except to not mess with it too much and use only something that's really going to be beneficial and not in any way harmful to their child. Get back to the legislative session briefly. There's a number of bills that have on their way here to that. So one of the more significant ones, the tax policy package, the military exemptions, and others. What were your thoughts on where some of those policies or proposals landed? Yeah. Well, I like tax relief, obviously, in any form. I think we could have done better. I think we could have been broader, as I had said previously in different press briefings. But in the end, we have a tax package that gives relief to certain populations. And so barring any technicality that we haven't seen, I'll be signing that. As we end this biennium and working with the Speaker and the Pro Tem over the past two years, how would you describe the atrium for the relationship? But the ability to work together, I mean, how would you characterize that over the past two years? Yeah, you know, it's just there's no playbook on this, right? Where all were impacted, especially the legislature, in terms of legislating via Zoom, which has been unprecedented. And it took, I think, a bit, especially in this second half of the biennium, to get back together. Because I think we missed a lot. And it's no fault of the legislature. It's just the situation we found ourselves in. But it left a lot of the public out, I believe. And it left a lot of the camaraderie that happens, the talking amongst members and senators, amongst themselves in the hallway, and so forth, to talk through some of the situations that were coming before them. It also prevented us from having that relationship in the hallways and other places with individual members. So, you know, I don't think it helped the legislative process, but we got through it. And that's the important part. And came to agreement in the end. But I would say, I mean, I was speaking with them at least every other week, the speaker and the pro tem. We'd alternate. So I was speaking to one of them every week. And we had very cordial discussions and very honest and open discussions. So that I thought I thought things work through as best as they could under the circumstances. You're still looking at that. But but that will again be signed unless there's some technical problems with the bill. As I said, the universal meals, I had some hesitation. And I voiced that during the discussion. I thought we should just go with universal breakfast because of the price tag. And and I thought it was somewhat perverse to think in the future that we would have people who are more vulnerable that don't have the financial means we're actually going to be impacted by paying for those more affluent families to have universal meals. So I still feel that's the case. I'm concerned about where we're going to fill the gap in the future. What what tax proposal they may come up with in order to do that. But we're using surplus dollars one time surplus dollars this year to to again for the third year with FEMA funding in the past or federal funding in the past two years will fulfill our what some feels an obligation to move forward throughout this year with the universal meals. And but we're going to have to have the tough conversations in the future is how do we afford all that we're spending on me. We were we're spending at a very fast rate with one time money. And so next year with again inflation possibly recession that's when some of the tough decisions will be made. So fair to say you anticipate this program being reflected as a priority in your budget proposal. In not in in that form not as a universal plan but again we want to I want to make sure that we are helping those families who can't afford to feed their kids. I believe it's important for them to have have funding so that we can supplement funding. And I think we've done that in the past with some federal help and we'll continue to draw down federal funding in order to do that. But we'll see again some have made the argument on both sides of the aisle that maybe a universal meal program just breakfasts to get the kids started out in the day with with everyone receiving the same thing would be beneficial. But again we'll see what happens in the future. Governor summer also you may have heard the idea of building a new bridge between Grand Isle and Blacksburg. Is this something that you need or something that you support? That may be more of a want than a need. I think we have higher priorities in the state but if New York wants to build a bridge between New York and Vermont they can have at it and they could pay for it too. Should we expect any other details? I think you should expect there may be. We only have seven bills right now. There's probably 70 total that are coming our way at some point. Many of them were rushed through at the end. I think people should expect to see more. I can't tell you which ones but there are some bills that I have concerns about. There are many I talked about during the session so I think they'll be coming in at a rapid pace and you'll know about them fairly soon because we have to get through them once they get to us. We have five days to sign our veto. Is it fair to say that you've already made a decision that you're going to veto that actively? Yes. That one. You can take that one to the bank. We'll move on to the phones. Starting with Greg Lamarowe, County Courier. Greg Lamarowe. We'll try Tim McQuiston from Vermont Business Magazine. Hi Governor. The revenue report came in late last week and it was another sort of a whopping return on the personal income tax. How is that going to affect how you look at the state finances going forward in the next legislative season? Yeah I think we'll have to see if this is consistent. If we repeat this we'll have to wait for the next quarter to make any decisions in regards to that. I mean it's good news in some respects but we know that inflation has driven a lot of the labor costs have been increased because of the demand and shortage of the workforce so that's driving a lot of the personal income as well. The consumption taxes came in pretty well. It sort of reflects well on the economy right now but the transportation numbers again are problematic. Do you think there's going to have to be some structural changes with the T fund going forward? Well I do think there's going to have to be structural changes in the future because we are going to be moving towards electrification and so we aren't going to be able to count on the per gallon fuel taxes to fund the T bill. So it's going to be a natural progression to something else but I think we're all faced with this federally as well so hopefully the government will take the lead on this Congress will act and because they're tied to this as much as we are. Okay great thank you. Guy Page, Vermont Daily Chronicle. Governor the shooting in Buffalo has raised questions in the minds of many about first of all whether our Vermont schools which have a growing problem with mental health that much has been acknowledged whether we are flagging potential problems like this disturbed alleged disturbed young killer in Buffalo. Are we doing enough to to identify potential problems and prevent something like this from happening? That's that's the first part of the question. The second is here in Vermont we have our own problems growing crime problems as you acknowledged last week seems like there's a they're shootings almost almost daily. Well not quite but almost daily and what what are we doing on a state level to address these these problems many of them are related. Obviously concerned with what's we're seeing across the country here in Vermont as well in terms of gun violence and some of the violence we're seeing the systemic racism white supremacy some of these extreme groups extremist groups that are infiltrating some of our communities so we are always keeping a watchful eye but but I'm still concerned I'm always concerned it's what keeps me up at night so I have great faith in our team at public safety and throughout that we're again keeping a watchful eye but we can't see everything so I would say to Vermonters if you see something say something we saw that in Fairhaven a number of years ago and if it wasn't for someone coming forward I think we would have had a incredible horrific act happen he would have got it wasn't a question of which day or it was just a question it wasn't a question if it was a question of which day and so we need that information we need you to keep feeding us that information if you see something say something I might ask Commissioner shirling if he has anything to add from his perspective thanks governor I'll lock him back in that question there have been approximately 47 unrelated incidents not including pounds of shots being fired in in Vermont so far this year those range from firearm homicides or three shootings with non-lethal injuries there's been eight so far 25 incidents in which firearms were fired and another 11 where property was struck by by bullets so you know we as we talked about last week we remain concerned about that in terms of schools we have a robust school safety program run by vocal and county and state law enforcement in conjunction with the agency of education and the division of emergency management and the law school safety plans in place and and resources that go into both early identification of potential problems and interventions when necessary and then the final piece as the governor observed both large cross sections of firearm related incidents statewide are drug related there are robust efforts in drug interdiction on a federal state and local level large operation that was publicized last week credit to interdiction in the particular community treatment that the department of health is spearheading for those with addiction it does seem that those efforts while making some grounds in some areas are you know swimming upstream against a flood of opiates and and related substances so there's a lot more work to be done and as as we highlighted last week in the governor and says it you managed to go now cooperation and and by witnesses to events in particular but also people on calling with early warnings around whether it's odd behavior street level drug dealing houses where there are a significant amount of short durations of traffic things of that nature are all helpful to the overall effort governor and let me just commissioner shirling thank you very much for that answer i follow up question you mentioned the flood of opiates there have been a flood of opiates over the southern border and governor i wonder if you would be willing to sort of go on the record is saying that the biden administration that's not done such a great job in stopping the the flow of opiates across the southern border we're seeing fentanyl is the is the issue i think at this point in time and it's not just coming from the southern border although i acknowledge a great deal of it is coming from there but coming from china as well in other places and it's relatively inexpensive and is being manufactured even in within the in the country so that's a huge concern and i think that it's uh you know the the biden administration has to do a better job in and trying to stop the illicit migration of of the illicit drug into the country from all standpoints and i think congress needs to act as well so we're all in this together i think we should have that common goal of preventing some of what we're seeing this isn't going away it's not getting better the pandemic has made the the situation even worse and we have a tough road ahead of us i will also i will also say that i'm concerned on a state level as well as across the country in terms of the workforce and that goes across all sectors and that goes for law enforcement as well and we're you know we're aging or a lot of our law enforcement are retiring and we aren't getting as many coming in as we hope and to get the training necessary training in order to protect for bonners so that's going to be another level of of effort that we are going to have to to continue to work on because we have a an obligation to protect for monitors public safety is one of the highest priorities of any government and and we need to to look there even dispatchers are becoming more and more difficult to fill so across the board this workforce challenge is impacting every single sector and that includes public safety thank you Kevin mcallum seven days governor can you hear me okay i can great um i have a couple questions for you and then just one short one for dr levin um governor you mentioned uh earlier in your remarks that uh you didn't get everything you wanted out of the legislative session can you just give us a couple of uh items that uh didn't uh didn't come your way military pensions act 250 more tax relief okay that's helpful um you mentioned uh in your discussion about the meals a concern about funding a gap um in the future and i wonder and i understand that right that that you don't want to um move forward with a program that's going to burden the state with a with a large large expense is going forward that you can afford um and i wonder how you feel about the rental registry bill because the rental registry bill is something that you objected to the rental registry but that would have paid for the program and the bill now proposes to go forward with the program without the mechanism to pay for it so i wonder if you have a similar concern about that inspection program now that it doesn't have a funding source yeah i think we're we're talking about apples and oranges um the rental registry was 200 dollars or no it was 45 dollars i think per unit or something like that uh and that we have yeah that would have paid for uh the the program extra fees that would have been passed on to to tenants um because it wasn't going to be absorbed by the by those who owned the the houses and and um and um rental units um so we had thought uh all along uh that we could we we would be able to use some of the general fund uh in order to accomplish what they had set out to do and for those uh communities that couldn't do their own inspections that uh the public safety would be able to do that with the funding out of the general fund so we were able to accomplish that my concern with again with the um with the universal meals is that we are going to be asking those depending on what tax you use the consumption tax taxes are or something uh that would could possibly impact the very people we're trying to protect in order to provide uh meals for more affluent families and that just doesn't seem fair to me i think okay i understand that distinction i guess my question more is um aren't you if you sign the bill if you sign if you sign you know 210 wouldn't you essentially be signing up for a statewide rental registry inspection program that does not have a long term source of funding for it you be spending one time money to set a thought uh that's a larger government there's no rental registry in the bill uh at this point in time it provides it provides for uh fire safety to inspect as needed so that's not a rental registry um and again we're talking about um maybe a million dollars a year versus 30 million dollars a year for the universal meals okay i understand all right one more question then um you mentioned uh that the pandemic in speaking with and building relationships with the legislature has sort of contributed to some of the difficulty that you've been in close contact with legislative leaders but that you know some of the personal opportunities for personal conversations to work out differences were limited um in part by the pandemic i think legislative leaders have also used the phrase moving the goalpost a lot to describe their relationship with your administration on a lot of key bills they feel as though often the conversations with your administration about bills have not been either forthright or have shifted over the course of the legislative session and i just wanted to give you an opportunity to respond to that yeah well i disagree um i think i've been very clear about my objections and many of the bills and i would say communication has been part of the problem but i would say some of that communication is on their part um for instance the pension bill um i would think once they came to agreement that they might have come to me and said governor what do you think about this agreement that we have with the unions we've been handling these what do you what do you think about this is this something you can get behind and we didn't we didn't have that conversation they never came and presented that to me we had to learn about it through ledge council so again communication is a two-way street um i don't think i moved any goalposts i heard some of them saying that they satisfied my concerns with the with the clean heat standard for instance by having a check back provision well again you don't know that you whether you satisfied my concerns unless you talk to me about that and present is exactly what you're thinking when we were presented with that after they proclaimed that they satisfied all my concerns it didn't satisfy all my concerns after reading it so again that could have been prevented we could have done things differently but in the i think in the end we will come up with we've done this before another piece of legislation over the years i think we'll have a better approach to this clean heat standard than what was presented today i don't think anybody was happy with the end product for different reasons so i think we'll have something better and we'll work on that over the the summer to present something to the legislature okay great thanks and then my question for dr larine is very simple in one instance he mentioned that the testing sites would be closing in may and then in another instance he mentioned that people can continue to pick up testing kits at testing sites through june can you just clarify that please dr sure process is being organized and developing in may but most of these sites will be phased out during the month of june people who want to take advantage of getting the free tests from the sites if they go to the registration site on health for mark dot gov as they would normally do they'll be able to actually set up an appointment to pick that up so they'll know the dates that are available to them during this time frame thank you very much i appreciate it both of you chris roey newport daily express and do you recommend uh the booster for five to eleven year olds is it is it necessary given the the state of the virus in vermont lots of good questions so this you know as as so so often has happened during this pandemic this news comes out you know as we're preparing to walk into the auditorium so haven't read all of the materials that the fda has put out in their release as you point out this will go to the advisory committee for immunization practice which advises the cdc and i suspect before the end of the week we will hear from them regarding their recommendation which is really what the clinical practice community will use to make decisions when it comes to the five to eleven year old i again have to congratulate vermonters though we're at about a 56 percent rate of these kids getting fully vaccinated at this point in time that's probably double what the average is in the country still room to move obviously so i'm much more concerned with getting the extra 44 percent of five to eleven year olds vaccinated than actually the need for a booster for the ones who already have but i will weigh the data and the information that comes out this week and be able to offer a firm recommendation once i've seen that certainly you point out that with amicron and the newer sub variants of amicron things have changed many many of these eligible kids now have actually had the infection they are still eligible for a vaccine to enhance their amount of immunity we all know that the outcomes in that age range are pretty much uniformly good with very uncommon exceptions around the country and that in vermont we have had nobody hospitalized in an icu that's of pediatric age for many months this year since amicron has been around certainly we've had cases and we've had an occasional hospitalization for amicron not in the icu but most of what we're seeing is viruses other than sars-cov-2 virus impacting our pediatric population we're also anticipating in the next couple weeks what the FDA's decision will be regarding the under 5 age group so more to come on that as well thank you very much for secretary french speaking with kids there's about a month until the end of the school year and it's been a little over two months since aoe and health department shifted their school recommendations for mitigation guidelines you had mentioned it was time for schools to get back to their principal task of educating curious if anything in these last two months has been gathered in terms of data and information about how vermont school children are doing the academic impact of the pandemic sort of the gaps that need to be built and what is the work for schools heading into summer in order to prepare for next school year it seems like there's probably a lot of bridges but still need to be built yeah it's a great question a lot there um yeah certainly the focus right now to get through the rest of school year on a celebratory note uh it's been a hard year in schools and you know it's wonderful weather we're having it's just a great time in year in school so um hopeful people take advantage of the normal opportunities to just celebrate the school year we will be making an announcement shortly um positioning to what we call the recovery phase of our planning at the state level um you're right we do want to put a focus on academic learning loss and the social emotional needs of students um you know there's also a component on our wellness initiative pertaining to staff so all those things will be coming together more for the fall but we'll be making that announcement here shortly essentially just to um start making that transition but leverage our federal dollars that have been reserved at the state level to make that impact at the local level and um this time is uh a busy time for uh hiring um announcing of school positions um you know retooling staff things like that what are you hearing from the superintendents and folks at the school level about staff and concerns um and and having the person necessary as they begin building their plans for next year yeah it's a very real uh challenging situation we hear fairly regularly from folks with the difficulties of hiring particularly some of the more acute areas like special education um but you know it's not unique education you know the hiring and workforce issues are across all sectors our economy um I think you know an education that's uh been very challenging in the last couple of years and uh that certainly has made recruitment more difficult um but you know just the overall demographic challenges that the workforce are trying themselves out in education and we'll have some work to do uh to to be recruiting and retaining the staff in the schools okay thank you Aaron Botanko VT Digger I think these questions are for Dr. Levine um I have some questions about the transition to this new kind of testing strategy um I guess the first question would be kind of a practical one for people looking to do any kind of international travel many countries still require PCR testing specifically whereas um a lot of doctors offices are you know giving wait times or scheduling for an advance for mom essential kind of appointments um if there a convenient place for people to find PCR tests within 72 hours of leaving out a flight yeah if they can't find it within their own health care provider setting I would say the pharmacy setting would be uh able to accomplish that for them PCR tests are widely available there okay and is that kind of list of pharmacies that provide that part of what's on the department health website the list of pharmacies is I'll have to check and get back to you if it actually identifies um the type of testing that's available um I'm also wondering um you know especially when you are testing positive for COVID-19 and you're trying to figure out whether you are still testing positive you people often test multiple times a row and that sounds like it can be potentially financially burdensome um now that the state around testing sites aren't giving away um you know easily affordable antigen tests or lamp tests so uh what are the options for Vermonters who might struggle to afford antigen testing yeah so for people who have uh health insurance that usually covers the cost of up to eight take-home test kits per month and that includes commercial insurance that includes um Medicaid you can show your insurance card at a pharmacy counter for people who are having trouble accessing testing we have been sending them um referring them to federally qualified health centers free clinics or some of our own Vermont Department of Health local health offices to try to make up for that gap in case they have trouble accessing the tests that they need so I think all of that will continue and um there's also still the Biden administration's opportunities through mail to get test kits for them as well you prefaced your question though with an interesting thought many people are repetitively testing themselves once they know they're positive and I would submit that they're probably going a little overboard some of them on that because there really should not be a need to continue to test yourself day by day by day if you're feeling completely well and have resolved your symptoms we don't know as much about the correlation between a positive antigen test seven days in in a person feeling completely well and their ability to infect others but suffice it to say there are lots of people who are mingling in society who don't feel poorly and may actually be an asymptomatic person and have the ability to infect others too so I would hate for people to keep testing themselves day by day by day and suddenly they've done five or six tests even though they're feeling much better at that point in time that's that's probably not a good strategy and we'll utilize their free tests and then they'd end up having to find more the department of health still recommend that people test negative before getting out of quarantine you mean isolation yes sorry yeah so that that recommendation is no longer on our website if you're five days as elapsed and you have no symptoms and you're feeling quite well day six is your day of freedom okay um we're also hearing about some potential issues the hospital capacity in rottland specifically they've reopened their COVID unit and have already filled that COVID unit up does that um well I guess first off um you know is the is the state doing anything to support the health system in rottland right now and does that give you any pause in these decisions to close down certain testing or draw it down and to end um you know the data dashboard and some of your data processes uh no that doesn't give me pause we are actually really watching the health care system very closely as you're aware we have seen a sort of stabilization in the trends that we're watching closely across the system I haven't talked to rottland as of late to understand exactly why they've done what they've done no other hospital has really made that pivot most days we have a sort of yellow green yellow orange red black system for varying degrees of severity of stress on a particular institution and the majority are always in green and yellow on occasion there may be two in an orange state so the bottom line is most of the health care system struggles when they're having them lately are from absenteeism of staff related to illness like we've seen in other sectors and as those improve because there's less people who uh have to be out because the infection has completed its course there um the hospitals have less trouble so I have to find out if rottland is having staffing issues or if it's actually a concern about patients our seven-day average for people in the hospital for covid reasons is five percent of all hospital beds which is a very low number I was just going to note that um the CDC says that rottland has among the highest in the state right now in terms of recent covid admissions yeah no that may be perhaps that's all for me Tom Davis compass Vermont thank you Jason sorry governor I was hoping to get a gold star today but I do have a couple of questions the first one is now that you've made the decision to run for reelection um are the specific things that you're planning on focusing on and working on until the next legislative sex session uh do they change and so which ones and how they don't change again we have a lot on our plate at this point in time with all the issues that we're faced with again going back you know growing the economy making Vermont more affordable predict the most vulnerable those are the things that we we focus on every single day and trying to put this money into this investment money our money in particular into play so that we get the best return on investment is something that we're going to be focusing focusing on so there's a lot going on in this space and we'll we'll continue to do our work and the job at hand I was disappointed I thought you were going to start an electric snowmobile racing tour if that if that happens I'll be a part of it uh last question is um if you drive around the back roads of Vermont all over the place these days you can't help but notice more and more people have adopted uh Elon Musk's Starlink system for their internet and rural areas seeing people use very creative ways to get the dish in a place where they can actually get a good focus on satellites um and they seem when they have the availability able to deliver high speed and rural areas much faster than any of the other plans we have in place do you see that as an option that could be added as we go forward in the process of trying to give broadband to rural areas yeah I do I think that that that service is going to continue to expand and become more prevalent and be improved so I think that this could be part of the mix in the future especially for again those last mile type of situations okay thanks very much that's all I have I did want to add three more to the issues that I didn't get I think I was thinking about the instruction technical education infrastructure money uh there was 50 million that I proposed that did not get funded as well the sports betting wasn't taken up that was another issue that I thought would be helpful the third was there was actually no interest in the legislature to expand cell service we had 50 million dollars in for that and that was not taken up so those are three more I'm sure I'll come up with three more by next week if you want to ask again