 Hi, and welcome to the ongoing general election coverage by town meeting television. This is one of a series of forums that we'll be bringing you in advance of the general election coming up in November. My name is Helen Morgan-Permitt, and I'm the Edwin W. Lawrence Forensic Professor of Speech up at the University of Vermont and the Director of the Lawrence Debate Union. I am here to host the South Burlington unopposed election. And so I'm excited for you to meet the candidates. But just so you know that town meeting TV hosts these forums with all the candidates and we'll be covering all of the ballot items that you'll see on your ballot this November. Town meeting TV election forums introduce you to the community decision makers and connect you with the issues that shape your local community and your everyday lives. So if you're watching this live at home or if you're streaming it on the web, we welcome your questions. You can call us at 802-862-3966. So please, we wanna hear from you. We wanna take your questions. So hopefully you'll give us a call. So you can watch town meeting TV on Comcast channel 1087 Burlington telecom channel 17 and 217, as well as online at youtube.com backslash town meeting TV. All right, so I'm gonna give each of the candidates a chance to provide an opening statement before we get into the questions for today. And in your opening statement, I hope that you'll tell us what will be different for the people of your district as a whole because you've been elected to this position and what qualifies you to make those changes happen. So I think we'll just go to get started in a row. We wanna get us started and introduce yourself please. Yes. Thank you. I'm Brian Minier. I'm running as a Democrat for Chitenden 11 which used to be seven three. You talk about what things are gonna change for us. It's gonna be a big change. We're losing Anpew. We're losing Mata Townsend. We're losing John Kalaki. And so there's gonna be a lot of turnover and big shoes for us to fill. For me, I'm doing this because of a belief in public service. It started small just with coaching my daughter in Greater Burlington Girls Soccer League. When my kids were old enough about four years ago, I decided I was ready to volunteer for something bigger. And the first opportunity that came along was the school board when Martin approached me who was on the school board at the time. And so I stepped up and did a term on the school board for the last three years until last town meeting day. And I knew when I stepped down in March that I wanna do something else. I wasn't sure what would come along, but I learned soon thereafter that John Kalaki would be stepping down. And so with his blessing, I'm running for his empty seat. And I think a lot of the skills that I bring, I learned on the South Burlington School Board, the simulating a lot of information, making a fair decision, listening to all the voices at the table and trying to reach consensus and then conveying that clearly. And I think those things will serve me well at the state level too. All right, thanks. Wanna take it away? Sure, my name is Noah Hyman and I am a new house seat in South Burlington. It's Chittenden 8. And I also believe in public service and volunteerism. And I ran a business in Philadelphia where I met my wife who's got deep Vermont roots and moved to Vermont and was a stay at home father. But it was very active in the schools. I was vice president of the Rick Marcotte Parents Organization and I was also a environmentalist who did a lot of work in South Burlington trying to get environmental objectives actually to happen. We started some friends and I, we started a little political action group and we ended up becoming very successful and we got several people elected and we got land development regulations changed. And I'm coming into the legislature with a deep desire to protect the environment and I believe in the climate change and the science and that's why I'm running. Great, thanks so much. All right, next up. Sure, well I'm Emily Krasnow and I'm running for South Burlington Chittenden 9. I've lived in South Burlington for the last 17 years. I grew up in Charlotte where I started door knocking with my dad at the age of seven when he was connecting with neighbors door to door and won a seat in the state legislature and served Charlotte as our state representative from 1994 to 1998 until he passed and then my sister was appointed to that seat. I grew up in a family of public service and he's a huge reason that I wanna continue to run and step up and fall on his footsteps. While serving in the legislature will be new for me, working in the state house won't. I spent seven years as an assistant in the Senate and then the lieutenant governor's office which gave me a really strong understanding of government systems and how they impact our state and community. Beyond my professional life here in South Burlington, I'm a volunteer and right now every Thursday night you'll find me at our South Burlington food shelf connecting families with resources that they need. I also am a South Burlington Rotarian do work for our library and many other community service projects in our city. I'm running for one reason and one reason only because I believe that I can make a difference in our community and thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thanks so much. All right, finish it up. Yeah, thank you. I'm Martin Lulonde and I'm running for my fifth term in the legislature so there won't be, I guess, much of a change in my district as far as who's representing them. I've been on the Judiciary Committee for the last four terms and hope to return to the Judiciary Committee again in January. And on the Judiciary Committee for our term, I served as a ranking member and in this most recent, I guess it's still the current biennium, I'm also an assistant majority leader. So I'm very excited about running with the new South Burlington team. I've really enjoyed the team that we have had before with Helen Head and Pugh and Meada and John. But I think we have great representatives for South Burlington, including Kate Nugent who was unable to make it tonight. I also have served on the school board for 11 years in South Burlington. And this is definitely a public service but it's very important work and I'm excited to be getting back to the State House. Thank you. All right, great. Well, it's so nice to meet all of you and so let's dig into the questions that are on the foremost of the minds of the voters. And first we'll talk about education. So the legislature can make impacts on how education is funded statewide. Do you see the need for changes to how we fund education and how would you use your office to move changes forward? So let's get started with Martin this time. Sure. So I've definitely had a lot of involvement with education funding more so on the school board side than in the legislature. But our funding system, we have different goals for the funding system. One is certainly to make sure that our schools are being fully funded and we can offer the public education that we want but also in a manner that is fair. And so when you really are striving for fairness it can also become a little complicated. There's trade offs there as far as simplicity versus fairness and where we have ended up is we have a partial property tax and we have a partial income tax really with the way that it's set up. It could be less complicated. There's been talk about moving solely to an income tax base but that's not, there's some issues with that. But the main point is I guess I'll make is that just in the past week a task force of stakeholders that have been directed by the legislature to really look at this issue has started its work. So we should be seeing some recommendations at the beginning of next year about whether there are any changes that we should be making. So. Great. Emily, what are your thoughts on this question about education funding? Well Martin, I certainly agree with a lot of what he said and I'm the daughter of two public educators. So I have been entrenched in our education system my entire life and just really seeing the importance of giving our schools and our children all the resources they need to thrive. One of my first internships actually at the state house was in the house education committee. So I really got to understand a lot of the process. I do think that Vermont's educational funding formula is very complicated and I also believe that with some of the new funding studies and things that are coming out that it will be, I'll be looking forward to seeing what they come up with and it's certainly a topic of conversation in my district for folks. So I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with and open to different ideas. Great. What are your thoughts here Noah? My father was also a teacher and having volunteered in the schools, I got to see a lot of how our money is actually put to use. I think that tax equity is very important in school funding. I mean, there are definitely ways to generate more money for the schools and I think doing it that way is probably the most beneficial to not hurt families that are struggling. I believe just this year, I think it was S287, tried to tackle student equity. And I think it's also even possible that money can even be put for the new schools that seem to be in great demand in Vermont right now. I mean, Burlington is the obvious example but South Burlington has its own. Aging schools and at the state level bonding for those new schools, which has been taking place for a long time now, might be something that will help that to occur. I know that Burlington is further along than South Burlington because we just voted down the new school. And I think even though it's had some nice renovations and repairs, it's not just the high school, the Rick Marcotte, Orchard, they're really bursting at the seams and if you look at the entering first grade class now, the high school will be way overcrowded and it's not the best for our students and so I'm looking forward to being a part of making that happen. All right, yeah, thanks. How about your thoughts here, Brian? Well, I guess going forth makes it a little easy. I get to build on everything that y'all said. Everything they've said is true. There's a big confluence of events coming together with federal funding drying up, with more pupils coming into South Burlington and our outgoing South Burlington superintendent, David Young, estimated the statewide backlog of infrastructure needs between two and $2.5 billion. The bond to build a new middle and high school in South Burlington was mentioned. That was on the ballot a couple of years ago and failed by something like four to one. Obviously, this is a huge ask for a community. We're gonna see what Burlington does when Uski's had its own issues that it's conquering. I think to address this, number one, I'd like to go back to a state level match where there's a big enough project, the state funds up to 20% of it, like they still have in Massachusetts and like we ourselves did until 12 to 15 years ago. I'm curious about the idea of switching over to a more income-based tax to fund it. I gather from Martin that there are issues with this. I'm looking forward to finding them out. I don't know everything. And I'm also curious to see how the new state, the pupil weighting comes out. That formula has just changed. That's another one of the factors that's in the mix and it's gonna be interesting to see how that affects our school budget building this year. Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. Well, thanks for that. Let's turn to the issue of healthcare. So the increasing cost of healthcare is putting a lot of pressure on Vermonters in the state's economy. And certainly COVID has sharpened our focus on the inequities around healthcare in Vermont. So what do you think is next for healthcare changes in Vermont? Let's get started with you. Okay, healthcare in Vermont. So it's not a Vermont problem. It's really a national problem. It comes to healthcare and its costs. Consolidation of healthcare has led to less patient care, harder, more travel times for people. It's increased costs. And it's led to less choice. Let's see. There's opaque costs associated with this. That legislation can help to make clear, so people will even be able to choose. Maybe I get it done at Dartmouth or maybe I get it done at UVM. And COVID has also increased the amount of patients that we have in Vermont. And at the same time, we have a net loss of doctors. And doctors are also concentrated in our bigger cities around the medical center, obviously, and in its networks. Town doctors are virtually all gone and it's less access for patients that live in our local rural areas. I think Vermont could also do more to support independent doctors. There is rising costs to staffing of nurses and tax and everyone that works in the hospitals and in private business. The increase has caused UVM even to ask for more money from the insurers. And independent doctors can't do that, obviously. At the same time that those costs are going up, reimbursements for independent doctors are going down and it's reinforcing the problem. It's difficult for independent doctors, specialist surgeons to open their own ambulatory surgical centers or their own facilities would be for colonoscopies or arthroscopic surgery. They can't do that because the certificate of need process is so difficult. And at the end, the hospitals can also just charge about 50% more for code each code than independent can charge. That's a complicated issue. There's a lot to it. Let's hear from you on this, Brian. I guess one perspective that I bring to it is in a different life, in a different state. I was an operations assistant for the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation and one of the things that we did every week on a weekly basis was get together for two hours with the primary care committee, looking at how you can properly compensate primary care providers, a field that was already short of help decades ago. One thing that we talked about at the time that wasn't able to come to fruition then is properly paying for telehealth. And I think if the pandemic has shown us anything, it's that you can do a lot on Zoom, although I would say education is not one of them. But there are plenty of healthcare, yeah. But there are plenty of healthcare visits that can be done that way. You just have to compensate the provider properly and it can also be a more efficient system. I think the other possibility is to set up the kind of thing that was put in place for childcare providers. I think the bill was H171 meant to help with their tuition through scholarships and through student loan repayments. If we need more nurses, maybe something like that could be set up for them. Great points. Just a reminder that if you're watching at home, you can call in with your questions at 802-862-3966. But let's continue with this question of healthcare. Martin, what are your thoughts? Well, it is a complicated issue. I'm happy that I'll be on the Judiciary Committee and just need to solve the courts and public safety and the law and instead of this is very much more complicated, actually. I guess I'll just mention a couple of things. The ideas that have kicked around just show how complicated this is. But we have expanded telehealth that definitely during the pandemic and I believe that is going to continue and so that's definitely a good thing. But the area that I've been focusing on a little bit more is mental health and the issues that we're having with mental health. The fact that we have people that are being held in the hospitals, in the emergency department for days, if not weeks, that they're not other places to put them, that individuals that are working in the hospitals have violence against them from some of the individuals who are being held in an inappropriate setting. So that's just as one example of the challenges we have with mental health. And from what I understand as well during the pandemic and the social isolation we have an increasing issues with mental health in our schools but just statewide. And right now we're just not in the position where we are really dealing with that issue. It's been a frustration because it's been there for the last six years and it's really been difficult to find answers to this. And then also it's an issue in the intersection of the criminal justice system with mental health and that's really where I've focused a little bit more of my energies with bills that we've looked at. For instance, there's yet another study committee but I think this is gonna result in some recommendations regarding whether to have a forensic unit where individuals kind of caught in criminal justice system because of mental health problems that there's a place other than having them detained in prison. So any event, those are some of the complicated issues. The other thing I would throw out there but I won't get into that deeply is I've been interested in the last few years of somehow figuring out how to have universal primary care. But I think we're a little ways away from that as well. There's a lot to have to, that we have to solve in this area. Yeah, Emily, what do you wanna add here about healthcare? Well, thank you so much for this question and it's certainly one of the reasons that I'm running and I truly believe that healthcare is a human right and when you talk about healthcare, you have to talk about access and affordability and we're struggling right now with both. I think as Martin mentioned, our mental health crisis right now is very troubling to me to have people languishing in emergency rooms where they have no place to go when they need support and treatment is unconscionable to me. I grew up in Vermont and unfortunately I can say that it has been like this since I was in high school and had friends who needed help and couldn't find providers for the help. No one should be choosing between their next meal and a visit to the doctor. We often say at the food shelf that anyone is just a medical bill away from having to come here and going bankrupt. I come to this also as someone who spent the last four years caretaking for my mother who passed away two weeks ago. So I saw firsthand the inequities in our healthcare system for people with terminal illness and our seniors. There are a lot of seniors in my district who are struggling right now to make those tough choices and I just won't rest until they don't have to make those decisions anymore. I also am very interested in starting here in Vermont with universal primary care. So I will be watching to see how that progresses in the next biennium, but I think we need a federal Medicare for all policy. Thank you. Well, I'm so sorry to hear about your mom and thanks for sharing that experience with us. Let's shift our attention to criminal justice reform. So how does Chittenden County address crime? Is there a problem with policing that in your view needs reform and how would you address community safety? I'm gonna give you a chance to go first this time, Emily. All right. Well, in visiting different neighborhoods in my district, this certainly is one of the number one things that I'm hearing from folks is their concerns about public safety in South Burlington and in our region because I really think that it's a regional issue. One of the first things that I did when I decided to step up and run for office was to reach out to Chief Burke, our South Burlington police chief and talk to him about what he's seeing, what I've seen, where we can kind of bridge gaps. I wanted to talk to him about people experiencing houselessness and where they were located in South Burlington, what kind of outreach we're doing for people with substance use disorder because I think that they are inextricably connected. And so we had a wonderful meeting and I wanted to open up that dialogue so that when I was serving, he would know that we could have a good connection. He said that he has spent a lot of time also talking to Martin and the Judiciary Committee and testifying. But yeah, I think as a young woman living in our city, one of the reasons I moved to South Burlington was because I felt like it was a safe place for a young woman to start a life. So I want to make sure that myself, my senior neighbors who also live alone, that we feel safe and that we look out for each other. South Burlington is a special community where neighbors really do help neighbors. So I feel like we have each other's back, but there is a lot of work to do and I'm interested in learning more from Martin and folks who have a lot of experience in criminal justice. I also believe in restorative justice and my mother worked and volunteered in that so I learned a lot about that and I believe that that is a model that does work and yeah, so I'm interested in hearing more. Brian, your thoughts on criminal justice reform? So I agree with Emily that it's a regional issue and I think it was interesting to see in the contested Democratic primary for Chittenden County State's attorney the different, not only talking points but approaches with Ted Kenney and with Sarah George. I take Sarah's point that her approach hasn't necessarily had a chance to work yet. She's focusing more on restorative justice on less punitive measures. Part of the problem is there's a backlog in the courts that doesn't necessarily disprove her approach. I think we need to give that approach more time. I think we have to understand that underlying these behaviors, these issues, is greater homelessness, greater poverty. Folks don't always have the opportunity and so what do we do about it? I think it varies from town to town. I think Burlington has very different issues than we do. I think it was only a couple of nights ago they had maybe their 23rd or 24th gunfire incident downtown, we're not to my knowledge seeing that sort of thing in South Burlington but there has been an uptick in sort of nuisance crimes like vandalism and graffiti. I have heard from retailers' anecdotal stories about organized theft and so there is this fear that's induced out there. I would say we need to give this restorative approach a little bit more of a chance and remember that we aren't, although we're all working together as a county, we're not all the same from town to town. We're in. Yeah, it's definitely an issue that I've worked on and look at and really as a starting point and I think both Brian, we've already talked about this a little bit. Brian and Emily have mentioned that there's root causes, there are underlying causes that you have to look at and you have to look at and goes back to our mental health crisis. We need to have more services for individuals suffering from mental health problems. Not that mental health directly leaves to crime and that's not at all the case but certainly that's an issue that should be addressed. Poverty, substance use disorder, these are underlying issues, probably more the substance use disorder than the others but property as well and homelessness. So all those kind of underlying issues one has to look at. But one also needs to look at how policing is done and having community policing is very important. Having the community working with law enforcement I think is very important and the way that is done is a leadership and we have a great leader certainly in Chief Burke but it also has to do with recruiting and retaining and training law enforcement officers. So in fair and impartial policing practices, in the practices and how use of lethal force or any kind of force so that they can become a more trusted member of the community in law enforcement but the bottom line as far as deterring crime other than dealing with the underlying issues, it's not really the consequences of how harsh they are if you have a 10 year sentence or a one year sentence or restorative justice as a consequence. Really the issue is for potential offenders is the risk of being caught and then how swift the consequences occur and with respect to those two as far as the risk of being caught directly relates to law enforcement presence and Burlington and South Burlington and statewide we're having a lot of trouble retaining and hiring more law enforcement. So that's an issue that we don't have the presence of law enforcement, that's number one. And the second is the backlog in the courts that Brian mentioned is another issue that we need to more directly deal with. So there's a lot that can be dealt with. There's several things that I mentioned that we'll be looking at as well, so. Noa, do you have anything that you wanna add here about criminal justice reform? At least I just got one last year, definitely right. Yeah. What they said. Basically, but it's one of the things that I would add is that my family happens to be, I have family in the Netherlands and one of the interesting facts about the Netherlands is that in the last 25 years they've been virtually able to empty their prisons. Some prisons hold as little as 40 people and they were designed for 800, 900 people. It's called the Rothholt Act and it strengthens commitment to crime prevention. So that was the intention. It's a private corporate and state through environmental design, defensible space, opportunity reduction, empowerment of neighborhood watch, surveillance and education of our young. One of the first things they do is they targeted vandalism because it's kind of like a gateway to crime and it's been wildly successful and that's something that Montpelier can do top down across the state. Brian's right. We don't have what's going on in Burlington right now. We also don't have the stores. We don't have the public space for it to even take place and that would fall under opportunity reduction. There might be things that Burlington can do but I think statewide there are things that Montpelier can do and I think it's something that has to happen because the country is facing this problem. Policing is just harder now and we may have to look at increasing our pay packages and incentivize our police. We do need to invest in training. More police. I support the police. I think we need to fund them but fund them in a way that's more helpful to society and sensitive policing. That's what I had. Great, thanks for those thoughts, yeah. Let's move on to these ballot issues. Some very contested ballot issues coming up. The two constitutional amendments, constitutional proposition two and proposition five will be in front of voters this November. Now, do you support or oppose? Brian, it's your turn to go first. Fair enough. I actually think the first one is not really contested at all. As I understand it, it's to correct some language in the constitution that seemed to allow for slavery and indentured servitude which is obviously nothing that anyone is going to support. I think there's also a potential real world application of this in terms of prison labor as I understand it so there is a necessity to do this in addition to it just being the right thing. I have not heard opposition to it. I haven't heard anyone complaining about it or speaking against it so I'll leave that one there. The article 22, the reproductive autonomy issue. I think there has been some misinformation circulating about this. I think some people are afraid that it will change what's going on in Vermont for the worse. The truth is, as I understand it, this is just setting in stone in the Vermont constitution what is now the status quo which is that up until 21 weeks and six days the choice about whether to carry a pregnancy to term is between a woman and a healthcare provider which is I believe as it should be. After that, if something is threatening the health of the life or the health of the mother or the viability of the fetus, there's only one place in the state that is addressing that, that's the UVM Medical Center. Each and every one of those cases is overseen by an ethics panel and to my knowledge, the average for every year is approximately five to 10 of these procedures. They're incredibly rare, they're not gonna become less so and there are still going to be in place clauses for healthcare providers who do not wish to participate. So any of the arguments that I've heard against this proposition don't hold and I think it absolutely has to go through. I've been disheartened by what I've seen at the federal level. Thanks for that. And just a reminder, if you're watching at home you can call in with your questions at 8028623966. Martin, your thoughts on prop two and prop five. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better than what Brian has said but I'll add a little bit anyway but the prop two is very straightforward I think as well. Prop five or article 22 or reproductive liberty amendment, however you want to refer to it as is preserving or solidifying the status quo and to talk a little bit further about this concept of the opposition that there could be late term abortions. I mean, number one, there simply aren't, that doesn't happen very rarely and if it does happen, it's a very tragic event. The second is that it really can't happen because of the medical community is governing itself as it should be and the decisions between a patient and their doctor. But if for some reason, this is one argument I've heard is that well, it's what happens if we have somebody come from out of state or we have other providers less ethical coming into the state to provide this service or if the UVM Medical Center all of a sudden drops those kind of restrictions and says, yeah, elective abortions can happen after 22 weeks or later. Well, if that unlikely event were to occur, the amendment still allows the legislature to pass restrictions, they just need to have a compelling reason to do so and actually under Roe v. Wade many years ago when it was still in force, a compelling reason that was found when a fetus is viable. So the legislature would not have its hands tied if that unlikely event were to happen. So I'm definitely a big supporter of this and definitely want to dispel these, what I think are scare tactics that are going on out there. All right, thanks for that. Noah, what are your thoughts on the constitutional amendments? I support both of them. I agree with what our team here has already said. My wife is a physician and physicians in the family, friends with many of physicians at UVM. Late-term abortions just aren't happening. This won't allow it to happen. I'm very concerned with misinformation. They're really trying to get out there and scare voters and that's all they're doing and I have daughters and I'm very, very for this because I want them to have the rights to take their health care with their doctors and make their own decisions when they're adults. All right, Emily, let's hear your final concluding thoughts here on this important question. Yeah, and so this is very important. Well, first I'll start with Prop 2 and I am a supporter. Words do matter and we have a lot of work to do in this regard, but this is a good start and I'm grateful for the people that put time and energy behind this. Yeah, so this is very obviously personal for me as a woman in our country. I am very frightened at the national things that are going on and I remember when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, my mom called me crying and she said, this is really bad and I understood it, but I didn't really yet. I'm worried about what comes after this. I'm worried now. I'm so grateful for the foresight of legislators like outgoing Representative Anne Pugh and Senator Ginny Lyons for having the foresight to know that we had to do something about this in Vermont. Right now, legislators are gatekeepers for our freedoms because we don't know what's going to happen nationally and that's terrifying for a lot of people. Myself, over the last 10 years, I've been an organizer and volunteer with organizations like Planned Parenthood because I've been that friend holding another friend's hand when they needed it most. I've seen the pain and I've seen just what other young women have to go through and I'm just really grateful that our legislature took action to be a role model for the rest of the country. So I hope folks will join me in voting November 8th for this very important proposition and I appreciate what my other colleagues said about a lot of the misinformation that's been going around. So thank you for that. All right, well, thanks for those responses and now let's move on to language access. So what's the value to Vermonters in supporting language access to information about health, local government and education issues? Let's start with you, Martin. I mean, it is valuable, it's important to have that. And just specifically, I would also add in for access to justice and in my role in the Judiciary Committee and the Judiciary Committee has made sure that we've been providing the funding to the courts to have interpretive services available for people who come into our courts. So it's important there and it's important in the other areas as well that you mentioned. All right, thanks for that. Ryan. Well, I think it's not only valuable, it's the law so that a child can access their education so that a person can understand what's going on with their healthcare and properly choose for themselves what to do. I think this is an issue now because my wife who's a native Vermonter and went through the South Burlington schools, if you look back at the picture, her class pictures from Orchard and Tuttle, it looks very different than what we have today. There are a bunch of new Americans here and I don't wanna live in a community that doesn't support these people, that doesn't give them access to the services that they want. I also think that this ultimately will make us a better community, a more interesting one, a more tolerant one. Yeah, so it's not only necessary, but it's beneficial. Yeah, thanks, Brian. That's really important. Well, this is huge. I strongly believe that a government and a world that only works for some doesn't work and we need systems that work for everyone. So from our schools to our criminal justice system to resources in our community, I think we need to do a better job of meeting people where they're at because far too often these folks may not know where to access the assistance they may need and navigate things. I do really appreciate there are, I can't recall the exact committees working on this, but there are right now in the state legislature, people are discussing how to do better in this regard for our state. So there is progress being made. More has to be done. It's critically important, also in voting. So for a number of years, I worked on various campaigns from municipal to federal campaign work. And one of the most important things was making sure that materials and things that we put out were translated to everyone as well as people with disabilities. That far too often gets forgotten to make sure that we have people interpreters and people who can assist folks who want to have a seat at the table. And I don't know if it covers it in this, but I also think that one of the things from day one that I'm gonna discuss is making sure that our state house is accessible to everyone because it isn't. And that is very troubling. So people who want to serve have access to the table. Until then, I'll keep fighting and asking questions about how we can do better. All right, Noah, anything to add here about language access? Yeah, sure. About 15 years ago when we were just starting our life in Vermont, I remember that there were times where I would have to translate for strangers in the supermarket or my wife if they couldn't get a fluent Spanish-speaking person to translate, sometimes my brother would call. And it's scary for them. And our medical system, our welfare systems, our political systems, it can be very daunting for a new immigrant, especially if they're speaking a rarer language, if it's not one of your Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, Indian, but then life becomes very challenging. And so I strongly support this. And I think this is a real low-hanging fruit with technology that we have today that absolutely should happen. All right, well, thanks for those thoughts. And a reminder, you can call in with your own questions if you wanna ask the candidates anything at 802-862-3966. And with that, we're gonna move on to our next question, which is about community access. So here we are in the CCTV studios. So currently funded primarily by Cable Revenue. That means that with all this cord-cutting, obviously community TV, like town-meeting TV is in decline. So how would you see the legislature supporting community access TV such as providers of this forum? Brian. I've found this to be the hardest question on here for me. Like everybody else here, I'm sure, it's been hard to see little town newspapers going away and fewer and fewer people, to my knowledge, reading them when they are available. So how do you reach people? I think it's primarily through the web and streaming services now. And so this is cheating a little bit in switching to another question, but I think it makes it all the more important to get broadband to all the smaller corners, not only of Chittenden County, but also of the state. And once you do that, people have better access to information, as Noah suggested, with the tools available now, it's going to be accessible to a greater group. I think that effort is the one way I can think of trying to make this sustainable, trying to get more people involved and having more information available to them. All right, Noah, what do you think? Legislature, fun CCTV and all the other community access? I don't know if fun fully, but I think it can definitely help by setting up, you know, similar to our VPR kind of system where charitable donations can flow into and to support quality organizations like this one. I think it's something that maybe there might have to be some funding one day as court cutting is becoming so real. Or it's very possible that partnering with, you know, VPR or some organization like that, it could be something that may help all the smaller organizations all around our state. Emily, what do you think? Well, I actually love this question, because when I arrived, I said, I just want to let you know, I watch CCTV every day multiple times and my friends know it's true. I watch municipal meetings for South Burlington every single one. I think it is really important to watch those and have that. I do, again, recognize that's a privilege that I have the access to that. But, you know, because I believe in a collaborative approach and with our local municipal government and the work that we'll be doing in the state house. So I'm so grateful for CCTV that's there every meeting and I'm watching it. Yeah, I believe that we need to, if necessary, allocate funds to fund things like this and all it's just really important. And as looping back to language access, CCTV does a really great job in having translated information when COVID was raging, there was information about vaccines in all different languages. It's also just really helpful for people like me who love to learn about government at any time. I can go and watch something from yesterday to, you know, whenever I want after a work day. So that's been really helpful and one of the good things about the pandemic is how accessible these kinds of things have been for people when they were at home and still going on. You have the Zooms shows and things like that. And also at the state house, having committee meetings and other things going on and filmed for people. So that's been a huge change and I really want to continue that work and support CCTV anyway I can because that's what I'm watching. I love to hear it. Martin. So a little bit of a reality check on getting money from Appropriations Committee because I'm not on the Appropriations Committee. Oh no, no, no way I'm not on Appropriations Committee and they would never put me there. I would not be good there. But any event I've had to go there to ask for like $2,000 and it's like every $10 bill that's on the table is scrutinized terribly. But I will also say a budget is a moral statement. And I think we need to put our money where our mouth is using that cliche but we're talking about the threats to democracy and outlets like CCTV are absolutely critical I think for democracy. We just need more people to watch as well but if that's the case, we need to have some additional funding. We can't let the CCTV or any of the like outlets throughout the state not be able to stay in operation. So I am in favor of that certainly and I'm happy to go and argue for the $2,000 or whatever for something as important as it because it is a moral statement as far as what we have in our budget. All right, well I'd like to hear it. Okay, so let's move on to the next question about citizen legislature. So all the questions here in reference complex systems issues and this year the legislature will see a big turnover in elected officials. Can a part-time citizen legislature and Montpelier do the job needed for Vermonters? Noah? As being new, I was very surprised to find out things like how the pay scale works and what you need to do and how much travels involves and it's very hard. I think that more money should be paid to our legislators on a need basis. At least healthcare for people if they can't afford it. I can't imagine how anyone that wasn't well off or had someone supporting a family or could even attempt this. It's a time consuming, a time thankless but necessary thing to do and I'm really looking forward to it but I'm just very lucky that I have the support of my family and my wife to be able to offer my time and life experience to this. But I think the way it's set up now keeps people from being able to join the legislature. It's just two owners, it's too difficult for a family to lose an income and the type of jobs that you can actually have if you're in the legislature is self-limiting. What do you think Emily, does this part-time citizen legislature work? Well, this is another question that I really have thought a lot about. So when my father served, he was a teacher so he was able to make that work. As a young woman who's stepping up to run, that's the number one thing that I thought about and it's difficult and I'm not a legislator so I don't know if I can say that it works or doesn't work. I know that there are bills that go in after since working there, whether it be to add healthcare or I recently heard a proposal that I thought was pretty interesting so instead of giving ourselves a pay raise, you kind of push it out. So if you are still there, you can benefit from it but let's say it starts in four years so it's not for the people that are there now. So that was an interesting idea but I also did Emerge Vermont which is a program that recruits and trains democratic women to run. And I would say the number one thing that myself and other young women or working families or moms that were in the program thought was how are we gonna make this work? So it is definitely something I wanna be a part of the conversation about. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be able to step up and run but far too often there are people who are left out of the conversation and we need them at the table. So I would definitely wanna be a part of this conversation moving forward. All right Martin, what do you think? Yeah, so the idea of a citizen legislature is that we can have a well represented legislature and people from all walks of life. It probably used to be the case when there was more of a farming community and from January until March, one didn't have to be in the farm for instance. But it doesn't work now. I mean, we don't have a cross section of Vermonters in the legislature. It is really difficult for people who don't either have a very flexible job, have a spouse who is the primary breadwinner, which is my case, thank you very much Ann, or is retired. It's really hard to do. I mean, some people do manage to do it certainly but it's difficult and what the answer is it's very complicated to really figure that out. It may take a constitutional amendment if we ever get there. On the other hand, people might see this as all politician is whining and whenever something comes up, I know that one of our youngest legislators who is not running again because she just couldn't do this, put in a bill to have a reasonable raise. It wasn't even, it would still be barely a living wage. It was absolutely taxed. And the people who sponsored that bill were absolutely taxed. So it's like a political third rail to do this. So there's that side of it and there's the fact that we really are not having a true citizen legislature. And the issues are becoming more complicated. I mean, it's difficult. We don't have, I don't mean to be whining here either but we don't have assistance. We have shared resources in a joint fiscal office and legislative council and they're awesome but we don't have, we can't bring on people to provide expertise in certain areas. So there's that and I will add one more thing is that it still somehow works. We're still getting things done. I think it works even better when we have, frankly, more cooperation between the administration and the legislature than we've been having the last couple years. But even so, we're still managing. And the thing is that we end up having to rely significantly on the administration. So the executive branch has a lot of influence here in any event. I could keep on going, but I'll- Let's hear your final thoughts, Brian. Yeah, and I'll keep it short. I know we're getting to the end of the hour. I think one important thing to say is that I've been watching what Martin does and what the other folks who preceded us have been doing. Yeah, they're part-time legislatures but there's a lot of work going on out of session. So how part-time are they? I think we are going to succeed but it's because we've had wonderful unofficial mentors and the folks who are stepping down and in Martin and because there is a mentorship program set up for when you get there. So there will be continuity, we'll do good work. As for the final question about whether this is sustainable, we'll find out because I'm working as a secretary at UVM and my job is, my boss has been very understanding. But when I'm there one day a week in person in the spring, we'll see whether the powers that be allow that. I'm not sure whether it can work. I hope it can, but we'll find out. All right, I think that we have time for one rapid-fire question. So just very quickly, and then we'll do your closing statements. And so that rapid-fire question is gonna be, what are your top two priorities, this biennium? And so like of all the pieces of legislation that are gonna come through the door, what are your top two? Emily. Housing, health care. Noah. Health care, climate change. Okay, Brian. Affordable housing and a good education that people can afford. All right, Anne Martin. Addressing some of the interesting issues that have come from the US Supreme Court. The Dobbs case, the Brune case, which is guns in the Macon case, which involves separation of church and state. That's kind of focused on Judiciary Committee. I agree with all those other priorities as well. All right. Okay, so let's hear your closing statements. And so if you just wanna take a brief moment and leave the voters with your final thoughts that you want them to take to the ballot box, let's start with you, Martin, and then we'll just go around. Yes, I certainly appreciate people's support. And even more importantly, please vote yes on Article 22. It's very critical. Thank you. Thanks. Emily. Yeah, well, thanks so much for having us. And I hope I can count on Chittenden 9's support November 8th for more information about more of my legislative priorities and to contact me, which is the most important thing because I'm running to bring your voices to Montpelier. Please visit EmilyCrosnow.com. And before we go, I just wanna give a huge thank you to Representative Anne Pugh, Representative Mada Townsend, and Representative John Kalaki, who have been incredible mentors and leaders and our community is so grateful for their service. All right, no one. I also would like to thank our predecessors and I would like to thank this team here for being very helpful. I would also ask to please vote yes on Article 22. And I really have found it to be a pleasure to knock on your doors and talk to you. Thank you for sharing your experiences and being so open and honest with me. And I look forward to representing you in Montpelier. All right, and Brian, bring us home. Very excited for this opportunity. Even though we're unopposed, I don't think any of us is taking it for granted. You can reach out to any one of us here, whether or not you're in our district and we will try to help you and point you to the right person. Please keep reaching out to us. We can't do this without you, we need your input. All right, well thank you all so much. It was really a pleasure to get to hear your thoughts on these important issues and thank you at home for tuning in to Town Meeting TV and our ongoing coverage of statewide and regional candidates and ballot items. And so you can find this particular forum as well as many more on www.ch17.tv and don't forget to vote on November 8th. All right, thanks so much for tuning in.