 Hello and welcome to CCTV's Channel 17 Town Meeting Television. I'm Matt Kelly with another live candidate forum on today's show. We'll be speaking with Kate Webb and Jessica Bromsted, Democratic State Representatives from Chittenden County Districts 5-1 and 5-2. Welcome to you both. Our forum begins with opening statements from each candidate and then as each candidate is uncontested in their respective races, we're just going to have a conversation over some serious topics that are facing the state of Vermont from water quality of our lakes, rivers and streams, our opiate epidemic and many other issues facing the legislature. So we'll begin with you, Kate, with your opening statement. It's an opportunity for you to say why you're running for reelection and talk about some of the accomplishments you've achieved in your previous run. I have been in the legislature for ten years and during that time I worked on one of my passions which was environmental issues, particularly related to water quality. During my first six to eight years, I was actively involved in the water quality bill that finally came forward in 2014. The following year I decided to switch to my other passion which is children and I decided to bring forth my professional background which is actually in education. I currently serve on the House Education Committee where I am a ranking member. It's my desire to leave behind an environment that is healthy and one in which all children can thrive. I'm very concerned about the conversation at the national level related to public education. I'm a strong believer that public education is at the underpinnings of our democracy and I'm interested in continuing that work. Very good. Kate Webb, thank you so much. Jessica Bromsted, your opening statement as to why you're running for reelection and to speak about some of your accomplishments. So I represent Shelburne and St. George and I've only been in Montpelier for two years so I'm just running for my second session and I'm kind of pleased to not be running against anyone although not having anyone run also means that it erodes a little bit at our democracy. It's nice to have lots of people involved and that's one of the issues that I worked hard on last session was introducing legislation that would improve civics in our country so that we I think there's a lot going on right now that would point to the need for more civics in our schools and even in our family kitchen tables. I know that our family spends a lot of time talking about that. I also worked in the past for Senator Jeffords. I worked for him for 12 years and spent a lot of time working on health care and various other legislative issues and so one of the things that really drew me to running for office is helping people, working with the people in my district and other people throughout Vermont. I enjoy actually going door to door so even though I'm not running against anyone this year I'm already going door to door and learning more from my constituents than really anyone else. It's so interesting to hear all of the things they think are going right and the things they worry about and in my in St. George for example there are four mobile homes and a bunch of those mobile homes are up for sale and so the folks inside of the mobile homes want to form a co-op and participate and be able to really make decisions for their future there and that's been really interesting and so I spent some time last session working with the housing committees on how do we strengthen our laws around housing because this is an affordable housing option that we don't talk a lot about but is happening throughout our country so all of those things I also really am supportive of child care and working hard to find affordable accessible quality child care for zero to three year olds especially we've begun to do a lot of work in three to five but where the zero to three is incredibly important and we know that seventy percent of all Vermont children have parents that both work. Okay you've raised a lot of issues in your opening statement and I want to actually begin with something here that's actually sort of fundamental and you initially touched on it both of you are unchallenged in your respective races does that speak to a candidate apathy that's pervasive in the in the community or is it more that your constituents are very satisfied with the work that you are doing and Kate we'll begin with you I am running my sixth term five of those I've been unopposed so I the first my first one I was opposed I beat an incumbent at that time so I figure either people like what I'm doing they don't feel they can beat me or nobody wants my job and it could be a combination of all of those I stay in close touch with my community I wrote articles for the paper I take I answer my emails the beauty of a small legislative constituency is that I'm accessible and people call me and meet with me. I agree with Kate and I also believe that we have a citizens legislature so we don't pay a lot and so it draws certain people who are able to leave their job for a little while and also represent I think I think that makes a difference there are itself selective because of that to some degree and so it would be nice if we could look closer at why are so many races uncontended and also I think if you have little kids and you live far away you have to essentially move to Montpelier I I think that the weather in Montpelier is shocking to me it seems to always be snowing there even when it isn't back here and for us it's easy to go back and forth but if you live in Wyndham County or all in the Northeast Kingdom you really have to stay there four days a week and so that's a commitment for people so I think it would be interesting to look a little more closely at our citizens legislature do we really have a citizens legislature and what are the things we could do to help? Very good. Just a reminder to our viewers out there we are streaming live online at ch17.tv and you are welcome to dial in and ask a question of either candidate our phone number is 862-3966. Jessica we're going to stick on this topic here and you had talked a little bit about some challenges in the legislature here and one of the things that we had heard earlier was from from some state senators particularly the Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ash has indicated that he thought maybe there should be a four-year term for the governor as a way to sort of change the dynamics of campaigning so that maybe there's an opportunity for a policy to actually get implemented and an opportunity to see if it can work. Your thoughts on that and then we'll follow up with you as well. Yes I think that's a wonderful idea actually and one of the things that I did talk with folks about in my first term when I was running for office and going door to door asking people what are they what would they think about that. People like it they like having a little more continuity in the executive branch a little more ability to really get to know what are the policies that our governor is trying to drive and can he or she have more of an opportunity to push forward things that really matter rather than thinking about what will get me reelected and so I believe that's a good point but the other piece of that I believe is that you also have to look at should we have term limits should we you know in our in our state as far as the governor goes we haven't had long term governors it seems that they are are here it's a hard I think it's a hard job and so maybe that's not necessary but there's a question in general I think about term limits I know in Washington people are talking about it a lot right now and so I think all of that would be a good discussion do you make some parts of the legislative branch or the executive branch have a longer time in between running and then also would we look at whether or not there should be term limits those are those are all really good questions and you hope that the public would be engaged in wanting to talk about it with us. Kate you have been in the legislature a lot longer so I would imagine that you have a different viewpoint or perhaps a little bit more informed of the viewpoint from your years in the legislature a four year term for the governor do you think that's a good idea? I would support a four year term I think it's very much it's a challenge for the governor to set an administration where people are maybe going to be working for 18 months I think it's I think that we saw some of the problems of a four year of a two year term this year in what happened with our budget and education where the governor is coming in at the end of April with cool new ideas and it's really late to come in with that so I am in support of a four year term I do believe that representatives need to remain in a two year term I think it's kind of a mid check that we need if people don't like what the governor is doing then they can often make changes there I would say that I do not necessarily agree with Jessica about term limits I think that voters decide term limits I know every year we have in a body of 150 we can have anywhere from about a quarter of the body will change anyway I think that having the institutional knowledge of people who have been there longer we're losing some institutional knowledge this year that I am really going to be sorry to lose so I think that term limits are set by the voters we're going to continue on that with you Kate and that goes back to legislative priorities and you talked about the governor and the fact that you know he came in with ideas at kind of the last minute maybe too late and what not was that the problem here again that it was a two year term and that it prevented or it caused this funding crisis where was the breakdown that we got you know close to shutting down the state government for the first time in our state's history yeah I think that there are a couple of things one is coming in with a large change very late in the session and the other is just a fundamental difference as to what we do with one time money the legislature and a vote of I think that only there were 17 against it out of 150 agreed that the best thing to do with one time money is you either this is money that's just coming in that one year it's not coming again this is not an increase in revenue this is a one time event that that's best used to pay down debt best used to invest in the future best used to set aside for a rainy day to prepare for a downturn that's what you do in an upterm that's economic 101 and even the conservative Ethan Allen Institute thought that we were correct on that the governor instead chose to stick with his campaign promise of no new taxes no new fees my feeling is that that the property tax is set by voters already in that you vote for your school budget if the budget goes up you're probably going to pay more so I think that he took away that learning that voters needed to have about what it means when they vote for their school budget and what they're seeking for so so Jessica your follow up on this as well the priorities of the governor where was the breakdown and that led us to a near shutdown of the government what were your thoughts I as a new member so I had never had an opportunity to see how it's supposed to work and so it was different that the governor we would we worked pretty hard from January all the way through till spring and then all of a sudden towards the end around late March early April we heard what the budget what the governor had hoped to put forward in the budget and that was that meant a lot of quick learning and the real disappointment for me one of the things I ran on was trying to work together with both parties and we also have the progressive party and the independence and being able to all work together and roll up our sleeves and try and figure out how we're going to do things better and so it was a little disappointing to get it so late that we didn't have that opportunity to really work on things together come up with compromises go back and forth say what do you think about this versus that and really from my work in the past with Senator Jeffords that was one of his biggest pushes always was that he was one of the guys who could work on both sides of the aisle and was always able to come to compromise so it was a disappointing year and even in my first year the same thing happened there was a late budget we were able to pull it together and we didn't end up with such a threat quite as bad of a thrash at the very end but but it was it was difficult and all of my colleagues keep telling me this is never what it's really like honest so I'm going to follow up on that a little bit with you here in that the Democrats in the state legislature are really mounting an effort here to obtain a veto proof majority can you speak to that and in and draw the context to prevent what just happened this past legislative session well I hope that it would be great I would assume to have a super majority I wouldn't know I haven't been there to see how it works how but I understand the concept and I the worry I have is that you don't want to use that if you don't have to you want to be able to work together so that you come up with something that both parties like because it's really not about parties in the end it's about issues and it's about all of the people that we represent and I think most people that you talk to see themselves as an independent for monitor and so we we need to be careful that we don't use that card too easily that we have to be sure that we are getting to a place that works for both for everyone in Vermont and I I believe that that is could be a little more difficult when you know that you have that you have that ability so we will have to be more I hope what it means is we'll work a lot harder to get it right the first time and feel really good about what we do and the Republicans will feel really good about that too so that there won't be a veto because they're what they'll realize that we really did work together on this and we're trying to make this the best we can for Vermont veto proof majority is that the best for Vermont Kate Webb that's a challenging thing to answer I don't think that it's ever good to have it have it such that that is the case unless you have circumstances in which things that are happening are really being forced through and then you need someone to really hold the line and say no bear in mind that the budget we passed was supported by all the leaders Republican leadership in the committees that were working you know very hard on those issues ways and means appropriations education the Republicans were supporting everything that we did and I think there's even a question of how much access they have to the governor there's a question as to they're required to meet instead with his staff and never with him you might have to verify that from them but it was my observation that they didn't have the access to the governor but access to the staff and so I am so concerned I was just reading you know that he's looking at the cradle to grave education that's great but how does that fit into use of the Ed fund our pre-k through 12 education and I stand very concerned about people trying to pick in at that we spent the last year to doing really good work of cleaning up the Ed fund so that really was covering pre-k education it wasn't covering the property taxes not covering adult education it's not covering the community high school of Vermont it's covering pre-k education pre-k through 12 education I stand very concerned about that if we can have a good conversation and don't need to get to that level to the nuclear option that would be everybody's preference so we've talked a lot about state governance here vetoes constitutional amendments if you will let's get now into some of the nuts and bolts here with the remaining time that we have about some of the specific issues that are impacting Vermonters and I want to begin with you Kate because for me personally I echo what you had said that it seems to me that the environment climate change and our lakes waters and streams are the most important thing to the state of Vermont that relies primarily on tourism can you speak to what is going on in the legislature to address water quality not just in the lake Champlain but in the whole water basin of this great state and what you feel needs to be done that isn't being done well it's very clear that we can't keep kicking the can down the road I really feel that's imperative upon us now to deal with the situation's been going on for a hundred years over a hundred years and we have we have a hundred years of negative impacts and we have groups that have built around that our municipalities in the wastewater treatments that were designed agricultural methods that that were put forward development practices our expectations there we aren't going to be able to turn that around on a dime so that's going to require some money we're going to have to help those groups to be able to make the transition to best practices a we've a report that came in in 2011 right around the time of tropical storm Irene came up with 40 different funding mechanisms this has been reviewed pretty intensely by our treasurer and I think that we need to to start work on that and I think the first step is the people that pollute have to pay who are those people it is all of us if you drive on the road you're polluting if you have a roof on your house you're probably polluting unless you have rain gardens if you're a farmer and you're doing conventional agriculture you're probably polluting I think that's the first cut I think the second cut is probably on those industries that are really going to benefit from having a clean environment I live you know right near the banks of Lake Champlain and I get to look out and see beautiful water with sailboats and you know the ferry boats going down it's everybody's happy now turn that into a green slime smelly toxic lake and see what that's going to do to our environment and I bet that the people who have their businesses built on that would be willing to step up so it's a hard conversation and we have to have it and so just to be clear here when you talk about the people are going to have to pay or certain groups are gonna have to pay you're talking about fees and you're talking about taxes whether it be a tax on some sort of fertilizer or something like that is in my understanding we actually a few years ago in the water quality bill tried to pass an excise tax on fertilizer the fertilizer that people are buying that brings phosphorus onto the land that we don't need more of it we need to do something with what we already have and that died that conventional agriculture group just didn't want to do that so so these are hard conversations that we're gonna need to have taxes and fees Jessica to make sure that our water quality is safe for generations to come I think that this is a critical issue as we've just said absolutely and one of the I think that it's not even just the waterways the lakes and the rivers and the tributaries but also our groundwater we're hearing now of people's wells being infected with all kinds of problems so we really this is a huge problem and in some ways we really need to look to the federal government to help us as well and they have been helpful and they're willing to be more helpful if we show that we are willing to put some money in as well so I think it's really important and I know that our delegation in Washington is very attuned to this issue and trying to bring whatever they can to Vermont to help us out and also our treasurer as Kate talked about she identified has identified money to get a jump on cleanup extra dollars in our capital budget last the last couple years it's amounted to about 25 million that has gone to that and we've also had a property transfer tax and about another 10 million from that over the past five years we've captured a little more unclaimed bottle money so we're trying everywhere to get what we can that's already out there and not have to come up with a new tax and or a new fee but this is incredibly important to our state just tourism and even to agriculture because everyone likes to say that this is the farmers problem well it's really all of our problem and we need to help farmers to think about how to get to another maybe doing some different things as well besides just dairy and so that that's also another piece of our the in funding that we need to think about how do we help farmers transition to different different niche type industries agriculture and so we're going to continue on that if you don't mind and we'll begin with you Jessica on that transitioning to other types of crops or other industries does hemp or marijuana cultivation play into that as a potential switch for farmers to get to a more sustainable form of production possibly that's a really good question that I hadn't even thought about actually I know that we need to be looking at our marijuana bill from last session there are a lot of issues around tax and regulate but also growing I mean one of the things I had talked with someone at the CVU at our Champlain Valley Union School about whether or not there should be the way we buy our vegetables through a C is it a CSA or C that could you buy marijuana that way and have it be more controlled that way who know I mean who knows but I think that all of these sorts of issues are important for us to put on the table as we relook at marijuana this coming session I and when I talked about that when I had talked about the new the transition to niche things as well I mean our cheeses are known all over the country I was in Europe this summer yeah and our beer but I'm just thinking about farmers and that's true yeah we they tried in Charlotte and I guess they're moving now to so Kate let me follow up with you on this a transition does marijuana and hemp cultivation here in the state of Vermont represent a potential transition opportunity for farmers to go to a more sustainable crop here I think that hemp actually is very good for water for starters and I would expect they were going to see more in marijuana this coming session but what I would say is the working lands bill that we that we passed many years ago that actually provides small grants to farmers to to use to either study something buy equipment to value added processes that they hadn't done before but I would add another thing that we need to look at our farms to do and that's carbon sequestration my husband was in Austria and they are way ahead of us on this and they actually have ways to pay farmers to sequester carbon in the process guess what else that does it creates a nice spongy soil that's really good for absorbing water so if we can find a way and I think that there's some people that are thinking about this to actually pay farmers for what they're doing would be another way to use our agricultural soils for really good purpose some wonderful ideas and conversations shared here today we'll ask our candidates to wrap up now with their final statements about what they expect and hope to see in the legislature in the following two years and Jessica will begin with you I think that we will see in the coming session a lot of the legislation that was vetoed last year that will probably be talking about again this year things like paid leave and minimum wage that will definitely be talking about I also have been working all summer on the whole child care that zero to three group and is it possible for us to look at ways to help both parents as well as the child care providers that are making such little money that it's hard to keep them in the in the business and yet then parents who really want to be able to work and our kind we know our unemployment rate is very low and businesses are having a hard time hiring good employees but then you know a woman has her first child and cannot find child care and then cannot afford it so you end up losing one of them to staying home with the baby so we really need to seriously look at that this coming session and paid leave to me is a very big deal it's true safety net and I just believe that we've got to we got to go back and look at that again it's super important for Vermonters to know that when either when they get sick or more importantly a friend of mine's daughter who was only two years old found out she had leukemia and she wanted to be able to be at the hospital every day with her baby of course and yet she was worried about keeping her home because of the mortgage so paid leave would really help her out those are some important things I hope we take up in the coming session and Kate what are your hopes and expectations for the next two years in the Legislature I think we'll be seeing something about carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture I know that we will be seeing something about ethnic studies in our schools we have three pre-k studies coming in I expect that to be coming forward not this year but the next the following year I expect the budget to be another thing where we're going to be I'm hoping we aren't going to have the same fight and among and again that the things that were vetoed in the past I would expect to see minimum wage and and paid leave to come forward again well my thanks to you both for joining us here today for a wonderful conversation and I thank you so much for your service as well it takes a lot of courage to actually run for office to put your values up to the voter and then to actually go to the state legislature and try to draw consensus a reminder that you can go to our website CH 17 dot TV to check out a list of all the upcoming candidate forums for the 2018 general election and a reminder that early voting has already begun throughout our great state of Vermont you can easily just call your local town clerk request a ballot complete the ballot and mail the ballot it's that simple for all of us at channel 17 I'm Matt Kelly for town meeting television thank you for watching