 Good afternoon everyone and thank you all for being here today. When we ended our regular COVID briefings I said I'd like to have press conferences where reporters from around the state could continue to call in when possible. It's been a couple of months since the last one so I thought we should have one more before the end of the year. We don't have a set topic for today but we have almost the entire cabinet on the call. I wanted to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. Before that I just want to share a few thoughts. First of all a few minutes ago Senator Leahy delivered his farewell address to the United States Senate. I know many Vermonters including myself are there today in spirit with the senator expressing our appreciation for all he's done for our state over the last almost 50 years. The one silver lining we have is that we'll get to see more of him and Marcel back here in Vermont in the future. Next tonight at five o'clock I'll join Jewish community leaders for the annual state house menorah lighting ceremony. It's open to all who want to attend followed by light refreshments and other activities inside the state house and we hope to see you all there. Lastly in my remarks at the annual tree lighting I recognize several Vermonters who earned Rays of Kindness awards this year. People like Zach Cavacas from Stockbridge who received a ray of kindness last year after he raised money to buy gifts for over 20 families during the holidays and then went out and delivered them to families himself. Or Patrick Richardson a student at Essex High School who raises money for charities like Josh's house in the Humane Society in his free time or Amy Anderson from Waterbury who helps connect and support foster families. The holiday season is a reminder that there is still a lot of good out there even when times can look a bit bleak. It's also a reminder of just how far a simple everyday act of kindness can go. If you know someone you'd like to see recognized for their kindness or service to the community you can go to our website governor.vermont.gov to submit a nominee and as you pause to spend time with family and friends over the next couple of weeks let's all try to be a little more understanding of one another and offer a helping hand to those in need. It might seem small but you never know how much a little kindness can impact someone else. So I want to wish all Vermonters a wonderful Hanukkah, a merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy new year. So with that we'll open up to questions you may have for me and maybe preferably for the cabinet. Yeah I mean we're having some of those conversations internal and we're waiting for a little bit of guidance from the federal government as well as to what this means. I personally don't know what else is out there what other platforms that might be leave you vulnerable to the same type of thing. I know TikTok is topical at this point but there are probably many other platforms that gather a lot of information which can be sold as well to some of our competitors and enemies across the globe. So again I think we all have to be very careful of what we do in protecting ourselves and we are weighing that out whether we ban it or not but I'm not sure we could ban it from in terms of using utilizing it with state devices but but I don't know how much further that could go but we are we're considering it. Governor the legislature has taken off in a few weeks as you may have seen there's a coalition of housing developers calling on an investment in housing to the tune of $175 million. Is this something that you'd support? Well we're doing that actually right now I mean we put hundreds of millions of dollars in and we haven't spent all that money yet so I think we're obviously on the same page same trajectory we know we need more housing interested in what they have to say but but again most of the money that we've we put towards this effort has gone to the BHCBs of the world from on housing trusts and others so again I think we recognize the need and we put money into that initiative. They argue that there is going to be a cliff after that money is expended at which point Vermont has no more money to build new affordable housing but the need will remain in place and they say in order to avoid falling off that cliff you have to make another substantial investment in their opinion $175 million you obviously you're not going to figure out the number right now but do you agree in concept that the state of Vermont needs to make another you know enormous by historical standards slug of money and housing? Again I think we'll have to we'll have to see right I mean I think we'll need continue to need more housing I would agree there but how much we'll need I'm not sure we're still you know seeing the positive effects of the $37 million it leveraged a lot of other private assets in that initial housing initiative that we we put into place four or five years ago so we're still seeing the benefits of that we're still having ribbon cuttings on some of those projects so we'll be we'll be utilizing this over the next a few years. The other approach might be for the legislature to consider how do we make it less expensive to build this housing so that private companies can get into something that's lucrative for them and and gives us what we need as well as a society so before we did the $37 million which we thought was incredibly it was a large investment at that point as you might remember $37 million was a lot of money back about four or five years ago today it doesn't seem as great when we're talking about the billions of dollars we're receiving and the hundreds of millions we put into housing since then but the point is we never did this before to that to that magnitude so there was a way to provide for affordable housing a decent affordable housing before the government got involved and had to to utilize money to jumpstart that so we need to reflect on what are the cost drivers what can we do to make it less expensive to build decent affordable housing in Vermont and if there's zoning changes we need to make regulation changes act 250 whatever it is then we should consider that because we could be helping ourselves and and the economy. Have you and your team had any conversations with Senator Ron Hinchdale and Representative Baumgartz about the bill they're working on and Representative Baumgartz we have and and he's moving on the right track and and we look forward we're working with him yes. Governor in the healthcare arena uh Blue Cross Blue Shield this morning announced that they are not moving forward with the all-hair model next year one care tells me uh that's about 60 000 lives that will not be attributed to the all-hair model um your initial reaction. Yeah we just found out about it ourselves right just found out about it last night or this morning I think it's unfortunate that the negotiations fell through I'm going to be encouraging them or we're going to be encouraging them to get back to the table and try and see if we can put into place something that works for everyone but that doesn't mean that anyone is at risk at this point in time but but again we think that having Blue Cross Blue Shield and one care come together here is important and we'll be we'll be moving towards encouraging that but I might ask Secretary Samuelson if she'd like to comment on that. Governor I think that that's I don't have much additional add I think that we're again going to continue to try to get the Cross Blue Shield and one care to come together and this doesn't jeopardize our all-hair model I think that we're confident in the way that it's moving forward but this does give us an opportunity to continue our conversations about how we can can continue to move forward and improve so again as the governor said we're optimistic and hope that Blue Cross Blue Shield and one care can come together. Governor there's more that the administration could be doing to promote the all-hair model and health care reform some critics have said that you you have not taken a active role in trying to get providers to sign on they said that maybe if you were we had this little pandemic that we've been focusing on over the last two or three years and that has slowed progress but we look forward to getting back to try and do whatever we can do our part to encourage more providers to get involved and to make this work as seamlessly as possible so we still think that this is a worthwhile cause but we'll we'll do our part and we need everyone to do their part we need the legislature to get involved as well we need the green amount of care board we need the hospitals we need the insurance companies all of us need to pull in the same direction to make this happen. Governor on the subject of health care insurance you did not join the other 25 governors including Chris Sununu and Charlie Baker in calling for an end to the federal public health emergency do you see a benefit perhaps a health care insurance benefit in continuing that? Yeah I received that somewhat late and needed to make a decision on the same day that I received it which was last Friday I believe so I don't disagree with them I think the public health emergency should end but I as I've tried to do myself I think it would be much more powerful if it was a bipartisan effort I believe that coming from maybe the National Governors Association would make it again much more feasible and much more powerful when you're going to the administration so I would have preferred that we try and work together again governors from the other side of the aisle and join because I'm sure that there are some who feel the same way and so I would have signed on to something like that but at that late date I didn't didn't disagree with their initiative but felt we need to practice what we preach. If we pass this prologue we're going to be hearing a lot from you about workforce when you're inaugural in your budget address I'm wondering if you have developed any new strategies you're going to be asking the legislature to get on board with that you were deputy commissioner of degree you can tell us about today I'm not today but we'll be back on the fifth here in the building to talk about the state of the state and the inaugural address and then the budget will be coming a couple weeks later so everything we have will be will be forecasting at that point I will say there are no real surprises here and some of the same challenges that we've been facing over the last four or five years we've been making progress on we just need to make sure that we don't move to something else that we know is working again we need to to perfect it we need to work on it again pulling in the same direction I think the legislature has come to better understand the workforce challenges we have that they didn't fully appreciate when I first came into office but I think over the last couple of years have understood it and their constituents for my constituents have made that loud and clear we need more workers here in the state and so we need housing to do that we need water sewer and storm water infrastructure we need broadband we need all of those things to to keep and attract more people into the state first of all I want we had a tremendous amount of people without power initially and I want to commend all those line workers who are still working around the clock green amount of power Washington electric co-op and others who who and our Canadian friends for coming down to support us without them there'd be a lot more without power I think it's about just under a thousand at this point and they're gaining every single day so we'll get there but this was somewhat of a dangerous storm last week with the heavy snowfall and a lot of it and just the density of the snow and and how how weighted it was in terms of some of the trees and winds and so forth that took out the power I am watching this storm we're watching this storm this weekend I'm I'm a bit concerned about what that could mean with the predicted 50 mile an hour plus winds a lot of rain and then a lot of freezing afterwards so we are watching that with great interest and we're preparing ourselves we're prepared at this point but we'll see what happens but but it's not not great timing in some respects but we'll we'll do our part what's your message to reminders given that we're ending this year with so much antisemitism that we've faced and I think that's why it's important if if you are in the area and could come and you don't have to be Jewish to go to the ceremony and to light the menorah I think we all need to do our part of to come together that because we're all Vermonters we're all Americans and we need to treat each other better so I think it's just again more about kindness and acceptance and and maybe just experiencing some of that yourself and coming to some of these events that's supporting your neighbors I think is really important November the state recorded at 329,000 dollars in cannabis excise tax what is your your assessment of the revenue so far and more so just broadly how do you think the cannabis market is rolling out I think if you if you remember this was one of the areas where I said you shouldn't count on the money this is not going to be substantial and for those who are counting on this to be the answer to some of our budgetary concerns I thought that that wasn't well that wasn't the best initiative to follow so I'm not surprised but it's down I think there are a number of people who will still use the use cannabis but don't want to pay taxes on it so we'll see I mean gotta give it time and they just opened up some of the retail shops so it's it's probably too early to tell but we shouldn't count on the revenue in any great to a great extent I don't believe well again I mean I would it's too bad to Dr. Levine isn't on today and I would look for someone else maybe to maybe Jenny can can describe what we're doing on our side or Secretary French but this is part of the charge of the the cannabis board as well when we chose those members I remember talking with them individually about that this was part of how why I signed on to it was to make sure that we protect our youth and that we had some educational programs that would help make sure that we deter the use of cannabis until a year of age so that is probably a better question for the cannabis board but the Department of Health obviously has a message as well and either Secretary French or Secretary Samuelson would you have anything you'd like to add to that thank you Secretary French yeah I would just say you know I serve on the substance misuse program and I shouldn't count along with Dr. Levine and this is definitely something that counts as flag as a concern and we definitely want to ramp up our communication strategy as this program comes online. Secretary French while you're there uh new report raising some concerns about literacy among Vermont students uh wondering if you can get your thoughts about those findings um and things you think the state needs to do differently in response for me governor yes it was could you repeat the question was a literacy yeah there's a new report uh the I'm forgetting the name of the council but I believe you're a member of it literacy well literacy go ahead do you know what I'm talking do you know what I'm seeing the report that just came out yes the literacy advisory council's report yeah yeah uh you know raise some concerns about what's happening with uh literacy among Vermont students and I'm wondering if you could just offer your reactions to the findings of that report and things this state might do differently in response to it yeah it's a great question I appreciate calling attention to it you know literacy uh a performance of literacy is concerning um as a result of that we work with the general assembly to enact a policy on literacy one of the key strategies of that policy was to create this council which has been doing great work on the leadership of Gwen Kamoli who's the curriculum director up in Colchester so the findings are are not news essentially but we are I think building momentum across a variety of stakeholders and certainly that's been exceedingly useful to school districts that they've been targeting the recovery funds so the issues of literacy and the performance of students literacy have been a priority of concern in the state our challenge has been how to leverage a lot of the COVID relief dollars to make a impact so it's nice to see the work coming together and the report certainly highlights a number of the concerns where we can work better but I think you know this is more of a consistent articulation of the concern strategies moving forward and it's not necessarily new findings that were described in the report Secretary Sam Wilson did you want to add anything to the previous question Happy to you but Governor I think it's important for us to point out that the Department of Health has a lot of resources for parents already on their website so check out those resources there's also funding going to prevention coalitions to address the the cannabis market and to really help work through some of the use cannabis issues and right now the Department of Health is really ramping up that that work as we move forward so again as a parent myself I definitely use the Department of Health resources often and would encourage folks to check out their website healthvermont.gov start with Tom Davis Compass Vermont just wondering if you have any reaction to the announcement and a one notice from global foundries that it will lay off a total of 148 people in sx junction yeah I mean obviously my thoughts are with those who lost their positions at global foundry it seems to be the way of the world in terms of supply chain and the starts and stops thereof so again my my thoughts are with them I'm disappointed obviously in any loss of particularly that number of positions lost in any one company or even overall the only bright spot if there is one is that we have a number of positions available throughout the state and I'm sure that we can find jobs for those who wish to continue we as anecdotally I've had a couple of people contact me since the announcement was made and saying can you give us a list of who they are and what they're you know maybe a resume or just give me a name and contact information because we could use their help right now so I have no doubt that we'll be able to to to backfill the the positions uh if they're if they're willing we have we have enough positions available thank you Rob Taylor local 22 local 44 Rob I see you there but you're you're still muted all right we'll try Ed Barber Newport Daily Express question oh there you go what do you say yeah go ahead Rob questions on this thank you Ed Barber Newport Daily Express all right we'll try Tom Davis one more time it's all we have on the phone so governor uh a legal entry in the swaton sector of the us board patrol is up about 700 percent in october and november given the possibility that title 42 may be revoked despite the current stay issued by the supreme court are you concerned about increased legal entry into vermont and if so will state law enforcement ramp up its cooperation with federal law enforcement um I I can say this I'm always concerned about illegal entry into the state but we have law enforcement border patrol and so forth and we have a great relationship with them and we are in constant contact with them um but I may ask uh commissioner Morrison to go further on this she might have more details thank you so I think I was going to go with uh governor just said about our outstanding and and uh long-term relationship with our partners at the border patrol of course we are concerned to hear data like this um and we to to not be concerned about a similar level or an increased level you know that that just isn't part of our lexicon we are always concerned uh when illegal activity is penetrating into the borders of vermont uh that being said we are awaiting a briefing from our partners at border patrol to understand if there are ways we can increase our level of collaboration which as I said we we already have an outstanding level of collaboration between several local county and state entities and our partners up on the northern border as to the motivations or reasons for the increase I have not I do not have any direct knowledge of the nature of the incursions or the illegal crossings generally speaking if the there are high value targets or known criminal enterprises that are coming across the border then we would receive that intel and and we're collaboratively with our partners so other than the numbers being high I don't have any specific data points for you you do expect an increased collaboration though with with the feds I think we have to hear more about the context of the numbers numbers by themselves of course are concerning as the governor pointed out but without a little more meat on the bones I'm hesitant to commit to what that collaboration would look like as you know we um we do not enforce civil violations civil illegal entry issues and we tend to want our federal partners to focus on specifics to illegal immigration but when it penetrates the borders and there's further criminal activity then of course we're going to lend a hand so without without hearing the details we need to you know get fully briefed up before we come up with a plan forward come thank you that was that was a great that was a great gift thank you with that unless anyone has anything else it's always dangerous but