 Good evening. Welcome to the Candidate Forum. This program is part of a series presented by The Bridge and Orca Media to help voters get to know the candidates better. Before going on, I want to note that because of redistricting, these are the towns that are represented by tonight's round table. Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington, and Buells Gore. Glad you're here tonight. And forums are unique in that we have invited all the candidates who are on the November 8th ballot here, not even if they're not a major party. So first, we're going to start off with introductory statements, which you have two minutes, and introduce yourself, talk a little bit about your affiliation, and just talk about yourself. We're going to start with Thomas Stevens. Thank you, Linda, and thanks to The Bridge and to Orca Media for having the forums. It's been really nice to see how total you've been covering these races. I'm a Democrat, and I'm running for re-election to my eighth term to the House of Representatives, and I live in downtown Waterbury and have since 1996. Since my first election, I have served on the General Housing and Military Affairs Committee, and have been chair of that committee for the last two biennium. The portfolio in my committee is broad, going backwards in the name of the committee. Military Affairs means mostly veterans work and working with the National Guard, which is our primary military organization in Vermont. Our work is recently focused on providing the guard with more tools to recruit members through enhanced tuition programs to local colleges, and improving our licensing programs through the Department of Fire Safety and the Secretary of State's office, so that veterans who have been certificated in particular trades can transfer that certificate more easily when they come back to Vermont, as well as making it easier for spouses of families who serve in the guard to transfer any licenses they have, be it in a trade or as a teacher, for instance. In housing, we've worked to provide more affordable housing for Vermonters in need of it, and we've worked to mitigate the effects of homelessness or impending homelessness with the help of federal dollars throughout the pandemic. We've worked with the Executive Branch to distribute tens of millions of dollars to tenants and landlords for rental assistance, and we've allocated tens of millions of dollars more to property owners to rehabilitate or build new units. Under the general category, we deal with the myriad issues ranging from oversight of the Department of Liquor and Lottery to labor issues like minimum wage and paid family leave from abinac-y recognition to a formal apology from the General Assembly for the wrongs that we did during the eugenics survey in the early 20th century. We've also worked on discrimination cases and things like equal pay, so it's a pretty broad committee for us to work on. This is the work we do, and the work outside includes constituent work throughout the year. While I'm proud of the work I've been able to accomplish, it's a real privilege to have served this long. Thank you. Next we'll hear from Teresa Wood. Thank you, Linda, and thank you to Orca and the Bridge for sponsoring this. I really appreciate it. As I said, my name is Teresa Wood. I'm from Waterbury. I've lived my whole life in Vermont. I've just finished my seventh year in the legislature. I was appointed by then Governor Shumlin to fill an unexpired term of then sitting Representative Rebecca Ellis. I'm a Democrat running for re-election, and I currently sit on the House Human Services Committee, where I am Vice Chair. And as a member of that committee, we work diligently to help Vermonters in need. We look at issues from housing to poverty, to assisting individuals with disabilities, to have safe services provided by our designated and other designated agencies and other private organizations, such as home health agencies. We work on oversight issues for three major departments, the Health Department, the Department for Children and Families, and the Department of Disabilities Aging and Independent Living all fall under our committee's jurisdiction. In the last few years, we have made major steps forward in providing assistance to working families for childcare support and to expand the availability of childcare. We still have a long ways to go on that, but we've made substantial investments in that. We've also worked to expand the opportunities for Vermonters with developmental disabilities to have safe, appropriate housing and the ability for them to receive supportive services in the communities where they would like to. And likewise, older Vermonters, we've expanded the supports and services for older Vermonters and are working now on the first-ever broad-state plan to help Vermont age well. And I look forward to being able to continue to represent the people in our communities. Thank you. Next in our candidate forum, we have William McGory from Bolton Valley. Yes. Thank you again, Orca. My name is William McGory, and I'm a 20-year resident of Bolton Valley. And probably two years before that, I was running, I was not a property owner there. But during that time, my experience of 20 years, I worked in the hospitality industry in both Washington, the Waterbury area, and also Chittenden in Burlington. And presently, I'm a 10-year-old resident of a small business. I own a building which has a laundromat in it, and I run out to a dance studio and also a hairdresser who was left because of COVID. And that's one of the things I want to focus on as a business environment that we're having right now. My experience, this is the first run for me for a state representative, but I was a four-year member of the town council in Westport, Connecticut, which is a legislative body. It's a local body, but it's doing the same duties as a state. But you're dealing with matters locally in that state. It was also two years as a clerk of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee in Connecticut State General Assembly. So I know the process, and it's the same process up in Montpelier rather. My goals, I see so much infighting between Republicans and Democrats. I'm an independent. Each one of them steadfastly not wanting to compromise so that they won't give a victory to either side. And it's us, the people, there's a disconnect between what they're doing and the people's agenda. That's one of the main reasons I'm wanting. Other reasons are state agencies, I believe that the state agencies, they're not entities in themselves. We the people give them power, and I'd like to see all those agencies be educated in our system of government. That's my goal. I'd like to get more community involvement with all the agencies and with all the police department and all the other agencies. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGory. Ms. Tenet. I moved to Vermont about 30 years ago. Thank you for having me, by the way. And as a world-class musician, since COVID, a lot of other families, a sense of community and to be able to raise a family and relative safety and comfort is really important. And they should be able to maintain their sense of values. I think that's been disrupted with everything that's been happening in recent years. Many community members have expressed disappointment, whether it be a lack of affordable childcare, housing taxes, mandates, pushing someone else's ideology or political agenda onto them. I know this because I listen while canvassing out there. It's become apparent we need better representation and that inspired me to run as a mom, a single mom, to boot. And I want to imagine a better future for our kids so that they can grow and wisdom and knowledge as to what constitutes we the people. Thank you. You're welcome. The candidates forum will begin now with one and a half minutes to answer a question and I'll pose to all of you. I'll do a different order every time and you'll have one and a half minutes and then at the end of the forum you'll have one minute to sort of close it and give a final statement. I guess I'll start with the way your names are on the ballot and we'll begin with Tom Stephens. Here we go. Question. When you are in the state house, how are you going to use this role to improve your district and what is the one important issue in your district? Our district is pretty broad. Waterbury is quite different from Bolton which is quite different from Huntington. So one thing or another is harder to pin down but again I work on the housing committee and we've been very clear since I've been in office about the dire need for housing that's affordable and which is slightly different than affordable housing in my mind. And what we're seeing across the state, across the country but in our district especially because it's right in our faces is the lack of vacancies for rental units. It's the lack of accessibility to affordable housing for families who don't make that much money in Vermont. We tend to pay people less than in other places and we have 144,000 income tax payers who make less than $27,000 a year and so having housing available for that demographic of people is really important as it is for a middle class person who's now trying to move into the area. We've had a big business leave in Waterbury because for a stated reason of there's not enough housing nearby and that's really important to get straight and we're going to focus on that as much as we possibly can. Thank you. We'll move to Mr. McGory with the same question. What is important in your district and how will you work in the state house to achieve that? What's important in our district like Thomas said, certainly I've heard all about the lack of affordability of housing. That is, I've never seen, I've never seen this environment where it used to be one week's pay would pay your rent. Now it could be, most of your income is going through your rent. How can we address that? I'm looking at some type of rebate program I guess that will give more affordability to people searching for housing. That seems to be probably one of the most important things happening in this district. I said before I do own a building but up in the St. Albanser area there's certainly different problems there. There's an opioid problem which I don't see terribly much in the Waterbury district but we do have to be vigilant in the way our drugs, the way the drug problem is especially here. Thank you. And the same question for Teresa Wood. Thank you. I think that the first thing that we learn as legislators is that you're there for the needs of your constituents and your constituents are both individuals and organizations in your communities as well as the municipal government in your communities. And so we respond on a frequent basis to outreach from whether it's an individual constituent or it could be a town clerk asking for clarification of a bill that's come up or we in turn also seek their input on things that we see coming up on the calendar and asking what's your thoughts about how this might impact business, the business that you do every day. So constituent services is a big deal and it's something that means a lot to me as a legislator because it helps me to connect with the real issues that people have in our communities. One of the big things that municipalities are interested in is bridges and roads and the state assistance for that in the transportation bill. And so making sure that we can link our communities to the appropriate resources is important. And I do want to mention the child care services and the ability for people to return to the workforce who aren't currently now in the workforce because having left due to COVID, we need to have people return to the workforce if they want to. And child care is one of the keys for that. So I'll continue to work on appropriate low cost, high quality child care for Vermonters. Thank you. Cathy Tenet, same question. I'm sorry, the question again, specifically. When you're in the state house, how are you going to use your role to improve things in your district? And what's the most important issue in your district? I will continue to speak to people. I'm a working person. I'm still working and I talk to community members and I'm a part of, you know, groups within the community. So the communication is definitely on that level of the working Vermonter. I think the carbon tax is highly unnecessary. We're already dealing with quite an increase in gas and heating fuel. I was shocked to get my heating bill this fall, early this fall. There's people that are very comfortable and they can afford to pay that sort of thing. There's a lot of people in our community that cannot. So to put a tax on top of that, to me, that's some kind of ideology that's going on that's interfering with our government process. I think the importance of law enforcement and properly funding them. I have a friend that lives in the Wasefield area. I know that's outside of our district, but that's an example. There is not one police officer in that whole area, Wasefield, Warren, that's been assigned to that area. That's problematic and I'm hearing about more police that are dropping out of the profession and more people are not going to be interested in joining the profession if the pay is not comparable to the job description and responsibilities, expectations. All our property taxes, it's the when I owned a home in Fiston, the property taxes tripled within a 12 year period. And, you know, we need to honor the school board and the superintendent's requests to not place more expensive mandates via new programs. Onto our school systems. Thank you. Thank you. Now here's the candidate forum. Here is our second question when you do you believe the Vermont legislature needs to focus more attention on election security? And if so, what actions do you propose? And we'll start with Miss Wood. Thank you. The legislature is continually interested in election security and Vermont has been cited, in fact, on a national level for its very high level of election security. And so I believe, yeah, we're going to have a new secretary of state. That person will certainly focus on election security. The legislature will continue to do that. We've made voting more accessible to more Vermonters than ever. We've continued that. And we will also continue to look at election security. However, like I said, I want to repeat that Vermont has been cited as being one of the most effective states in running its voting process. Thank you. Next, I'd like to hear from Miss Tennant. My estimation is that voting by mail is very susceptible to fraud. I have two friends that moved from the residences, one actually out of state, received a ballot in the mail. She reported it and it was kind of a fuzzy answer that she got. If she were to vote in her state of residence now in Ohio and didn't know about what was going on with the mail in ballots, I mean, that's that would fall back on her and she would be held liable. So the whole thing with cleaning up the voter rolls, so she's going to be mailing that back. So who's to say where that that ballot is going to get mailed back to? Is that secure enough to get that mailed back and what person is receiving it on that end? Who's to say that that person on the other end is not going to use that ballot? Harvest it, I guess that's the term. Another friend around the corner from me left her job and her residence and she received a ballot at her new address, or at her old address, I'm sorry, at her old address, okay, and the person that she was taking care of received a ballot who has since passed. So there you're talking about two ballots in mailboxes right around the corner from where I live. What's going to happen to these ballots? Who's to say that somebody's not going to come along and grab them and mail them? That's a deep concern. Thank you. Just mailing ballots and in the way that it was done, that it automatically went out without us requesting a mail-in ballot. I think that's a little erroneous. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McGorrie. I know I vote at the Smiley School and they use paper ballots there. I don't know what they do in Burlington. They probably do have machines. It's certainly a bigger area. I know, and for example, my brother just came back from Brazil to see his wife. They vote with paper ballots, all right? They can wait a couple more hours. I don't have to have my instantaneous result. I want the result to be the right result. Not one that can be fudged with. And actually, she says, he told me that night, they do get it. They do get all the ballots counted. And there's no centralized position where any type of fraud can take place. This is one of the most important things in our government. It's our vote. Our vote is one of the most important things in our government. If you go into a liquor store, you've got a show ID. You get on welfare, you have to show ID. Everywhere you have to show ID, except at the ballot box. I think it's certainly Warren's matching a person to a ballot. Thank you. Mr. Stevens. I've been very comfortable with the way that the Secretary of State's office has been handling vote by mail, both through the pandemic and this year. If you remember during the pandemic, even the primaries, which are party related elections, they're not state elections, they're held by the parties at hand. They both went off fairly smoothly. They reacted to the pandemic in a way that was incredibly thoughtful and they focused on making sure that the rolls were clean. They made sure that the trial clerks were up to date on what the processes were and any hiccups that came up were straightened out through either through legislative action if needed or through the work of the town clerks. The town clerks did a phenomenal job across the state in making the system work. So I'm totally happy with the way that they've done it. They've been, the Secretary of State's office has been very forceful in protecting any kind of attacks online from overseas sources. They have been, as Representative Wood said, they have been recognized as one of the most secure voting systems in the country. And as we heard, yes, the vote is the most important at a time when there are states across the country that are trying to deny people the right to vote. I'm really proud that Vermont is getting out there and is getting away for us to vote at a higher level than we ever have in the past and to do it securely. Thank you. This is a candidate forum for Washington and Chittenden. We have four candidates here and I'm Linda Radke. We're going in different order every time we have some questions and then also the people from home can make sure you put your questions in as well. We'll have those as well. This is a question that has already been mentioned is housing. Do you think the Vermont legislature should do more to support affordable housing as well as housing from the missing middle, the moderate income for monitors? And if so, what should they do? Let's start with Ms. Tarrant. Used to own a home and I'm a renter now and my rent has gone up. Two years in a row. Pretty exorbitantly. I'm not sure if that's that. Well, of course, it's probably somewhat related to inflation. But I believe there are some some new regs or something that's going on for landlords. I don't know the specifics right now. I'd be willing to research that some more. I feel the pressure that she. This is my landlady that she is experiencing. She won't share them, like I said, the specifics. But there's there's definitely some some things that are going on. It's just a lot of inspectors coming in and out. It's it's just it just seems like a whirlwind. She's trying to make a living, too. And. But the increase between the increase in rent, two years in a row and a doubling of heat of the oil bill, heating plus gas for the car. You add this stuff up after a while and it's concerning. I'm a working person and there's a lot of other people out there that are working and they're experiencing this. And what can we do about it? I like I said, I will do whatever research is needed and required and necessary to get to the bottom of why this is such a problem in Vermont. It's very expensive to live here. I moved here 30 years ago. And to think that what was going on with the administration around that time that, you know, the the tax, the property tax tripled. And it was less than 12 years. Thank you. I'm going to have to cut you off now over time. But your return to those. Yeah, leaders. Same question for Mr. Stevens. What specific actions should the Vermont Legislature take to support affordable housing as well as housing for moderate income for Monters? Well, this past session, we passed a bill that allowed for private developers to have access to some of the federal money that we received through the ARPA funding, through the emergency funding, which is the first time we've really tried to allow private developers that opportunity with some restrictions on it. What we've seen since the pandemic started was at first we saw that everybody was holed up in their homes. And then we saw this incredible increase in the price of homes and in the price of rents going up. And our statutes do not have any protections for tenants when it comes to no cause evictions, which means that a landlord can evict someone for no reason whatsoever. We do have just causes, if it's not payment of rent, of destruction of property, and so on. And there are legal processes that go along with that. But during the pandemic, we also, through federal funding, instituted a rental assistance program where close to $160 million has been distributed through tenants to landlords to make sure that people are making ends meet, both as tenants and landlords. But it's a really sticky wicked. It's been very difficult in all the time that I've been here to try to figure out that way to get more affordable housing. We need more investment. We have a mechanism to do that with called the property transfer tax. And some of that money is supposed to go to help with affordable housing. But matching that up with available funds for the so-called missing middle has been a struggle because most private developers don't wanna have any strings attached to money that they're receiving in order to build housing. And if the state or the feds are going to give money, then there are gonna be some strings attached. But this past session, we passed legislation that starts that process. And we'll see how it goes in the near future. Okay. Question about affordable housing for Mr. McGory. Yes. I certainly see, have seen the rents go up in my time or Vermont. I'm not a, I own a house. I own a house actually in Canada also. And what they doing, I'm not a big, the Reggie DeLongement allows, I'm not 100% for rent control. But if the problem gets that far out of hand, the Reggie DeLongement up there, they say you can increase your rent by 2%, maybe 3%, whatever it is they decide at that point. That to me would be a last ditch solution. If, in our economy, our supply and demand, if you're experiencing super profits in one area, that's gonna attract more business to that area, and it's gonna take away your profits. Just like if your rent is getting so high and you're making so much money, people are gonna build new houses. And all of a sudden there's a glut of houses. So it's somewhat self-regulating. But I say, everyone's experience is problems with gas, problems with electricity, and so they're having to have to charge those rents. So it's not an easy solution. But like I said, there could be rent control. That would be a last-ditch effort that I think you could explore. Thank you. Ms. Wood, the question on housing and specific things that the legislature can do. Great, thank you. I think it's important to understand the depth and breadth of the housing issue. In Vermont, most likely we would need an additional 10,000 units of housing to meet what is the current demand for housing. We've made big steps, big strides, as Representative Stevens said. In the last three years, we've appropriated more than $375 million towards housing. And that's housing for middle income Vermonters. It's housing for low income Vermonters. It's housing support to rehabilitate current units that are offline in order to bring them up to code. Those are forgivable loans to landlords to be able to bring those housing units back up to code and to get them back in the housing market. We have been able to provide assistance, as Representative Stevens said, on rental. We have also looked at increasing the availability of what are called accessory dwelling units, which are essentially trying to increase the density of housing in our downtowns. And so I have to say that I think the legislature is on the right track, but we will continue to need to focus on this area. I have another question coming up that everybody take a little bit of water. All right. We're gonna start with Mr. McGory next for this question about climate change. The effects of climate change are already being felt across the world. Do you believe Vermont should take additional steps to limit carbon emissions in the state? My personal feeling is, hey, I'm green. I think I'm looking to move towards electric cars, et cetera. But people get carried up in a green wave. That's what happened in Germany, for example. They cut their nuclear, which I don't want nuclear at all. They cut their coal. Now, since there's a natural gas crisis over in Germany, they've been advised to take one shower a week and they've been advised how to use a washcloth. That's not a responsible pursuit at all. There's no plan B. I don't want to get carried off in a green wave also. I want to do things responsibly, slowly check their effects. And there was an ice age 10,000 years ago. I don't know how, that was certainly a climate change. There was a, in 1816, there was a Mount Tambora went off and there was no summer that year. That was certainly climate change. I don't think climate change is as, I think there, I do believe in it, but I don't believe in it at the extreme that I see other people believe it. Thank you. Mr. Aaron. Yeah, I think there's a lot of scare tactics when it comes to the green issue. And I think there's a lot of people trying to make money from it, quite honestly. And the way that they're setting it up here in Vermont with credits, with a, it's really gonna hurt the businesses that are supplying us with energy as well. Boy, there's so many things about this issue. It's just, I think it needs to be reframed, actually. The information that we're being given by major media outlets is, I don't wanna go so far as to say it's incorrect, but from a personal standpoint, I would say that. It needs to be reframed. What causes climate change has to do with the moon and the sun and the interaction. There's something that happened 135 years ago, I believe, that was quite dramatic, something that you had mentioned as well, similar to that. And it had to do, it's something with the waning of the moon and the sun and the interaction. And this is not being discussed. Things like this are not being discussed. And I think we need to open up this. It's a very big issue that we need to open it up and discuss more fully than it has been. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's go to Ms. Wood. Well, I guess the first thing that I wanna say that climate change is real. If you lived anywhere in Vermont in 2011 and experienced tropical storm Irene or like in Huntington a couple of years ago with the Halloween flooding that happened there, we are seeing more and more severe weather circumstances. And the legislature has a role in helping our community to be more resilient and we've provided significant funding to support towns and their infrastructure to respond to those crises. We've also passed legislation that deals with the fragmentation of our forests. Our forests are one of our largest responses in Vermont to the climate issue in terms of carbon. And I wanna say unequivocally that the legislature has not passed a carbon tax. The clean heat standard, which is maybe being referred to did not have a carbon tax in it and required, it required the legislature to take further action on any recommendations that were made. And I think that it's important to understand that it's gonna be a multifaceted approach over many years. This is, there is no quick solution to this. And we have to be open to multiple input on those solutions. Thank you, Mr. Stevens. Thank you. Also unequivocally climate change is real. It's been affecting Vermont for a very long time. Many years ago, I picked up a National Geographic from 1975 and there was an advertisement from an oil company that said that we're running out of oil, we're at peak oil and that oil has contributed to the warming of the planet. So this is something that's been known for a very long time. We've actually been very slow in addressing this. And what the legislature has been able to do, some of the work has been vetoed by the administration, by the governor, is to look at this very clearly and relying on the existing science as much as possible. We don't need to look too far to look at Pakistan recently and to look at what just happened in Florida. The storms that are happening are happening in a way that hasn't really happened on a regular basis prior to this period of time. And every month we see that this was the warmest month ever. It's been going on for years. In Vermont, we have the biggest energy carbon creation right now is transportation. We don't have great public transportation. It's very difficult to build a rail system in the way that our state is built. And so until we can figure, make these investments, and first of all, accept the fact that these changes are happening and get a little bit more nervous about them, then we'll find the answers to them. We know where the answers lie. They're all out there. We just need to have the will to pass that bill and to start working on this. Thank you. Going from sort of a global thing to something very specific to Vermont, I'm gonna ask for your stance on Article 22. And just to review it, finalizes a four-year process of amending the state constitution to reflect, guarantee actually a reproductive autonomy for pregnant people. So where do you stand in Act 22? And we'll start with Ms. Terrant. 90% of Vermonters do not agree, and these are pro-choice people, by the way. They do not think that Article 22 is a good idea. They don't believe in an abortion at nine months. You're talking about a fully formed viable baby. And this would be entered into the constitution in Vermont. So 90%. It's a lot more extreme than Roe versus Wade. I think that the Supreme Court ruling in the way that they did, again, it's scare tactics. It's gonna happen here in Vermont, and we need to do whatever we possibly can to make sure that it doesn't. Roe versus Wade was, I think, the first trimester. You're talking nine months. And again, it's 90% of Vermonters do not agree with this Article 22. And why should the taxpayers have to pay for somebody's abortion? I just have a problem with that. I don't wanna pay for somebody's abortion. I work hard, I pay taxes. That's a personal choice, and that's something that should be between the woman and her doctor. And Article 22 means it's gonna be in public. It's written, it's not good legislation the way that it's written. It's lawyer talk. It's not very clear. It's vague. A woman is not even mentioned, the word woman. It's something person, individual. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Tom Stevens. I totally support Proposition 22 or Article 22. I have to push back against some of the numbers that were just mentioned. Recent poll just showed that 70% of Vermonters support Article 22. That's been the case since this was started over four years ago. It is not about nine month abortion of Vermont. It is not. There are no abortion clinics in the state of Vermont that do abortions at that time. So it's misinformation, essentially. It is putting into the Constitution the right of this choice to be between an individual and their doctor and that the legislature, which changes every two years it will prevent the legislature from easily passing anything that denies that right of those individuals. That's all Article 22 does. And this idea that 70% of Vermonters support it has been pretty regular throughout this period of time of contemplating this. Changing the Constitution is not a simple fact. It's not a simple thing to do. It takes two bienniums plus a public vote to get this across. It's been studied. It's been plenty of testimony taken and the support remains. And so I'm looking forward to seeing it pass in November. Thank you, Ms. Wood. Thank you. I voted in favor of sending Article 22 or Proposition 5, however you wanna refer to it to the voters. And the voters have a right in this state to an obligation to vote on a constitutional amendment as Representative Steven says. This has been a long process. I want to keep this very simple. What Proposition 5 or Article 22 does is to indicate to all individuals, not just pregnant women, to all individuals that government should not have the right to interfere in your personal healthcare decisions, period. Mr. McCory. I'm not 100% sure on Article 22. As far as abortions are concerned, I'm a male. I'm not a female. I don't have sensibilities of what that would do to a female, for example, how it would change their life, et cetera. I'm against, personally, against abortion, but I don't think I have the right to tell anyone what to do with their body. And I probably would abstain from any type of a, any type of telling people that they can't do this or that with their body. But I certainly don't like the idea of a third trimester abortion or whatever. But like I said, I probably would abstain from that or at least not, I think individual has a right to their own body and their own decision. Just as I think people have the right to choose a vaccine or not be vaccinated, the government should not tell you that that is their duty. That's my feeling. We're gonna move on to the cannabis question. What should we do with the unallocated revenue collected from the 14% excise tax on retail cannabis sales? Ms. Wood. Thank you. Well, whether we in fact earn that through sales is yet to be seen. Legal sales just recently started. Serving on the House Human Services Committee, we spend a great deal of time on prevention and education around substance use. And we have a priority for investing a significant amount of resources that come from that in substance education and treatment. It was mentioned earlier about the opioid crisis that we have in Vermont. Last year, a record number of 210 people died from overdoses in our state. And while we have a hub and spoke system that provides treatment to people with substance use disorder, it is not sufficient. We need to do more and we need to explore other alternatives. So investing any resources that we might get from that into related substance use issues, I think would be what I would look to do. Thank you. This is the candidates forum here on Orca Media, also sponsored by The Bridge. And I'm Linda Radke. This is not a debate. It's sort of a round table. So we're giving each of the four candidates a minute and a half to answer some questions that are pertinent. We also may have some questions from our audience who will call in the questions. Let's turn to schools. Do we need to change the way we fund education? Less property tax, more income tax. Vermont is consistently ranked among states with the highest per pupil spending more than 20,000 dollars per student. The question is, are we getting a good return on our investment? So talking about school funding. Let's begin with Theresa Wood. Well, thank you. I didn't know if the other candidates were gonna get to answer the question I just answered. Thank you. I just thought I might. I mean, I'm happy to answer two questions in a row. There you are. There you are. Yes. Sorry. I'm gonna keep myself straight on that. So we'll just go down to Mr. McGory. So the question we're gonna back up the question. The effects of climate change. No, no. Cannabis. Cannabis. How would you use a cannabis? Gee, I forgot. What should we do with the unallocated funds collected from a possible 14% excise tax on retail cannabis sales? I do, I agree that's an opioid problem. And I think some of that money should be spent directly towards the opioid crisis. You were talking about school funding. That's gonna be an opportunity to fund schools. I know you said the pupil cost is, per pupil cost is very high, but cannabis revenue might come in handy with that. So it's either school funding or attacking the opioid crisis. Okay. Kathy Tennant, Territz. Thank you. A representative from Colorado came to speak, I think it was around a couple of years ago, and I decided to attend. And he mentioned that it's not a good idea to legalize marijuana to the point that it's commercialized. And he said the tax that you get back does not offset the cost, basically, because there's a lot of social cost involved in the increased use of cannabis. I think it's fine if you wanna grow your own, and if you wanna share it with your friends, and that sort of thing. But this whole idea of mass producing, and then you're attracting nefarious elements, because then it's a big money-making thing. I'm concerned about that, based on my own experience as a mother, and also from one of my children living in the United States, living in Colorado, and what I've heard that is happening out there. And thank you. Tom Stevens. What to do with the 14% sales tax is still, I think, a question that hasn't been answered, because we don't know how much it's going to be. From the lottery, we net probably close to $30 million for education through spirits, the sale of spirits. We probably net around $28 to $30 million. Both of those are considered controlled substances as marijuana is. And so when we have another year of seeing, a year of seeing what kind of income we're going to make, we'll have a better idea of where that money can be invested, and it should be invested in something that's going to help mitigate any social problems that come up from it. Marijuana is generally speaking safer than alcohol. It is generally speaking much safer than fentanyl or any opioids. The problems that come from it will come from a personal use issue. I'm of the school that it's already illegal, it's already illicit, except for homegrown now. And well, now it's not for recreational. But the idea that it has been a public safety thing for all these years has really, the prohibition against marijuana has created more problems than legalizing it will. And as long as we can invest in the social programs that will help mitigate the problems with any person who has a problem with it, then I think that that would be sufficient. Thank you. So with Act 22 with cannabis, now we're gonna, schools will go to the one I was going to ask everybody else. This is about funding education. So should we change the way we fund education in the state? As you mentioned, $20,000 per pupil cost. Are we getting a good return on that? And do we need to change the funding for education? Start, Ms. Tarant. I moved to Vermont in the fall of 92 and had my son shortly thereafter. I was at home with my children, had a daughter a year and a half after that. And they entered the local community school just as Act 60 came in. My son, I think he made it through kindergarten and then my daughter was right behind him. They're just really close in age. And how it impacted our community and our family. Two thirds of the staff quit. It was just an uproar and that, it was a wonderfully rated school up until that point, actually, people raved about it. The kindergarten teacher won awards. And what ended up happening? Yeah, just imagine two thirds of the staff quit. The money, a third of the funding was taken out of that school and sent who knows where. And that whole thing with Act 60 was just like, I checked it out a little bit more recently because I felt like I needed to for this time that we're in now. Yeah, it was like rushed through. This is what happens with these bills sometimes. So people get together in legislature and they had these agendas and they're gonna do this. And there was really little input discussion from the community that was allowed. Thank you very much. You're welcome. We're hitting all the topics today from cannabis to schools and now guns. What are your thoughts on an assault weapons ban? Do you believe it should have, people should have AR-15s without regulation and what about a ban on non-standard devices such as bump stocks that increase the capacity or firing speed of non-automatic weapons? It's a complicated question, several parts to it, but assault weapons ban and regulation of AR-15s and also modification. We'd like to start with Mr. McGory. I'm not a big hunter, but I am an advocate of a second amendment. I don't see any real reason to have a magazine of 50 rounds to go out and hunt deer. So in some respects, the size of the magazine would I think could be limited as far as rifles, et cetera. I think it's our second amendment, right? It's written in the constitution and it wasn't written because they wanted to make sure people could hunt. It was written as a prohibition against a tyrannical government. So I do understand AR-15 is a 22. It's not a huge round. Like I said, my feeling is I would compromise on some, the size of the magazine and some assault weapons, but as far as guns go, I certainly want people to enjoy their second amendment, right? Thank you. Mr. Stevens. I think we did some legislation on bump stocks. I'm not sure whether it passed or whether it was vetoed in the end, but bump stocks are unnecessary for hunting. AR-15s are unnecessary for hunting and so whether they get banned or not, I think as a federal is primarily a federal issue, but I do think that we should be licensing gun owners. We license for automobiles. We license for cosmeticians. There should be some responsibility when you are exercising your second amendment, right? To the rest of society, to say that you know how to use this tool, this weapon, and that people should be able to be responsible for that. And I think that we ignore that responsibility. I was brought up at a house with guns and that was the first thing I was taught. They're very powerful weapons. They're very powerful tools and that you should have a responsibility for how that tool is used. And I think we ignore that when we get into this simple, simplistic conversation of what the Constitution may say about ownership. I don't have a problem with people owning guns on a whole, but I would like to see it so that it's safer and that it's done in a way that is respectful to those of us who don't own guns. Thank you. Next to Theresa Wood. Thank you. I'm gonna skip back just for a moment to the school question. Having served 12 years on a school board and most of them as chairs, our schools have become social institutions that deal with a whole myriad of issues of children and families. And yes, $20,000 per student is a high amount. And Vermont relies on a diversity of different funding sources, even though people just highlight the property taxes, not the only source of funding for schools. And we in the last couple of years have diversified that even further. So I just wanted to point that out and that we pay for property taxes based upon our income in Vermont. So they are income sensitive. When it comes to weapons, I wholeheartedly support the Second Amendment and I wholeheartedly support commonsense gun legislation. And I don't think that, I think that those two things can live together in Vermont laws. And we have passed commonsense gun legislation and we need to be aware of the fact of how guns are used in our society today and the impact on domestic violence and the victims of domestic violence and guns are used in that way a lot. The impact on people who die by suicide and the use of guns during that. So I support the Second Amendment and I also support commonsense gun legislation. Thank you. Now, Kathy Terrant. I support the Second Amendment wholeheartedly as a woman I should be able to protect myself and for somebody to tell me that I can't or how I can or cannot do that, I don't think that's really their place. Again, I keep saying fear tactics. There's all these fear tactics out there. What constitutes an assault weapon? It could be a knife. There's more knife deaths per year than guns. So it's, there's more to the story here. Again, as a woman I should be able to protect myself in whatever ways that I deem necessary. Thank you. Thank you. Now we've come to our sort of lightning round. Thank you so much for respecting the time and now take a minute, take a strip of water, but this is one minute and we'll go in the original order that you chose when you sat there. One minute to sort of give us a closing statement and do try to keep it to one minute. Mr. Stevens. Thank you. Thank you again for hosting us tonight. I would just ask our constituents, our voters for their vote coming up, starting last week. You can fill out your ballot now. What I think I bring to this position is experience, it's leadership, it's commitment to doing the work that's in front of us in the best way I know how. The stuff, the material that comes through our committee is diverse. It does deal with everyday Vermont issues. It does deal with the important parts that we've talked about tonight, including housing, including affordability, wages, and the ability to make it here in Vermont. And I would just ask people for their support. Theresa Wood. Thank you, Kathy. Thank you for hosting and for moderating this evening. Appreciate it. I think that one of the things that I want to say is that on behalf of Vermonters, working in the legislature is an honor. It's a responsibility I take very seriously, but it's also an honor to be able to represent your constituents and your communities. And to do that in a way that's respectful of the diversity of opinions that there are. We represent everyone in our communities, not just the people who agree with us and on a particular issue. And so we try to, the best of our abilities to listen to our constituents about the myriad of issues that come our way. And I do want to say that we work across the aisle, you know, Republicans, independents, progressives, Democrats, we are all working there for the same thing. And that's to improve the lives of Vermonters and to make Vermont continue to be and improve it as a state that we all want to live in. Thank you. William McGory. Yes, I do think the environment is a problem, but like I said, I don't want to get caught up on a green wave. I want to do things responsibly. I want to have a plan B. Like I said, the Germans, they cut down everything, the coal, now they can't even take a shower. Electricity costs are now in England are way, way up because they stopped their coal production. Let's do things responsibly and have a plan B and all these things. As far as, I'm running as an independent, and it is because Democrats and Republicans are at each other's throats. I've seen it, especially in federal, but in Vermont, it also is there. Like I say, let's be responsible, have an alternative plan and, you know, that's pretty much what I'd like to say. Thank you. Cathy Tarrant. One minute. One minute, thank you. As a 30-year Vermont resident, single mom and musician, working musician, I have seen our state become a harder place for Vermonters to live, to support themselves and their families. This has largely been the result of the politicians we've been sending to Montpelier. Making our lives more complicated and more expensive through increased regs, higher taxes, and mandates based on ideological agendas. They're disconnected from the day-to-day needs of their constituents. Vermonters deserve better representation at the state house that is more reflective of their wants and needs and not based on the parlance of special interest groups or lobbyists. I'm Cathy Tarrant and I'm asking for your vote. Thank you. And thanks to our candidates today for this forum on Orca Media, also co-sponsored by the bridge, the Montpelier Bridge, and also telling everyone to remember to vote. I'm Linda Radke. Thanks so much for listening.