GUILFORD-It is time for Vermonters to use our votes to send the message that the status quo is not working. Our young people are leaving and not returning, because they see no affordable path to a future in our beautiful state.
The current governor, Phil Scott, has been in office for 10 years, and what we have witnessed is a man who has presided over, in Amanda Janoo’s words, “managed decline.”
He has done nothing to slow the steep rise of property taxes and housing prices, the closing of rural schools, and the problems that come with an increase in poverty.
Amanda Janoo understands that as Donald Trump’s federal government tightens his grip on our tax dollars which he is misdirecting (to the military, to ICE, to his corporate cronies, and into his own pockets), states like Vermont, considered “blue,” will continue to lose.
We cannot rely on Washington, D.C. for our well-being as a state. We will increasingly need to rely on ourselves and to work with other states to find new ways to fund what is important: education, affordable housing, community-based primary healthcare, clean air and water, and strong towns and cities.
Amanda is an economist, so when she talks about creating a new benefit for Vermonters, she also describes how it would be funded. One of her most exciting proposals is using revenue from taxing expensive second (or third, or fourth, and so on) homes and short-term rentals for a community-based, taxpayer-funded primary healthcare system.
She proposes the state pay a nurse or doctor to be based in every community in Vermont to provide free care for a broad variety of health needs.
When my family was in a small town in Québec on vacation, my grandson got an earache. He was referred to the town nurse, who kindly saw him, even though he was not a resident, and she prescribed an antibiotic. All at no cost, although I believe we made a donation.
Gov. Scott has no ideas, he provides no vision, and he holds no town meetings or other opportunities for conversations with the citizens of our small state. He has been in Windham County publicly maybe twice in the past five years — and neither time was announced in advance.
This is a state where personal contact is important. I am not an elected official or a well-known person, yet I have met and spoken with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, all my state representatives and senators. Phil Scott? Not at all.
It is time to elect Amanda Janoo for governor. Her office will not be the place where comments and opinions go to die. I have almost never even received even a form email from Phil Scott’s office when I have called or written about an issue.
On Tuesday, Aug. 11 — or right now, if you choose to vote early in the primary — vote for Amanda and say yes to positive change in Montpelier and in our own communities.
Nancy Braus
Guilford
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