BRATTLEBORO-I'm a member of the Brattleboro Selectboard, but this is a personal essay and these opinions are exclusively my own.
Gov. Phil Scott believes in democracy and basic humanity. He handled Covid without falling into the swamp of conspiracy. He stood up to the Trump administration in a way that few Republicans did. I give him credit for integrity during a difficult decade.
But it's time for a change.
The last 10 years under Scott have been years of scarcity, where the only cure we know is to tighten our belts and where we fight over slices of a smaller and smaller pie. We do plenty of belt-tightening on the Selectboard, and it's an important tool, but it must be paired with vision.
Amanda Janoo has vision. She describes a plan that aligns with my values: free universal primary care and lower property taxes for year-round Vermont residents, funded by new taxes on the wealthiest.
That's exactly the right approach for Vermont in 2026. The stock market hits record highs, productivity soars, and yet regular people struggle to afford the things they need.
The problems that I see on the Selectboard are exactly the ones Janoo names. Healthcare continues to be a debilitating cost to the town, and we all feel it in our property taxes and household budgets. The marketplace offerings get worse and worse, and it feels like the whole thing is teetering. Federal cuts to subsidies and to Medicaid pile more weight on a creaking system.
And how about Scott's veto of the data center bill? You couldn't ask for a more definitive case study on the Republican reflex to side with big business in the face of clear costs to regular people. A bipartisan - bipartisan! - bill to strengthen protections against predatory data center projects - passed 26-3 in the Senate and by a near-unanimous margin in the House but was then killed by the governor's veto.
One of the many beautiful things about living in Vermont: Your vote really matters. The polling margin is in the single digits. A 5% gap out of 300,000 votes cast would be a difference of 15,000 votes. It could easily be fewer. This is an election that will be won by enthusiasm and turnout.
Who we put in that chair matters. Amanda Janoo is the right person for the job.
Oscar Heller
Brattleboro
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