good afternoon and welcome to channel seventeen town meeting television we are so pleased to be starting our election coverage for the general election on november sixth and we're pleased that you could join us here for the williston forum we have with us today are very happy to have you all here thank you and we invite your calls at eight six two three nine six six and perhaps meghan can turn the audio monitor down because the echo is a little distracting so please feel free to give us a call as i said eight six two three nine six six all right so we're going to start with opening statements and joy limoges could you tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the position thank you for having me my name is joy limoges and i'm running for state representative because i want to make a difference i've lived in vermont most of my life and i'm a twenty plus year resident of will stand having served on numerous boards and the town band planning commission and currently serving my second term on the sl i'm a practicing attorney with offices in willesden handling residential commercial real estate estates uniform commercial code law and i have the privilege privilege of serving as general counsel for a number of area businesses i've watched a steady and continual rise in taxes over the past years with no changes in sight and unless we change our current leadership and bring back some balance into state government there will be no change in the continual rising cost of living i'm running to make a difference in being bring back prosperity  democratic party and nothing so i decided oh boy i just wanted to jump right in there and run so i did and my qualifications are that i was i'm a former member of the green party national committee and i did run in virginia when they're there for a the exact same position in virginia it was a much bigger deal although i did manage to get thirty percent from someone who had been in politics his whole life and his family and politics their whole lives all the way back generations i don't really have a whole lot more to say i don't think right now are there issues in particular that are driving you yes ok well we'll hear about them i think when we go to the questions wonderful terry mechanic why are you running rate for record on environmental issues same thing on labor issues including the minimum wage and family leave which we passed last year but was vetoed i have a good record on equal pay for equal work consumer protection things so i think i would like to continue working most of those issues thank you so much jim acosta why are you running for reelection i are and thank you very much for inviting representative m and the rest of us here today i'm standing for reelection to the house of representatives from williston because i have experience in the town of williston i understand the values of my constituents in the town my neighbors the people i live and work with i've lived in williston as we say all my life so far and and have served actually the town since the sixty's on various committees commissions positions and so on i have a real understanding i think of what will assist and people want and i believe that that fits really well with what i want my environmental record to spotless in the state of vermont my my my economic development one is as well  th the promotion specifically over noble energy some years ago which has been driving our our bus here in many different ways economically as well as importantly so i am doing a good job i'm having a good time and i really do hope everyone else supports that thesis all right thank you very much i just want to remind our viewers you could feel free to give us a call at eight six to three ni if you have quest sions for the candidates running for the house the vermont house from which district is it two germans who checked into to the vermont legislature so kathleen we're going to start with you this is a question about the economy according to forbes magazine for months economic outlook is projected to be the second worst in the u s over the next five years while income growth is expected to lag behind the rest of the country do you agree with this assessment and what do you recommend as a plan of action to strengthen the economic outlook so my i did not mention this but another factor in my deciding to run was the fact that the president  was asking his supporters to run and when i found that out that really is what pushed me into this as far as the economy goes live it was yesterday or possibly the day before nafta is gone now and there is a new treaty i'm not sure what you would call it but it's an agreement between mexico the united states and canada in which i believe the the tariff barriers will be coming down i'm not sure about that but basically it's it's a  a union for the purpose of saving everybody tariff money and helping the three different nations to the trade is silly and fairly so the reason why i chose to run was primarily because i was asked to and in each instance that i've run i have been asked to do so   to believe in the future ok thank you very much terry mechanic what's your view on how to create a sustainable economy in vermont and so less or do something different where we will do it forbes says we're going to do so we need to work on economic development which we have done in the past number of years we also need to work on a workforce development to train our younger folks to that in the jobs that are essentially essential and the very much needed right now in the state we also need to work on giving people better pay good pay which goes along with the minimum wage increase and the proposal is to increase it to fifteen bucks and an hour and twenty four so we're not talking about tomorrow or law or the next year but we're talking about process also we need to think about giving people benefits why are why boat people come to vermont because we're not giving them what they need or not give them good pay for benefits so if we do that i think we can reverse the trend that we have seen in the past number of years and present forms from being right all right thank you very much mccullough your action plan for months economy well first before the action plan i'm going to address the source forbes magazine represents on the that part of the rigged system that does not work for all people in this country and i would say it does not work specifically for minors i read once and corps magazine that i'm supposed to be earning times as a wage ten times my age my goodness i get a couple hundred thousand dollars a year well maybe not quite that whole but so i discount their projection i'm on right now is one of the best and unemployment records in the country we have some of the best educational outcomes in the country and yes our governor has vetoed a number of bills that would be attracting young talent into this country minimum wage paid family leave sick sick leave these are things that turn our economy around with bright young minds from people from out of state and keep bright young vermonters in state and that coupled with an aggressive approach to our renewable energy which is going to continue to help solve climate change forbes will be scratching their head and going what happened with that one thank you so much joy i think that vermont has a spending problem and a regulation problem pure and simple we continue to raise our taxes beyond what is the state ample and i'd like to see vermont become more business friendly less overly regulated and spending reigned and we actually have a sixty million dollars surplus yet our legislators continue to put it push for more taxes including my two opponents i know most every question to senator tester you tonight involves more spending and we simply can't be doing that anymore i'd like to get rid of that dislike of spending reduce burdensome and unnecessary and deletion overhaul existing programs and provide adequate oversight thereby lowering bending and alleviate the need for raising taxes and how would you make some difficult decisions about what to cut i'm not talking about cutting so much as looking at the programs that are out there and finding out what's duplicative what's working what's not and readjusting that i think by doing that you're going to find you actually have more money that you need that can be allocated to other issues that right hand thank you i will take this call could even if you have a question for the candidate yes i do have a question first of all i'd like to say that i am happy to hear one of the candidates refer to cutting costs and will assist in an interim on as opposed to simply pouring more taxes at the issues that are perceived and real in some cases i've heard a lot of you have do you have a question yes my question is what exactly are we looking to do is with taxes in the state of vermont what type of programs will be offer to cut costs for those that are already here rather than focusing on those that are not here yet and what taxes in particular are you concerned about property tax i would also say that the room and meals tax in the state of vermont affection a lot of people that are deciding whether to go out to eat or not at over ten percent which i think is ludicrous any type of taxes that are on consumables anyway to help families cut the expenditures from their hard earned income all right thank you very much for calling you up we're going to start with you terry on that question so how would you approach cutting taxes making from a more for the tax rate there for so called bed and belly taxes so i don't think we're that far off and be happy to hear what the caller has to say is about what he'd like to see cut the there's a only him so much money in the education fund and we all know what that is and then the town school board's budget what they think is proper and the citizens vote either up or down so jim there's a concern here about spending and manifested in tax tax rates right so what's your approach to this question of how can we spend less well i'm a i'm a business person  i i have learned throughout the years that you can only can cut so much and stay in business and the state of vermont is incredibly frugal in spite of the we're hearing from from people from time to time the education tax is really the tax i think the caller's calling about the state aid to education we're working on that with ak forty six with consolidating throughout the town throughout the town regions for education i believe that's going to be bearing fruit and will help the cost of state aid to education rooms and meals tax is totally discretionary and also i would point out is important for vermonters because people comin here as a tourist state and help us pay for our government as far as helping modernise versus the here versus people away i think giving done thousand dollars to people who would like to move here was grandstand move by the governor and we really should be helping people who live here like vermont national guard which we voted to help them with their education taxes so we're always looking under rocks thank you very much i go back to the come a day just made i don't think it's necessarily about cutting programs i think it's about looking at seeing what's working what isn't what's duplicative what's not and they're like i said there's a sixty million dollars surplus sitting in the state right now and as far as i'm concerned the caller was correct i mean there should have been some tax relief of some sort going back to vermonters ok thank you very much kathleen orion your view on taxes tax policy in vermont and what could we be cutting well i think to look at it and terms of cutting rather then realizing what's going on nationally through the president who is bringing the economy back to life who is right now  probably running regardless of what c b s n b c and not in the rest of the so called mainstream news is saying i believe that the actual fact is that he is vastly supported and the reason one of the reasons for that is that he is trying his very best to get us back in gear again and he is succeeding in the so like i said that was really my whole reason for running is that i am an ardent trump supporter this fire is this state because i believe we started off with a negative promise if i remember correctly your statement so i don't really believe that that's necessary i do know that  economy right now there is in vermont right now that i think the unemployment is at less than ten percent maybe even less than six percent so we don't really need to worry about that part as far as taxes go i don't know a whole lot about taxes frankly i know that you pay a lot of them the more money you make i'm just in here to sort of fill the space and occupy time and space and try to do my best and i think the employer reads two point eight percent yeah right so learned a redirect if i could i'd like to talk about the the governor's idea two years ago and it's just resurface today at this table that we can find money bill that that's not finding duplicative monies or programs were borrowing money for water quality because it couldn't find money to pay the water quality bills and the sixty million dollars good business says spend it on past due debt not on short term pleasure which was the legislature said we want to pay down past debt and save multiple multiple millions over the years by doing that versus giving a check for sixty million dollars out at the moment joy do you want to respond  representative mcculloch it's not just the governor who has to find savings it's the legislature as a whole your track record shows a continual pattern of anything that's taxation for revenue streams that's just not going to work for minors anymore they can't afford anymore i to the business person continually looking at my bottom line continually looking at how we're spending money and what's working and what's not and continually making adjustments you know as a legislature as a whole body you should be doing that now looking to one person to provide those answers so let's move on to the climate change question how can vermont and climate change to its advantage and yet it will start with the best a really kind of a good question for me to discover for all our rivers and streams and lakes is now being now being realized because of climate change which is going to end up with better water quality statewide  climate change is also brought forth the need for for more and cheaper electricity and and that's working through a noble energies as well as the need for better standards for insulation for businesses and homes that's going to end up being a bonus of climate change for the state of vermont we have a real concern in the state that climate change is going to be bringing a lot of people up from the cities with sutton homes and even telecommuting homes and that's going to be a huge issue because as they sprawl through our woodlan around the state and that's going to be driving so we will be driving the bus to protect our forests in our habitat and and carefully direct that kind of rule thank you very much this a little bit differently than jim did it for months known for its beautiful scenic beauty and outdoor pursuits and so i was looking at this question is how are businesses preparing and i was looking at this more as i'm watching many of the large resorts make their businesses year round so it's a destination to come in i kind of look back at this is remote has a long history of being resilient and they will rise and adapt to this circumstance and we will come out all right well you agree on the re kathleen there's always some common ground somewhere you defined it kathleen or i and how can vermont turn climate change to its advantage i don't believe in climate change it's weather weather changes deal with it i don't really know what the question behind that question s maybe you could clarify that for me well it's i think it hinges on be climate change in vermont well in german and the joy of talk a little bit about what was said and i think you know we come from a state that has a lot of innovation over the course of the years so i would look for our smart people to think about innovations what are that are needed to deal with what i perceive as happening i do believe that the climate is changing i do believe in global warming i had a siberian husky when we first moved to williston and at twenty below zero she would go and lie on top of a ten foot snow like we don't have either of think needs to happen next i actually don't believe we're making a dent in the opioid crisis the answer is not more services or safe rooms for shooting up i believe we're increasing creating an environment of crime that's being accept rate except in tolerated it's not helping people enabling them to continue on a dangerous path and it's all at taxpayer expense i think there needs to mean more oversight of the services offered and i also believe that there needs to be accountability for those who are breaking the law ok very good thank you kathleen this  a sore point with me excellent people that i know indirectly because they're neighbors of one sort or another i don't want to go into that pretty much openly manufacturing i don't know what it was but i do know that required some sort of acid to produce it and i attempted to call various people i called i walked out went into town one day and walked from office to office and finally as a last resort i called the local police because i didn't want to have a police car in front of my place which would alert these people but actually that is family let them to leave so i mean way i feel really strongly about this business  very strongly that i don't know tolerance is not in my book i know that i just feel like these people are on the wrong pleased with the hub and spoke systems that we have in place we have decreased the waiting lists s n c two zero here and shouldn't county in franklin county which is helping the people who want to be seems to be happy was the result so that so we have made some progress in the course of the future for people who want to get off of the the drugs we're going to need to provide some more resources for them whether that means facilities i don't know but we need to provide something for these folks so that that they can get off of the drugs that they're on and this also goes along with mental health facilities right now we still have a problem with mental health facilities and part of that is drug related things was lineups in the e r as for days and days weeks at a time so we need to  start to think about addressing that thank you very much jim acosta well well what representative mckagan said for sure and i would add actually even his committee has made progress in the department of corrections for treatment   the wild hogs is we can't barbecue our way out of this one because they're rampant down there we've got a we don't have that problem we have a rampant opioid problem and we can't incarcerate we cannot incarcerate our way out of this and we can't hold that many people responsible i think is what i heard here we need to help them we need to help them get their lives back and where does that money come from it could be a rhetorical question but we will be looking at tax and regulate marijuana again in legislature  new source of money and the previous senate versions have dedicated one hundred percent of monies to well highway safety and but otherwise to drug addiction problems of all types not just marijuana all types educate as well as education and and and helping people become sober again for all types of addiction you want to help on that i actually do the first comment was my understanding with the taxation of marijuana was that all that money was really going to the it was going back into the marijuana itself it wasn't going there was going to be excess money left to go over somewhere else so unless i'm mistaken about that that was one point the other one is for ma has one of the highest rates of babies addicted to opiates and heroin in the country they're known as n a s babies and we're only just beginning to see the long term effect that that's causing and the rising costs so i have a hard time sitting there saying we're making a big dent in what's going on here seems to be getting worse and our numbers are again some of the highest in the nation all right let's move on to the next question if that's  right yes agriculture vermont's remaining dairy farms are on life support how important is this issue for our state and what needs to be done kathleen yeah well this this new agreement between canada  and our country and mexico as well i'm assuming that it will remove tariffs i'm not sure about that i know in one particular instance unfortunately as far as the i guess that's all i can thank you terry mccabe your view on the future of dairy farming so small dairy farms in vermont are in trouble i think there's no question about that the legislature in the that so not sure if that will help but i think that we do we need to look at diversification in agriculture for small farms but what else can they do if they're not doing maple production maybe they should be doing that if they're not doing egger tourism maybe they should be doing that to bring in the dollars that they need in order to keep going christmas trees you name it there's a bunch of stuff that can be done for small farms and  thank you very much jim acosta what should we be doing to support or not support dairy farms is this a thriving future for vermont right dairy farming in vermont is  iconic activity they used to be more cows than people we're very proud of that we still need more people in the state of vermont bright young minds to come in here and support our economy and and and grow our grow our quality of life here in vermont the dairy farmers in vermont are on life support they are losing money every time they milk a cow and it is i believe absolutely necessary for the state to continue to help dairy farmers with how they how they run their businesses through through their agronomy programs with technical advice and and and the diversification university of vermont is working very hard with farmers to do that as well  we have been talking about small farmers here but people would be a amaze to know that we really only have a few large farm operations in vermont most of them are medium and the small farms are actually i believe the future of vermont as the as the verdict vertical integration of large dairies and even the large medium  want you tell us how you think how important dairy farming is for our state and what you suggest then you're going to be delighted to hear me say i agree with about eighty five percent of what you said and that it is the iconic background for her mon think part of the problem that we're facing is the over regulation once again i've watched firsthand as some of the farmers try to make their way through some of the grand processes or tax processes and it's unbelievably onerous and i do think the new trade agreement is going to be a big help all right thank you very much all right let's go on to a question about government effectiveness and i think terry we begin with q how do you rate the effectiveness of vermont state government and what criteria do you use when you asked that question and how do you think we could improve our decision making when we decide to spend money and create new laws well having worked in state government for thirty eight years i think the government in general is doing what it needs to be to be doing there are certain things the government should do certain things that government shouldn't do i think we have a pretty good balance was in state government at this  time the governor in the last two years says been looking for efficiencies in the state government asking the employees themselves as to what needs to be done and i think so minor things ha time to do that the interview would interview all of the commissioners secretaries in state government and then pursue a questions on how efficient they are how much is being spent on often they will agree with the governor on a number of issues that come before them and some they don't and that's where the governor proposes in the legislature disposes so i think in general we're doing ok sometimes we need to get away from efficiency and look at the end product on the end if it's if there's any i believe any reason to have a government is for the benefit of the people and taking care of the people and our current governor has been very careful with his budget and our legislature has responded each  year with no increases known who doxes and and budgets get vetoed anyway for different reasons being held hostage which we won't go into but our gov has been very efficient  and our our appropriations committee very efficient we were told if you're looking for two hundred dollars you better come in here with a good reason and how we're going to find that other two hundred dollars to replace it that was that  was last year two hundred dollars really but when you get down to the end of the product that's what it gets down to because vermont has about its budget so the douglas administration riffed a whole bunch of people making a so are more lean and mean and and i don't think the shell ministration really did a ton to replace those people we have more people less people doing more work and have had now for quite a few years ah i'm not seeing a lot more efficiency we save our rubber bands actually in the state house and reuse them all right thank you tribal much h especially in the spending anything where you want to say what criteria do you use if you are sitting to make a decision about a bell i think it's really important to look how it affects from out as a whole not just a particular region so it's important to you for our legislators here today to be looking outside of willesden as well as looking within rules to itself there's a lot of laws that get passed up in this portions state that are really really difficult for the southern part of the state to do so i think there needs to be a lot more of looking overall how this works right thank you and welcome kathleen orion so i wasn't aware that i could bring my notes although i do remember working on this right now my mind is kind of blank but i do read every member something about going back to the constitution and where the money should go and then following that out to where it's going but beyond that i can't remember things i'm sorry i'm a dog with ok very good thank you good afternoon good in cases where there are no term limits imposed ok thank you very much anybody need clarification on that question while we have the caller on the phone all right very good thank you for calling all right why don't we start with you jim well this is a popular popular question the the answer i have is we do are talking in your question did state and federal  to get even recognized and as that person works their way through multiple reelections and multiple years of service then their seniority starts to count and give s them better positions in this you know which mean more effective spots for to get business done its term limits our would would would totally  and i i don't see how it would improve it in the state legislature in vermont we do not have a sonority system like that however there are you know there is a thing called  accumulated knowledge and and people i see people come in on full of fire and you know what and and and discover it's not black and white  that there are people who've been there who have institutional knowledge that can be really useful and so i don't support term limits for fed or for the state of vermont thank you very much try limoges where do you stand on term limits i think term limits are crucial to effective government i think that without them you need a new blood that comes through government was designed to be a service you're elected to serve for a period of time and then you go back to regular job so it wasn't meant to be a career and i think that without those term limits and without new ideas and new blood coming in you get stagnant and you get into that same old pattern thank you very much kathleen or ryan where do you stand on state and federal term limits i agree with both if previous to speakers on the one hand it's a good thing to know what you're doing and yet the original idea as laid out by the founding fathers was that you put your plow down go work in the legislature and then come home and that said so as far as what i feel is that it seems like the more you're there the better you can be at it at the on the other hand it's really a sticky issue because then on the other hand someone coming out is fresh and new and been schooled and educated and knows what they're doing i think maybe that would be the solution to that problem of things like it carries a certain amount of weight thank you very much terry mckay where do you stand on term limits for state and federal positions so if the federal government and the legislature earn congress decide t republicans that are not contested and that's too bad but that's the people's choice thank you very much joe joe much will start with you and also just remind folks thanks so much for the calls we love them our numbers eight six two three nine six six for speaking with candidates for the town of williston the district of well astin the house seats there there are two open house seats and there are currently occupied by incumbents but they are in play and we are discussing different positions here related to fill seats so joe much could you talk to us about education and how do we maintain a quality of education with the declining school age population i think that now is definitely the time to consolidate like you said with that declining population we seem to have a surplus of teachers and aides i think in consolidating this we might be able to save some resources and save some taxpayer money all right thank you very much kathleen iran what's your view on education and maintaining it in a declining population i believe it's somewhat similar to joyce position mine would be that with less students you get a better education so that was my first thought when i was looking over the questions beforehand that i believe really i really believe in a one on one teaching and i believe in letting children explore  their own path in life rather than being told what to do and so on in other words i have a my idea of education is probably a little bit different from everyone else i don't automatically assume that being in a school is the best way to bring a person up and to their full potential thank you very much term mckagan what would you do to maintain the quality of education in the face of a declining school age population and so it's been mentioned i think by three folks now that consolidation is the thing to continue and i would agree with that that we need to follow at forty six and bring that to a conclusion the problem is with the small schools and their efforts to maintain local control and that's going to be a fight in the legislature again this year but i do agree that that consolidation is the way to go in the past session we've talked to did some things with special education to allow more flexibility within the schools districts themselves and we see we have gotten good feedback from them on this which would appears to be a way to save some money and to provide better education for both the special ed cation folks and their good as regular students thank you very much your view on maintaining quality education we absolutely need to stay the course on ak forty six of the consolidation legislation that that many people were terrified about when it when it was signed into law but but immediately jumped way out ahead of anyone's expectations for for district new districts being formed we need to stay the course on that and we're not just talking about saving money we're talking about better outcomes and we need to keep our eye on that prize better outcomes and you know this goes back to cutting cutting cutting we need we need wages in the state of vermont that are livable wages we need health care that is only as good as our congressmen and women have we need we need to young have i said it already beautiful young families with their babies to vermont we want to have you people come on up hoping you're listening we're getting there and that will help the balance between  graybeards and young people and perhaps answer is getting some more young people into our schools all right thank you very much so i'm going to go to the equity question and start with you kathleen what will you do you to dismantle the systematic and institutional racism in vermont whoa whoa ok i was completely unaware of that so maybe we form our own reality and i have not seen that whatsoever the only symptom of have an arrest i've seen it was what i suspect was a marcus traded protest in which people of color were protesting in the middle of burlington one day as i have with walked by and it was unclear to me what they were protesting about and i just simply haven't seen that so  maybe i'm a babe in the woods on that ok thank you terry do you recognize that there's institutional racism in vermont and what role will you play as legislator to address it  said saying that you have to be carefully taught you have to be carefully taught to hate you for your six or seven or eight and now we have an administration that washington the says you should hate mexicans because they're murderers and rapists you should hate anyone who doesn't believe the the way you do and the it seems like we need to get back to education  ski and i'm hoping we'll be here at this table he said jem is against the law to drive while black in vermont and i'm going to really i mean i knew it  wasn't a statutory law but that happens to still be the case we have institutional racism systemic racism we have just outright bigotry it's reare head on the floor of the house as in the past six years when we've been working at better policing practices we've had people standing up and saying there is no problem and in spite of in spite it came out of the government operations committee on a party line vote at six five and if that's not proof of systemic racism right in our legislature i'm sure i don't know what is we have an issue in vermont and it absolutely needs to be addressed thank you joy i guess i'm a little bit more with kathleen but while i certainly see instances of it i don't see it to the same level that that jim's playing it out on more of what i see is that folks getting so overly sensitive about things that seems to be the first card they raise in an argument when they're not winning it i think that vermont to have different ideas floated be before us and that's what elections are about and so between now and november six you have the opportunity to get an absentee ballot to vote early or come to thank you lauren thank you general seventeen public access people need to know what's happening this is a very important part of the system if you don't know what's happening in you go to the polls and just shoot it darted a blown u is not that useful so thank you so very much because i am representative jim mccoll and i've been representative jim acosta on for sixteen years i'm doing a good job i'm having a good time doing it i'm representing willis i'm very so i look to take care of the entire state of vermont and as well as the town of wilson i appreciate your support all these years and and again in november thank you thank you very much trail mosher closing comments taxes jobs economy family safety those are all the things i'm hearing about on the campaign trail and i thank you for the opportunity to be here and share the time and talk with these views i mean if you're ready for a change and someone who's going to advocate fiercely for being bringing prosperity  sixth thank you very much kathleen orion well i would love to be in the legislature i fully respect these gentlemen present today they are obviously highly qualified and also joy they are all tremendously qualified so i was basically filling a space but if you want to vote for me anyway go ahead all right well thank you very much i'd like to thank the four candidates here for the two exciting month to stay tuned here to channel seventeen and don't forget to vote on november sixth and you have the opportunity to vote early by going to your town or city clerks and requesting a ballot even now i think pretty  just about now so voter early and thanks so much for watching