“You know our property taxes cost us $1.60 an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 day a year. There are too many people wanting the government to take care of things that the government has no business to take care of,” says Warren Miller, owner of the Elmore Store in Elmore.
In 2016, I ran for the House of Representatives in Addison 3 District. Campaigning and knocking on doors gave me the opportunity to listen to most business owners and to many residents.
A serious injury prevented me from waging a second campaign for the upcoming election. However, having heard many people expressing the same feelings as Warren Miller, I feel compelled to write this letter. Vermont is at a crossroads and this election is an important and decisive test for Vermont’s future — a test between two vastly different ways to operate the government.
Floating around in the current House campaign are two tendencies: either imposing increasingly costly government programs, government intrusion in small businesses and a punishing attitude toward large businesses, or, working hard to keep what I call a survivable taxation level.
I know Representative Warren Van Wyck well. I have worked with him on the issues and campaigned with him. It is hard to find a man and a politician of more integrity, work ethic, common sense and investment in the well being of all Vermonters. He is smart and refreshingly independent of political pressure. He and his wife, Jeanette, have raised six children, five of them living and working in Addison County. He knows a thing or two about the struggles to “make it” in Vermont.
Warren is a sure, well-documented value for District 3. His voting record supports the concerns of the hundreds of folks I spoke to in 2016. Through his votes as a member of the House of Representatives, Warren has been a tireless advocate to keep Vermont affordable; he has consistently opposed higher taxes because he understands that Vermont has a taxation problem, which has both prevented newcomers from moving in and forced some Vermonters to move out.
Warren wants affordable and reliable energy for Vermont and knows that businesses small and large suffer under undue regulation. He knows that Vergennes and the surrounding communities flourish because of the employment provided by large corporations like Country Home Products and UTC and homegrown businesses like the Dock Doctors, but he also knows that those companies could move out if the fiscal climate becomes unfairly noncompetitive.
For me the choice is clear. Addison 3 needs Warren Van Wyck back in Montpelier in January.
Monique Thurston
Ferrisburgh