BRISTOL REPUBLICAN CHANIN Hill is hoping to secure one of the two Vermont House seats representing the Addison-4 district of Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro.
Photo courtesy of Chanin Hill

The following five questions, along with a requested word limit, were asked of each local candidate in a competitive race for the Vermont House or Senate.

The questions are not repeated in the context of each candidate’s response, but are recalled by subject at the beginning of each answer.

Primary Election Day is Aug. 13.

1) PERSONAL BACKGROUND: I’m Chanin Hill and I’m running for one of Addison-4 house seats. I’m a lifelong resident of Addison County with most of those years spent in Bristol. I currently live and work on the family farm, Four Hills Farm here in Bristol. I’m married to my husband Brian Hill 31 years, have three children and three grandchildren. I’m running because I’m increasingly concerned about how unaffordable our state is becoming and I know that much of that is being driven by policies at the state level.

2) THREE ISSUES: Affordability is a big concern for all. From housing cost, taxes of all kinds, fees and inflation it is becoming too costly or the average citizen and small business owner to live and thrive here in Vermont.

Education is big player in not only the affordability but also about quality. We pay as much if not more than many private schools would cost per pupil and our results are average. We need to focus more on the basics of education and remove politics from the classroom.

I am also concerned about safety. There was a time when I never considered locking my house or car, much less installing cameras to protect my home and business but that’s where we’re at. With homelessness, drug addiction and a lack of accountability for many crimes we’ve taken empathy and turned it into enabling with some of the legislation that’s been passed recently. Allowing people to continue to harm themselves or others without providing guidance and accountability will simply allow the problem to progress.

3) PAYING FOR SCHOOLS: From when the state implemented their plan for how we should fund schools till now many bills with requirements that are costly have been passed and affected the base costs of education. I think we may have to go to the beginning and look at each piece of legislation that has had an impact on costs and figure out which were necessary and effective for our students and their educational outcome. Although some costs cannot be avoided many can be controlled or even eliminated. With enrollment down across most districts, the number of faculty, staff and administration do not appear to be reflective of this.

4) HOUSING: Act 250 needs to be reformed along with many other pieces of legislation that put up barriers for potential home builders, buyers, new businesses and existing businesses to make the necessary investments to either stay or do business here in Vermont. I would not support any additional legislation that would inhibit growth around the state.

5) CLIMATE: I do not support the Vermont Climate Action Plan. Many don’t know but Vermont is already the lowest emitter of Co2 in the United States with less than 0.1% total emissions and methane emissions at about 0.2% we are already one of the cleanest states in the US. I would say that Vermonters both individually and businesses are already doing a very good job. I’m all for having goals but the way this piece of legislation is written, if we fail to meet our goals it allows for anyone or any organization to sue the State of Vermont (i.e. taxpayers). We will not meet the lofty goals set by this and we need to remove the portion of this that allows for this and re-examine with current science and current data if we should not simply repeal the entire thing.

Read more Addison Independent coverage of Chanin Hill here.

Find our Q&As with the rest of the Vermont Senate and House candidates here.