MONKTON REPUBLICAN RENEE McGuinness is hoping to win a seat representing the Addison-4 district in the Vermont House. She’ll first need to survive an Aug. 13 primary.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

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 am running for Addison-4 House to restore affordability, safety, and liberty to Vermont. Defending and supporting the family structure, as well as preserving the means for Vermonters to support their families, are top priorities. My work as Vermont Family Alliance (VFA) Policy Analyst for the past two years, researching and testifying on bills that undermine parent’s and legal guardian’s role in the lives of their children, has provided me with experiential understanding of the legislative process and the U.S. and Vermont Constitutions, which I hope to utilize as a state representative to further serve Vermonters.

2) THREE ISSUES: I agree with Gov- Phil Scott’s top three priorities in the upcoming biennium: affordability, public safety, and housing, and will collaborate with the governor and my colleagues in the legislature on these issues.

The state needs to reduce spending rather than continue to raise taxes and fees, which are currently straining families and businesses.

I will work on legislation that increases penalties for drug dealers, imposes higher bail, stops the “catch and release” of both violent and non-violent offenders, introduce the repeal of the “safe” injection site legislation, which will draw more drug dealers and addicts to Vermont, and introduce legislation for addiction recovery services, which I consider the more humane, compassionate response to addiction over enabling the continued use of life-destroying drugs.

3) PAYING FOR SCHOOLS: Every time the legislature passes education legislation, it gets more complicated and expensive. I will work to reverse this burdensome trend. H.887 (Act 183) not only passed education tax funding for 2025, but also created a 13-member Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont, which will determine, “what roles, functions, or decisions should be a function of” local or State control, (p.6) directed by a steering group and paid consultants. H.887 also has a provision to create a new position within the Agency of Education for the purposes of providing “a wider range of data” to guide future legislation. Compensation for these newly created positions will come from the Education Fund, further increasing taxes.

The State mandate for the provision of free meals for all students regardless of family income costs $29 million. We need to return to the free and reduced lunch program to provide food for children who are truly in need.

Act 60 has demonstrated that equity in per-pupil spending does not result in improved or equal academic outcomes for all students. The solution is to repeal Acts 187, 60, and 127 (S.287, 2022), which causes education funds to flow from less affluent towns to sanctuary cities, because English Language students are weighted 2.5 times more than students of families at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Level, and weighted more than 5 times the standard categories by grade level.

School Choice legislation, introduced in 2024 but not taken up, would instill accountability and create a competitive environment, leading to improved academic outcomes.

I would also address the cost of health insurance in order to reduce the cost of this benefit for public school teachers and employees, as the Affordable Care Act has caused insurance premiums to almost double over the past decade.

4) HOUSING: According to landlords and builders I have heard from, we can promote affordable home ownership by reducing state-mandated regulations that dramatically increase the cost of building, and therefore purchasing, a home, which I will pursue. H.687 (Act 181), “an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use,” at 171 pages, fails to streamline the Act 250 process. It adds another level of bureaucracy, complexity, and expense by creating a six-member Land Use Review Board Nominating Committee, “created for the purpose of assessing the qualifications of applicants for appointment to the Land Use Review Board in accordance with section 6021 of this title,” along with adding several other boards and positions, compensated at taxpayer expense. I will work toward truly streamlining the Act 250 process.

We also cannot move forward with conserving 50% of Vermont’s land, which will cause the cost of land for homebuilding to skyrocket. I will work with the towns that I represent to offer legislation to my colleagues in the legislature.

5) CLIMATE: I do not support punitive, economically sacrificial environmental policy that does nothing to improve Vermont’s environmental health. The Global Warming Solutions Act contains a provision allowing anyone to sue the state at taxpayer expense if Vermont fails to meet CO2 emissions reductions mandates. The Conservation Law Foundation is already considering a lawsuit, as Vermont will fail to meet the 2025 mandate. How will taxpayer money to pay for damages from a lawsuit improve the global climate?

Also, fuel dealers are unable to calculate a pre-buy bulk or budget price for their customers for this coming winter because under Act 18, the Public Utilities Commission does not submit their recommendations on how to calculate the cost of carbon credits until January 15, 2025. This negatively impacts customers who need the financial security of locking in a price.

The solutions would be to repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Affordable Heat Act, and the Clean Heat Standard and prioritize financial resources toward expansion and upgrades of our water and sewer treatment plants to eliminate the dumping of millions of gallons of sewage into our waterways every year: this would directly improve the quality of our environment.

Read more Addison Independent coverage of Renee McGuinness here.

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