SEN. RUTH HARDY

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: As a senator, my top priorities are to work for, communicate with, and advocate for my constituents. I collaborate with Vermonters to develop sound legislation on issues including healthcare, education, and government accountability. I have lived in East Middlebury for 20+ years, where my husband and I have raised three kids. I ran the Open Door Clinic and Emerge Vermont, worked for Middlebury College and Planned Parenthood, and served many years on local school and childcare center boards. Each fall, I teach at the College or MUMS. I enjoy making pizza, hiking, and writing. Read more at ruthforvermont.com.

2) THREE ISSUES: We must focus on: 1) a plan to finance and strengthen public schools; 2) reducing costs and increasing sustainability of our healthcare system; and 3) improving resiliency of public infrastructure and small towns in the face of climate change. This year, rising school budgets, due to factors such as pandemic recovery, student needs, and facility costs, created an unsustainable statewide property tax increase, straining Vermonters’ wallets and patience — this must be addressed.

The school budget challenge was exacerbated by a significant increase in employee healthcare costs, in part because Vermont has one of the most expensive hospital systems in the country. We also have long wait-times to access medical care. This fall, the Green Mountain Care Board will release a report with recommendations on hospital sustainability that will guide next steps for hospitals, the Agency of Human Services, and the Legislature. I will advocate for this work next session and also focus on expanding access to comprehensive healthcare. We must make sure that all Vermonters can find a doctor and afford healthcare when they need it.

The floods have devastated communities across the state. Many small towns, mostly run by volunteers, do not have the infrastructure or personnel capacity to adequately deal with the complexities of flood recovery, federal and state programs, and extensive planning and reconstruction. I led efforts to improve the government response to flood recovery this session. We need to continue engaging with municipalities and residents to support their recovery efforts, build local capacity, and make towns across Vermont more financially, structurally, and administratively resilient in the face of ongoing climate change.

3) PAYING FOR SCHOOLS: Vermont has one of the country’s most equitable, and complex, school funding systems. We also have one of the most expensive K-12 systems per pupil, due to our small, rural schools and commitment to high-quality education. With declining enrollments, increasing student needs, and variations across school districts, our funding system isn’t fully working to equitably balance costs. This session, we created a Commission on the Future of Public Education to recommend changes to our school funding formula and create a vision for the public school system to ensure equity, quality, and efficiency. This Commission should evaluate and recommend funding formula changes, better integrate pre-K education into public schools, and revisit alternative funding sources for PK-12 schools so fewer costs fall on property taxes.

More work also is needed to reduce administrative costs, efficiently upgrade and use school facilities, and potentially further streamline school governance. Vermont’s school buildings are some of the oldest and poorly maintained in the country. It may save money and improve education to combine or repurpose some schools, rather than invest in renovating under-enrolled, facility-challenged school buildings. Some school districts could likely be restructured or potentially combined to reduce administrative costs and improve equity.

We should reduce the types of expenses that are funded through the Education Fund. Vermont’s school voucher program increasingly subsidizes private and religious schools with public tax dollars — this needs to stop. Schools are also increasingly asked to pay for social and health services for kids. While these services should continue to be delivered through schools because that’s where kids are, they should not be funded through property taxes.

4) HOUSING: We have invested significant funding in housing in recent years, supporting a multi-faceted approach to housing access and development. We allocated funding and flexible financing for statewide affordable housing construction. We revised Act 250 to make it easier to build housing in town centers and designated areas, permitted accessory dwelling units and duplexes everywhere, and encouraged denser housing for more efficient land use. We increased housing development tax credits to spur construction and fund energy-efficient, affordable manufactured homes. All of this work takes time, but new housing units are starting to come online as a result. However, flooding over the past year has delayed some development and created an even more urgent need because people lost their homes to flood damage.

Tax reform is also an effective tool. We must reduce property taxes for many Vermonters to ensure affordability. We modified the property transfer tax to exempt the first $200,000 in value to ease the cost of buying a primary residence, created a 3% surcharge on short-term rentals, and imposed a 3.4% tax on the sale of second homes. Last year we passed legislation to improve the property appraisal process and collect better data about properties throughout the state, which could lead to more equitable, targeted tax policy.

We must focus attention and funding on diverse supportive housing and long-term care residences. Such housing, as well as a harm-reduction approach to opioid use and adequate mental health care, are crucial to addressing the homelessness crisis. Similarly, we streamlined the state’s emergency housing program, which provides short-term housing through motels and community shelters. The state must better monitor and improve operation of this program for the long run.

5) CLIMATE: I do support the Vermont Climate Action Plan. The Plan was the result of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), which I voted for when it passed in September 2020. The GWSA created legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements for the State of Vermont, with the first deadline for reductions coming next year in 2025. The Plan seeks to reduce the worst impacts of climate change via a wide range of emission-reduction strategies, focused on the thermal heating, transportation, and agriculture sectors, and economic and equity considerations.

Unfortunately, since the passage of the GWSA and the creation of the initial Climate Action Plan, Vermont has sustained numerous natural disasters that can be linked to climate change, including several catastrophic floods, off-season freezes, damaging winter wind storms, and extreme heat events. Thus, while emissions reductions are more urgent than ever, we must also focus on pragmatic climate resiliency to help Vermont withstand dramatic weather events. We literally have to rebuild Vermont towns to prevent and tolerate extreme floods, heat, wind, and ice, and must do so without leaving Vermonters with lower-incomes behind. It is crucial that proactive climate change prevention and equitable resilience go hand-in-hand.

Read more Addison Independent coverage of Ruth Hardy here.

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