REP. MARI CORDES

Qualification: Commissioner of The Future of Nursing; GMCB Advisory Council; Past Treasurer of 350-Vermont; Led volunteer medical disaster relief teams in Vermont, for asylum seekers trapped in Matamoros, Mexico, in Haiti after the earthquake, and in Lesbos Greece, for people fleeing war crimes from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq (including translators working for the U.S. Military); 36 years of service as a Vermont RN.

I see firsthand how our healthcare system’s successes and failures affect patients’ and families’ lives. I am a strong team player with deep compassion and understanding of humans’ daily struggles, and am energized to make positive change.

Education funding: We need to continue reducing the high cost of health insurance, which is one of the primary drivers of the increase in education costs.

We need major structural reform to how we fund education. Based on the recommendations of the Tax Commission at that time, I sponsored a bill in 2021 to do just that. While the legislature continues deliberating on whether to move forward with such a plan — I believe we must.

Here is a link to the bill, and a summary: legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2022/H.388.

“This bill proposes to simplify the Vermont education funding model and transition from a property-based tax to an income-based tax. This bill would create an education tax that is based on the income of all Vermont residents (both homeowners and renters) with a rate determined by locally voted budgets. This bill would eliminate the homestead education property tax and levy the non-homestead education property tax on all property except residential dwellings and the two-acre parcel surrounding the dwellings. This bill would continue to provide the existing renter credit. An ongoing Education Fund Advisory Committee would be established under this bill to monitor the education funding system and to report and make recommendations annually to the General Assembly.”

Housing: What we did:

-Act 250 reform to reduce regulatory burden, especially in downtown and village centers and surrounding areas. Priority housing projects are exempt from Act 250 in many places through 2026.

-Invested over $1 billion — mostly federal stimulus funding — to build affordable housing, rehabbing units, emergency housing, financial support for the “missing middle,” mobile home repair, and recovery housing.

– Lowered property transfer tax rates for Vermont primary residences.

More to do:

– Increase support for the trades and invest in recruiting high school-age people interested in building, electrical, HVAC and plumbing to build our construction workforce.

– Limit the number of short-term rentals and non-seasonal second homes, limit private equity purchases of homes that could be used for families and multi-unit buildings, and limit the increase in property values caused by real estate speculation.

– Consider a property tax deferral program for Vermonters who would like to age in place.

– Enable public, state and municipal investments in utilities, e.g., community water and wastewater, to reduce home construction costs related to development.

-Enact just cause evictions.

Climate crisis: Yes.

It:

1. Requisitioned an independent “potential study” to give policymakers the deep data analysis we need about transitioning to clean heat.
2. Required the PUC to create rules and processes to regulate and implement the Clean Heat Standard if we proceed.

The Governor vetoed this — a critically important study, and rulemaking. Nothing more.

The legislature will begin next year to discuss, debate, and take lengthy testimony from the public, stakeholders, and content experts. With your input, we will decide whether or not to move forward with a clean heat standard and how. I believe it is critically important to face this crisis head-on instead of doing little while the climate crisis ravages our economy and lives. To be honest, we’ve already done way too little — we’ve known about the climate crisis for 50 years.

It does NOT:

1. Create a carbon tax (legislators have not proposed a carbon tax).
2. Create mandates for Vermonters to use clean heat. You still choose how to heat your home. If you choose clean heat measures, we will design the program to help lower- and middle-income earners switch.
3. Cause much higher fuel prices. Similar programs in other states showed a modest increase of 7-10 cents/gallon. We will build mechanisms to prevent sustained, more significant increases in fuel costs.

We must help Vermonters cope with the steadily increasing cost of fossil fuels in an always volatile market that we have no control over. Our aim is and always has been to enable willing Vermonters to transition to cleaner, more reliable, and less expensive heating.

When multiple existential crises impact our economy, our lives, and our environment, it is critical that we pull together and work as a community. The world is frightening enough without adding misinformation designed to confuse and frighten people.

Other priorities: I will continue to work with my colleagues on the House Health Care Committee to fight against the Scott administration’s consistent underfunding of mental health services in the state of Vermont. Our mental health agencies cannot retain professional staff without reasonable pay, and our school districts cannot afford to keep picking up the slack left by this deficit, especially as our kids have more significant needs and educators require more assistance than ever before. Having schools pay for mental health services is a significant line item in school budgets that directly impacts property taxes.

I will continue my work to reduce the harm caused by Big Pharma. Because of two of my bills, Vermont now has the power to hold huge anti-trust corporations accountable for limiting your access to prescription drugs and for their role in the skyrocketing costs of medications.

I will continue working to increase support for our primary care providers and provide universal healthcare access without barriers. We eliminated the prior authorization insurance requirement for primary care providers, which means you can access care and treatment without the often significant delay that that caused. This means that primary care providers and their staff have more time for patient care. We also assisted more than 12,000 Vermont seniors by protecting them from the cliff caused by moving from Medicaid to Medicare and putting more than $2,000 in their pockets.

I will work to advance two bills I introduced — one to require universal Medicaid coverage for donor breast milk and another to enable free-standing birth centers to operate in Vermont.

Through these policies and others, I will continue to fight for the health and welfare of all who live in Vermont.