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Rob North, Republican, Addison-3
Qualification: I enjoyed a successful career at Collins Aerospace where I held several leadership positions designing systems, policies and training for groups across the globe, always commended as a good listener and communicator. Blessed to retire early in 2020 at age 55, I have sought to give back to my community. I coach high school and middle school soccer every fall, I teach high school math (Algebra2 and Geometry) to 10 &11th grades, I serve as Justice of the Peace for Ferrisburgh, and I am an Act 250 Commissioner Alternate, appointed by Gov. Scott two years ago.
Education funding: Absolutely! Vermont’s education funding system is a key contributor to our skyrocketing cost of living and the largest driver in our recent property tax increases. We have the 4th highest cost per student in the nation, the 2nd highest property tax as percentage of income, and are only 19th in quality of education. It is a complex problem that our legislature has kicked down the road for years. Our current supermajority legislature passed an average 14% property tax increase, overriding Gov. Scott’s wise veto. We need to consider diverse options with open minds, not beholden to special interest groups, such as: 1) Increasing student to staff ratio: VT has the lowest student to staff ratio in the country, mostly accounted for in non-teaching positions. VTDigger reports that school staffing ratios on par with neighboring NH would save Vermont $365 million, an ~15% savings that would have eliminated the tax increase we just experienced! 2) Create local accountability: Our funding system provides little incentive to control costs. Taxpayers vote on a local budget without immediate or direct effect on their property taxes because the State collects then redistributes all tax money to meet all budgets. No matter how frugal a local school budget might be, our taxes end up funding everyone else’s education bloat. When we say we need “local control,” that’s what we mean! 3) Recognize that one size does NOT fit all. What works in Burlington may not in Vergennes. What one family wants may not work for another student. We need to foster collaboration, specialization and school choice among a broader distribution of schools, allowing each individual school to achieve excellence in defined areas and thus be more fiscally efficient. Our Tech Centers and “Independent Schools” are notable examples of this.
Housing: As an alternate Act 250 Commissioner in Addison County, I routinely experience how Act 250 bureaucracy promotes the opposite of diversity, equity and inclusion by driving construction costs much higher than in other states and making housing unaffordable for many. The current legislature has defined “affordable housing” to mean heavily taxpayer subsidized or free housing to homeless or very low-income people. There is a need for some of that, but the real meaning of “affordable housing” should be free-market, non-subsidized construction of houses that normal working Vermonters can afford to buy via the normal process of getting a mortgage they can afford. The only way we do this is by significantly scaling back on the Act 250 red tape for all Vermonters, not just the select few in “designated areas.” I participated in a recent Ferrisburgh Town Planning meeting where great ideas were put forth. Yet, the cloud of Act 250 restrictions loomed as a concern voiced by those in attendance with development experience. Finally, the large number of state employees alone needed to manage, analyze, and approve all the 32 criteria and sub-criteria on every Act 250 application is an enormous burden on Vermont taxpayers.
Climate crisis: I agree the earth is warming, but I strongly oppose how our legislature has addressed it. The CHS (Clean Heat Standard) is unnecessary and ignores decades of Vermonters’ good faith work. We are already the lowest carbon emission state, and our 450,000 acres of forest makes us a CO2 SINK! We are NOT part of the problem, we are already part of the solution, without CHS. Our more urgent crisis is the skyrocketing cost of living. The passage of the CHS over Gov. Scott’s wise veto was extremely irresponsible given the recent $10B estimated cost of its imposed mandates. The Vermont Public Service’s NV5 report, Section 5.4, provides the “Estimated Rate Impacts” on fossil fuels: “Presumably, the costs necessary to implement programs that will generate clean heat credits will eventually be passed through to thermal sector fuel customers.” Translation: higher fuel prices for Vermonters! Table 28 shows potential increases in the range of $1.70 to $4.00 per gallon of heating oil ON TOP of current prices! This is incomprehensible. The CHS should never have been passed without accurate calculations of its cost impacts. We can and will continue being good global citizens using ecologically sound practices — WITHOUT the costly CHS.
Other priorities: The top issue for Vermonters, and thus for me, is Affordability. Energy, Education, and Housing are the big three drivers that I covered previously. The remaining issues that I am hearing from Vermonters are crime, homelessness, drug addiction and, interestingly, election integrity. The first three are related. I support Gov. Scott’s veto of H.72, which was overridden by our supermajority legislature. This law approved a costly and dangerous experimental drug injection site and diverts limited resources from proven prevention mechanisms. Left in place or enhanced, those proven mechanisms, paired with increased (not defunded) law enforcement, would actually reduce all three of these issues.
The last issue surprised me with the number of people concerned about it. I spent my career designing safety critical systems for airplanes. Equally important, election systems should also be designed to prevent errors and failures, such as cheating. People are concerned that Vermont’s election system laws make it very vulnerable to errors and cheating. People tell me they receive multiple extra ballots at their homes from previous residents. “How do I know such ballots across the state aren’t being harvested and used erroneously?” they ask. I do not know if cheating is occurring, but I do worry that with Vermont’s current system, there is 1) no reliable way to know if someone were cheating, and 2) plenty of vulnerabilities that make cheating easy. This is a problem that is simple to fix. Being a Justice of the Peace, I have participated in reliable hand-counting of manually completed ballots. This is very feasible in a small state with small towns.
For more information visit my website: www.NorthForVTHouse.com.
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