Vermont’s major party candidates for governor have been participating in a series of debates as election day nears. The latest was hosted by WCAX television Tuesday evening.
Republican Phil Scott, who is seeking his fifth two-year term, is being challenged by Esther Charlestin, co-chair of the Vermont Commission on Women, in her first campaign for statewide office.
The moderators immediately noted Charlestin’s low-profile campaign and asked why voters should take the Democrat seriously.
“I am doing this because I believe there are gaps in this state and staying back and not saying anything is unacceptable,” declared Charlestin. “And so engaging in our democracy is important. And yes, I have a grassroots campaign and I am so proud.”
The moderators were curious why a key focus of Scott’s campaign has been on Democrats in the legislature, rather than his opponent.
“A supermajority came along in the last election and that changed things. They weren’t willing to come to the table to negotiate because they had the numbers to override any veto that I put forth,” recalled Scott. “So I said to myself we need more moderate centrist candidates of either party to come to the table to get elected so that we can have an opportunity to actually negotiate on some of these high cost issues. The affordability crisis is real and I feel the legislature made it worse in the last few years.”
Property tax rates in many areas of the state rose by double digits this year. The candidates disagreed over whether the state’s rising education costs is a funding or spending issue. Charlestin would target the funding formula while Scott maintained that structural changes are necessary.
“I believe it’s a spending issue. Declining student population, increasing costs. When I first was elected it was about $1.5 billion we spent for education. Today $2.4 billion,” noted Scott. “And so that’s simply unsustainable. And to change the funding formula, that’s not going to fix the problem. We need structural changes in order to fix this.”
“We have folks who are owning homes feeling the burden. And I think about the low and middle income who can’t afford their property tax. So I envision where we give them a option to have a credit, whatever it may be, to help them get through this,” Charlestin said.
“And long term we have to change the funding formula.”
Both candidates agreed that health care costs are rising unsustainably. They both referred to a report commissioned by the state legislature and released recently by the Green Mountain Care Board that recommends a number of strategies, including closing small health care facilities to reform the state’s system. Scott said closing hospitals is not the answer.
“We need to do something different,” asserted Scott. “Working together in some way so that we’re not duplicating services, we’ve got to focus on that. And if we want to actually keep our hospital structure intact we need to grow the economy. Our demographics are working against us in the costs of health care.”
“The cost is hitting everybody,” observed Charlestin. “From families to businesses to schools, everybody is feeling that pressure. And so how do we change that? I think being open to maybe regional, seeing how we can partner up with different regions and really looking into partnering with folks and not doing this alone. And so I would be open to that and looking into that and really figuring out a plan to make sure that we don’t stay where we are right now.”
Last year the legislature overrode a veto by Governor Scott to provide $120 million for child care funded by a payroll tax. Data indicates more people have had access to child care since then, but Scott said he would still veto the measure.
“I’ve believed in more child care since I came into office. I believe that we could’ve used existing resources,” Scott said. “We had a general fund that had extra money, surpluses and I believed we could have used $75 million of that for child care without creating a payroll tax, a regressive tax that hurts people in lower incomes because they’re paying it as well. So there was another way to attack this and get the same results.”
Charlestin said she is proud of the legislature’s move to expand child care services.
“For us to be able to have more child care centers, as governor I would make sure to expand that,” promised Charlestin. “I’ve seen it happen in different ways where private organizations are able to help: private and public partnerships. So that is a way. To see more of that would be amazing and I would support it.”
Early voting is underway in Vermont. The Secretary of State recommends that ballots now be dropped off at city and town clerks offices rather than mailed or to vote in person on Tuesday.
