by Guy Page
In the statewide primary election to be held next Tuesday, August 13, Republican voters in the Addison-4 House district for Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro will have three candidates to choose from in the two-seat district. They are Renee McGuinness of Monkton, Lynn Caulfield of Monkton, and Chanin Hill of Bristol.
Democrats also will have a contested primary for the House seat, as incumbent Rep. Caleb Elder is a candidate for the Addison County Senate district. (That Senate race is also a contested primary, as incumbents Chris Bray and Ruth Hardy are both seeking re-election.) Candidats are Herb Olson of Starksboro, Jeanne Albert of Lincoln, and incumbent Rep. Mari Cordes of Lincoln. Campaign information, including address, website, and financial disclosures, may be found on the Secretary of State website.
Vermont Daily Chronicle has mailed campaign questionnaires to all candidates for statewide office and the Legislature. Today, we publish a responding campaign statement from Republican Renee McGuinness. Beginning today through next Tuesday, candidate responses for both parties will be published in the order they are received.
Received from Renee McGuinness
I am running for Addison-4 House to represent the towns of Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton, and Starksboro to restore affordability, safety, and fiscally responsible environmental stewardship to Vermont. My participation in the State House as Vermont Family Alliance (VFA) Policy Analyst 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.
I agree with Governor Phil Scott’s top three priorities in the upcoming biennium: affordability, housing, and public safety, and will collaborate with the governor and my colleagues in the legislature on these issues.
Regarding affordability: I will focus on education funding, housing, and environmental policy.
Education: 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, 2024) 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, directed by a steering group and paid consultants. H.887 also has a provision for a new position within the Agency of Education for the purpose 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. We do not need another appointed commission.
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 only 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 will continue to pursue school choice.
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 according to Green Mountain Care Board data, health insurance premiums have almost doubled since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Housing: According to landlords and builders I have heard from, we can promote affordable home ownership by reducing regulations that dramatically increase the cost of building, and therefore purchasing, a home, which I will pursue. H.687 (Act 181, 2024), “an act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection through land use,” at 171 pages, fails to streamline the Act 250 process for rural areas. 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 state-wide.
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 that preserves local control over land use and development.
Environmental Policy: While I agree environmental stewardship is a high priority, I do not support punitive, economically sacrificial environmental policy that does nothing to improve Vermont’s environmental health or the global climate. The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) 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 (CLF) is planning a lawsuit based on its assertion that Vermont will fail to meet the 2025 mandate. How will a lawsuit funded by taxpayers to determine which party – the State or the CLF – has the correct data on whether Vermont is meeting the GWSA mandates improve the state and global climate?
The solutions would be to repeal the convoluted GWSA, the Affordable Heat Act, vote down 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.
Also, in a free market economy, people are free to purchase the vehicle that best suits their needs, whether gas, diesel, hybrid, or EV. State subsidies of EVs are economically harmful to those who cannot afford an EV.
Regarding safety: I will work on legislation that increases penalties for drug dealers, holds persons accountable when they violate conditions of their parole, imposes higher bail, stops the “catch and release” of both violent and non-violent offenders, introduce a repeal of the “safe” injection site law to prevent drawing more drug dealers and addicts to Vermont, and introduce legislation for addiction recovery services, which I consider the more humane, compassionate response to addiction rather than enabling the continued use of life-destroying drugs. I also ask that voters research candidates for State’s Attorney and Attorney General and vote for candidates who will enforce the law and support our law officers when these positions come up for election.
Finally, we need a more deliberative process and a shorter legislative session so that a wider variety of citizens can run for office, and to reduce the amount of legislation coming out of Montpelier. According to Chapter 2, Article 7 of the Vermont Constitution, the legislature is only required to meet biennially on odd years, not every year, and it used to meet for only about eight weeks. Some would say our issues today are more complex than fifty or one hundred years ago. I would argue that the heavy amount of legislation is what has complicated things. There needs to be a cap on bills that are introduced each biennium so that each legislator is able to fully comprehend and deliberate each bill, and not be put in the position of voting based upon party affiliation or recommendation by their colleagues. I agree with Governor Scott’s assessment in his May 2024 press release that resources, timelines, and unintended consequences need to be considered before passing legislation.
According to Chapter 1, Article 6 of the Vermont Constitution, officers are servants of the people. The people of Vermont have the power, and legislators perform in servitude to their power, guided by our constitutions. With the approval and support of voters, I am committed to serving the people of Vermont.