Chewing the Fat Two Candidates for State Legislature

Author: Julie Shumway

Incumbent Republican Dean George and Democrat Steve Maier, candidates for Middlebury representative to the Legislature, talk with Local News editor Julie Shumway about the issues Vermonters are discussing in this election.
George on his background:
I'm a native Vermonter. I grew up in St. Johnsbury, went to the University of Vermont (UVM) and graduated from there in 1971 with a bachelor's in forestry. About seven years ago I first got involved in local government by getting elected to the [Middlebury] town selectboard, which I've been a member of since then. And two years ago I retired from my full-time job as a state police officer after 29 years, took about a week off and started running for the Legislature.
...On being an incumbent :
It clearly benefits me a great deal. By having two years' experience, you now are quite familiar with the process, how to move things through the Legislature, how to get things done, that sort of thing. By the end of the first two-year period people have each legislator figured out in terms of their integrity, the kind of work they do and so forth. When you go back in the second time, you're going to be considered for leadership roles in different committees.
... On jobs and the economy:
I'm still on the selectboard of Middlebury; that really works nicely for me because I can relate local issues to state issues and try to mediate the two. Talking about business interests in Middlebury, Middlebury has Exchange Street, which is an excellent example of a good industrial development program that was started many years ago and has been very successful. From the state's perspective, it's all about making sure if somebody wants to establish a responsible business, that we not stand in the way. We don't want to do things to discourage businesses from expanding or providing quality jobs. We certainly want to protect the environment in Vermont, but at the same time it's important for people to want to come to Vermont to establish their businesses, with good-quality, high-paying jobs.
... On single-payer healthcare:
I'm not convinced that it's the way to go right now. I still think that in Vermont in particular there are a lot of things we've closed the door to, that could provide better competition for insurance companies — while still having a threshold that people who can't afford or don't have that option open to them have healthcare access. We have a highly beneficial Medicaid program in Vermont and it's expensive, and we have to pay for that, but it works.
... On Act 60:
I think there are parts of Act 60 which are outstanding. There are parts that deal with the equity between different school systems around the state and try to equalize some minimum standard in terms of money spent on kids. The funding is that part that's become controversial. The funding pool is the most controversial. We went through this last year: there's a compromise out there, but we didn't get to it.
Two years ago we [Middlebury] were a receiving town exclusively, which means that we benefited by Act 60. Last year, we began sending money back into the pool.
... On school choice:
I recommended some changes to the floor that would make it palatable for a lot more of the school districts. One of those was to make sure that school choice didn't become a burden on other schools, so we put a cap on how many students could actually leave a school. I don't support school choice outside of the public school system. I think in Vermont it would be too much of an impact to keep the public school system viable. In Middlebury, because of the quality of the schools we've got, we would benefit from that, because those dollars would then come into our school system and reduce the overall cost.
... On transportation:
I'm looking to go back to the House Transportation Committee. The chair of that committee, who's been the chair for 16 years, is not running again and there are a couple of us who are interested. That's a focal point of mine.

Maier on his background:
I went to Williams College, which may not get me a lot of votes on the Middlebury campus! That was 25 years ago; I graduated in 1978 and I have a master's degree in environmental law from the Vermont Law School. We first moved to Vermont from 1984 to 1985 because my wife teaches at the College, in the math department. Most of my career has been involved in environmental work, mostly in the public sector. I sort of worked in increasingly more local forms of government, starting off working for the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] in Washington, D.C., right after school. After we moved to Vermont, I worked for the state environmental department in Montpelier and in Waterbury.
... On jobs and the economy:
I think a lot of times, politicians and other folks in Vermont have created what I consider largely a false dichotomy between environmentalism and jobs and the economy. I think Vermont is better off economically today for our environmental protection strategies and programs of the past. I think what we should be focusing on in terms of new jobs in Vermont is working in encouragement of smaller businesses. A lot of economic development activity in Vermont, historically, has been to try to lure some big company to come into the area. I just think the more likely road to success would be, rather than go out and find another big company that's going to employ 5,000 people, go out there and find 100 businesses in different sectors that would each employ 50 people. Not only is that more realistic to the scale and scope of Vermont, but it would present a more diversified economy when you're done, so we wouldn't be dependent on the decisions of one particular corporation and how they react to the increasingly global economic factors that affect businesses everywhere.
...On single-payer healthcare:
I think it should be one option that we should be looking at carefully. I'm intrigued by it. I know there's concern on the one side about a government-controlled healthcare system and how that could be run efficiently; on the other hand in Vermont we have something close to that going on already. We have only a couple of insurance companies that are servicing Vermont. I tend more in the direction of trying to have a program that addresses the basic healthcare needs of all Vermonters. That's my bottom line, and whether it's through a single-payer system or additional requirements on the insurance industry is less important to me.
... On Act 60:
I think that most people believe in the basic goals of Act 60. And I'm open to a variety of ideas about how to make it better; there was one made at the end of the last session by current lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin — he calls it "Act 60 in English." One of the big criticisms of Act 60 is that it's just too complicated, and so this would have helped with that and would have technically eliminated the sharing pool, and yet it still would have redistributed money from wealthier communities to other communities in a way that would have provided for the basic objectives of Act 60. What I think is the biggest issue, however, with education funding in Vermont, is that we in Vermont have one of the largest reliances on property tax to pay for our schools of any state in the country. The governor has recently decreased the amount of general fund money going into education, and I think we ought to increase it. The only thing that happens when you decrease it is you put the pressure on local school districts — which I understand is one of the things he's trying to do, he's trying to get them to get their budgets in line — but it's only going to result in almost every case in increasing the local property tax, which is what makes people so angry.
... On school choice:
I'm first and foremost a supporter of the public school system as one of the most important government functions that we have here in the United States, and while I think school choice in some u
rban areas might be more viable, in Vermont however we just don't have the ability to pull it off. If, in effect, you allowed free choice in Addison County, you'd quickly get a place where kids from Bridport or Shoreham or Cornwall or Weybridge might choose to come to Middlebury, and those schools are so small that even the movement of three or four kids would have significant impacts on their budgets, which then creates a downward spiral: Less money, cut budgets, less resources, less equipment, less technology, less teachers.
... On the environment:
One of the frustrations I've had, on a personal level, has been the lack of conversation that I've had with people about environmental issues. Much of my career has been in the environmental area, and my concern and my reason for want-ing to run is to make a difference as far as this place, this planet that we of my generation are leaving for your generation and for my kids' generation. And I think that all this noise that we're dealing with in our lives, related to healthcare and property taxes, is less important in the long-term than the decisions that we make as an economy, both nationally and globally, that are affecting the environment. And looking at climate change and the impacts that that's going to have sociologically, economically and ecologically all over the globe in the coming years, I think it's the biggest and most dramatic thing we're going to face as a society. So I would hope that I can at least inform people about that issue if I get elected, and move the debate a little bit on that issue. We had a bill that should have passed, could have passed last year, on renewably energy initiatives here in Vermont. That's one small step we could take to move that agenda in the right direction and to put in place tax credits and help out. We also have several small businesses here in Vermont that could really grow — wind energy especially, but also solar. We also have a good technology base, people who can mix and match those energy ideas with good technology and really put us in the forefront on those issues. To me, that would be a great place for our economy to move, as well.