Send Jim Lipinski to Montpelier to Protect Vermont
Protecting what makes Vermont, Vermont, is a priority of mine. This covers a lot of things, such as addressing climate change, protecting our working landscape, ensuring that we have clean air and water, but also ensuring that we have great schools, places to find meaningful employment, and a vibrant business environment. It’s about taking all of the things we love about Vermont and making them better.
Here is what I’ll do to protect Vermont
Ensure our environment is protected – click to learn more
We need to make sure our environmental protections are ready for events that put pressure on Vermont. For example, the push for data centers came out of the blue and many states are playing catch up. We saw the impact on housing caused by the pandemic when work-from-home enabled many to move from big cities to Vermont; what will happen when climate change refugees do the same. We need to have these discussions now. I will work on legislation that gives us the tools to protect Vermont before they are needed.
Work to provide a vibrant business environment – click to learn more
We can’t have nice things if we can’t afford them. A vibrant business community is essential to providing the revenue to realize our goals. Protection cannot come at the expense of growth. We must find a balance.
Focus education policy discussions on the students – click to learn more
Education policy discussions have been too focused on consolidate or don’t consolidate. If we agree that we don’t think it is a good idea to put our children on busses for several hours each day, the conclusion is that local schools are not going away. And small local schools have implications that drive costs. Instead of starting at the wallet and working toward the children, let’s start with the kids and solve for them. Let’s develop the best education system possible and then get creative on funding. We have to stop letting the consolidation discussion suck all the oxygen out of the room when discussing education policy.