To the editor: Why Ben Brickner is qualified for your vote

Worried? I am. Many of us Vermonters feel the squeeze of cost of living. Looking down the barrel are national issues we cannot control. But we also see Vermont issues that we can control.

Here’s how. Vote for candidates who:

• offer different perspectives and backgrounds
• bring new and qualified blood into the Vermont Legislature
• know how to apply a toolbox of skills to address our crisis
• have hands-on experience running municipal government
• think for themselves
• act independently
• work in concert with others

Say “NO” to party insiders whose track records do not move things along quickly enough when people are hungry, cold, and highly stressed because of the cost of living in Vermont.

In the upcoming Aug. 11 Vermont Democratic Primary, you can cast a vote for a qualified Windsor County candidate for the Vermont Senate. This is Ben Brickner of Pomfret, whose education, professional training and passionate commitment to Vermonters will shake things up in Montpelier.

Why does Ben Brickner’s training — educational and professional — matter? Because Vermonters do not have time for dilly-dallying in Montpelier. Too many of us are – and sadly will be — among other things:

• HUNGRY because of – buzzword – rising food insecurity.
• STRESSED because of income insecurity.
• COLD this winter because of heating insecurity.
• ANXIOUS because of no health insurance.
• WORRIED about rising property taxes.

Ben Brickner will speed things up in Montpelier because he knows how to

• navigate complex regulatory environments
• unravel knotty legal issues
• translate legal and regulatory details into plain terms for constituents

Ben Brickner says: “The first time I sat down with a town budget, I began to understand what drives local town budgets. These are costs towns have been unable to control: health insurance, state mandates, education assessments. That is what I hear from neighbors and small business owners across our communities — whether in Thetford or Springfield, Norwich or Ludlow. It will not get better until Montpelier starts treating affordability as an obligation, not just a talking point.”

Respectfully,
Sara Widness
Barnard