Hoser & Charlton address four pressing issues Candidates for Windsor-Windham House district

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Two Chester residents are facing off to represent the Windsor-Windham District, consisting of Athens, Chester, Grafton and Windham, in the Vermont House. Incumbent Tom Charlton, a Republican, is being challenged by Democrat Will Hoser.

Ground Rules: Now, each election year, The Chester Telegraph asks our local candidates specific questions about the current issues. The answers often speak of fighting for one thing or another or striving toward some goal. This year, we decided instead to present open-ended issues asking that they say what concrete steps – e.g. bills to introduce or sponsor – that the candidates could take regarding those issues. They have limited their replies to no more than 250 words each. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Please introduce yourself

Tom Charlton

I have served as representative for the Windsor-Windham District for two years. I offer both a knowledge of the job and a deep understanding of my neighbors and of Vermont.

I ran two years ago as a moderate, intent on bringing balance and genuine bi-partisan respect to the State Legislature.  This I have done and intend to continue.  My decision making is not characterized by tacit agreement with any party, leadership, committee or lobby group.  I spend long hours combing through legislation, weighing costs, benefits, complications and intentions, and then decide my vote.  This is never as simple as sweeping grand campaign promises.  This is the job and I do it.

I have served many of your families at times of celebration, decision making, and crises large and small.  I am in many cases still there weeks, months and years later as these experiences play out. Having grown up here  I have watched classmates, their parents, and their kids make decisions to stay in Vermont or to leave.  This includes many who once moved here specifically for simplicity and affordability.  I assure you more want to stay than do stay.

I have served others regardless of their beliefs, situation in life, politics or even their opinion of the things I have stood for. I now run a business in the construction trades.  As a taxpayer and a business owner I am grippingly familiar with the costs and complexities of making life work here.

Will Hoser

Hello, my name is Will Hoser and I’m the Democratic candidate for the Windsor-Windham District House of Representatives. This district consists of Athens, Chester, Grafton and Windham. I have been a Chester resident for over 30 years and have worked providing medical care in the area at two local emergency departments and various walk-in centers for the past three decades. I have raised three wonderful children in Chester and co-owned two small businesses.

My medical career began as a paramedic many years ago as I knew I wanted to help people. I saw it as a calling, not a job! My career in healthcare has allowed me to meet many residents of this area on one of the worst days in their life in the emergency department. I have stared vulnerability in the face and understand the gravity of how that affects all of us. I see that vulnerability now in many areas of life. In this moment of so much uncertainty with the affordability crisis, housing challenges, hemorrhaging of young people from our state and issues facing our aging population I am ready to step in and help again. I have met this obligation throughout my career and look forward to being part of the solution in finding common ground with everyone because division leaves us full of hate and empty-handed. After all, I always say “Vermont is where the adults live!”

So let’s get to work!

Making a quality K-12 public education affordable

Will Hoser

First and foremost, I believe that every child deserves access to a high-quality education wherever they reside in Vermont! Additionally every taxpayer deserves to know that their education dollars are being spent to provide the greatest impact on students. Excellence in education and fiscal responsibility should not be competing goals.

We are at crossroads with education. The status quo is no longer acceptable, fair or sustainable. This is of paramount significance for our district as two towns have closed their elementary schools. One is facing potential closure and the fourth is struggling with impending cuts. Our schools are necessary to attract young families to our towns and we need to keep them viable and operating.

The legislature has passed the Education Act which has revised the funding formula and we need to make certain it works for our rural communities. We also need to focus on strong teachers and staff to protect the quality of our rural schools and sharing of resources is a must. I recently attended the Athens-Grafton school board meeting and heard firsthand their concerns and struggles relating to the recent sustainability reports. The legislature needs to allow them sufficient time and information to make the best decisions for their school. I would work to support that however I could.

Tom Charlton 

I believe that a quality education is the product of well organized, orderly classrooms and well-supported teachers with the discretion to tailor their delivery to the roomful of students in front of them.  I believe this also requires a community which instills in their students a sense of serious urgency to gain as much as possible from their education.   While materials, staff, supplies and funding is critical, no amount of it will replace these two essentials.

I believe there are savings which must be taken seriously where administrative structures can be merged.  I do not believe that merging a district must automatically result in closing schools.  In some cases this will make sense, In many I think it won’t.  I do not favor closing elementary schools in particular.  Reducing administrative overhead is possible, sharing resources and staff is possible, buying supplies in bulk and sharing services all provide savings, but not enough.

If we want schools to remain open and to the overall tax burden, we must get very serious about growing our communities. Our tax base is tapped out, and we lack students.  THAT is what needs to change, and promptly.

We need families with kids.  They need places to live.  We need more taxpayers and properties on the grand list and we need to control spending until these two things catch up.  We can accommodate many more students before we need to expand.  No one can make this happen as well as the towns themselves.

More housing 

Tom Charlton 

This is the committee I serve on.  Here is the news in brief:
There are exemptions for housing and infrastructure now falling into place for larger communities.  Our towns need solutions that fit the scale and character of their communities.  These need to be cost-effective, and they need to provide significant housing for workforce and families in addition to the conventional housing programs we are already familiar with.  Among the provision already coming into play:

802 Homes is deploying no-cost building plans which are already designed, engineered, and code compliant.  These can be built as single units, duplexes or quadplexes on existing lots, or in small numbers in such a way that need not trigger Act 250 anywhere.  Provisions are being made to combine small orders of modular homes into larger purchases so that bulk savings can be passed on to the eventual purchaser or renter.

A Vermont State Land Bank is being formed to acquire vacant and abandoned buildings, resolve complex title issues, and get them back into the marked for local developers to rehab for the types of housing we need.

The VHIP program now provides forgivable loans to create or rehab rental units, and is bringing apartments into the market at a cost that is a fraction of new state-sponsored construction.

The state can help attract new families in cost-effective ways, and it can help by getting out of the way where possible.  Your town needs to decide it wants them to.

Will Hoser

T his is a very complex issue! Many cannot afford to purchase housing- young, old, poor and middle income earners in particular. Rental housing is unavailable and too expensive. Many Vermonters cannot afford to live where or near where they work.

Homelessness is growing. Towns are not addressing infrastructure needs and unrestricted purchases of AirBnBs are creating low housing stock. I would lean into several legislative programs already in existence to include the CHIP (Community Housing Infrastructure Program), VHIP (Vermont Housing Improvement Program) and 802 Homes for pre-approved housing to name a few.

I would also encourage building in town centers where infrastructure already exists or needs less augmentation. In Chester I would work with the Chester Housing Commission to aid in obtaining grants and funding appropriate for a state representative to assist in acquiring. I would also inform my house colleagues about our district issues and keep them in focus going forward. We should also consider incentivizing property owners or landlords to consider long-term rental agreements in exchange for tax abatement.

We need to streamline permitting, simplify regulations, and have the state expand grants and low interest loans and tax incentives for developers who build homes that are affordable. Vermont needs a combination of policy changes, public investment and community partnerships to increase its housing supply by making it easier and less expensive to build homes while protecting affordability. This will help Vermonters find safe stable places to live.

Protecting rural hospitals

 

Will Hoser

 

Vermont needs to treat rural hospitals as essential community infrastructure! The Rural Health Transformation Program which provided Vermont with $195 million for the first year needs to be put towards measurable improvements in hospital finances, staffing, emergency care and access to underserved communities.

I am currently providing Walk-In medical care on a mobile medical unit. This was established three months ago to decrease barriers to care and increase access for patients with transportation challenges, no access to primary care and difficulty with other social determinants.

This service along with developing community nurse programs will aid in keeping patients out of the hospital when admission is not necessary, as well as detecting and treating conditions earlier thus keeping people healthier and reducing healthcare costs overall, which in turn would protect our rural hospitals. Currently H185 is before the legislature, which is a bill to develop and implement universal preventive primary care.

I would champion this bill once elected. I would also hope to serve on the House Healthcare Committee and bring my lived experience to be an effective advocate. Additional key priorities would include establishing or expanding rural hospitalization funds, invest in workplace recruitment and retention by expanding loan forgiveness programs, scholarships, and affordable housing incentives to attract and retain healthcare professionals. We also need to expand Telehealth and regional partnerships, reduce administrative burdens by simplifying insurance billing, reporting requirements and regulatory processes so rural hospitals can focus more resources on patient care.

Tom Charlton 

[dropcap]I am committed to ensuring that essential services are available within a safe distance for all Vermonters, while we move toward sustainability.  This is as critical as public safety.

Health insurance must be allowed to offer a wider range of affordable options.  This will increase the number of people with health coverage and decrease the cost of uninsured treatment absorbed by hospitals and other ratepayers.  Some will still legitimately rely on Medicare, but fewer.  The state must also address the pricing practices of the UVM network, which is raising premiums statewide.

While universal primary care is interesting, I am unconvinced.  Vermont sees over $280 million in primary care claims annually.  This will grow as it is accessible to more, and as the State builds capacity to manage it (rarely inexpensive).   While premiums will drop somewhat, we don’t know how much.  We don’t know how much your taxes will increase.  Expensive ER walk-ins will decrease, but we don’t know how much.

We DO know that changing our regulatory system (designed for single-payer healthcare) will result in more options and lower premiums.  This is successful in 48 other states.  This is an inappropriate time to experiment with Vermonters’ health care costs.  We need a known solution, we need it now, and we can circle back to only-state-in-the-country ideas later.

Like any enterprise, hospitals have higher costs than they once did.  What they don’t have is more customers/patients.  Have I mentioned the need to get serious about attracting families to Vermont?

Attracting families 

Tom Charlton 

Sixty-five percent of Vermont adults 35 and under anticipate leaving within 5 years.  Their top reason is affordability, driven by health care and taxes. We rate at or near highest in the country on both counts.   Add to this another 100,000 who are approaching retirement (and fixed income) and the likelihood of resolving any issue with increased taxes is self-defeating. Our state expenses have risen 40% in 5 years.  Our economy has grown a bit over 17%.  Income has risen about 10%.   The clock is running out on our opportunity to reverse this.

There is no lack of people wanting to live in Vermont.  Right now there are jobs.  What lacks is the ability to find housing, afford housing, or afford to keep what housing they have.  Likewise with health coverage.

We need to lower insurance costs.  We need to let housing increase in the areas people choose to live, understanding that this is not always in “walkable compact village centers”.  The simplest approach is to stop doing the sort of fiscal and regulatory things that make it impossible.  Yes, we need to fund our State, and yes, we need reasonable oversight.  But if these are expensive and complex beyond what exists in other attractive wonderful places to live, they will not come and they will not stay and we can’t make them.  Our rural schools, hospitals, and communities that we love will go with them.

If you want this to change, I will help you make it happen.

Will Hoser

We need to invest in family infrastructure! Vermont must position itself as the ultimate home for modern family life by focusing on financial incentives, community infrastructure and career opportunities. We need to capture (and recapture the 60% expected to leave) the 18 to 35-year-olds not finding Vermont a livable affordable option.

I would work to add onto the existing childcare credits by creating vibrant coworker spaces equipped with childcare facilities in smaller towns. This would allow remote working parents to collaborate while remaining close to their children. Also partner with local green-energy tech and agriculture sectors to create robust high-paying local jobs.

We should offer worker relocation grants targeting families and upfront cash assistance for down payments and moving costs. Also offer state-backed incentives for developers to build multi-room, energy efficient, family homes to help with the critical housing shortage.

We need to market the “wholesome” lifestyle and highlight safety, clean air, short commutes, outdoor recreation to include skiing, hiking and access to lakes. If we could actively lower the cost of moving, ensure robust support systems for children and up-light our unmatched quality of life, I know we could convert visiting families into permanent residents.  It worked for me!!