In race for Windsor 2, Yuengling, Coffin address today’s concerns

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The race for the Vermont House Windsor 2 District — made up of Weathersfield, Baltimore and Cavendish — is between Republican incumbent V.L. Coffin, who was elected in 2024, and challenged by Democrat Mark Yuengling, who also ran in 2024.

Ground Rules: 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. Early voting has started and Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Please introduce yourself

Mark Yuengling 

My name is Mark Yuengling and I am running for the Windsor 2 House seat in the Vermont House of Representatives representing Baltimore, Cavendish and Weathersfield. I came to Perkinsville 20 years ago to build. It is what I do. My wife and I arrived with our young family seeking a more connected, and meaningful existence. Windsor County has not disappointed. As a lifelong designer and builder of custom furnishings, film, television, theatrical scenery and community, I have found purpose and fulfillment here in Weathersfield. Weathersfield has blessed us with a nearly perfect place to raise our two children in nature, natural beauty, and community.

As a member of the school board, supervisory union board, dance, community, and arts groups I have come to view this area, not as an escape, but as my forever home that now needs more support from me personally to remain so. The recent local extremism and toxicity drives me to get involved at a higher level to preserve our quality of life.

My background in the entertainment industry equipped me to work under exceptional pressures with diverse personalities, aspirations, egos and budgets. With so much in common as tax payers in a citizen legislature, we should be able to get it together and be the rising tide that lifts all boats. I intend to help do just that in Montpelier.

V.L. Coffin

I am Rep. V.L. Coffin. I currently serve on the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs. As one of the first issues I worked on in this committee with coordination with the Secretary of State’s office was the issue with Bennington District 1 voting during the last election cycle to ensure that district lines throughout the state were clear and that ballots would reach the correct households.

I have a strong record of working with members of all parties to support good legislation even when it means opposing my own party’s leadership. I will never support bills or resolutions that can or will result in violating even one person’s rights, including the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Being able to work with anyone regardless of their personal political leaning is key to having everyone’s voice heard. A bipartisan bill becomes some of our best legislation. Keeping a balance of voices is what allows that to happen.

Making a quality K-12 public education affordable

V.L. Coffin

Making Quality K – 12 education affordable will take hard decisions that are not always popular. switching to the foundation formula is one step in a long line of steps. Getting CESA’s going is another, allowing schools and districts to share resources to lower costs.

By shifting the education property tax credit from the education fund to the general fund that would reduce homestead property taxes by roughly $134 million across the state. That would be a savings of $0.35 per $100 of assessed value. Reducing administrative costs by consolidating school administration at the superintendent level.

We also need to reduce the administrative burdens on our outstanding core of educators so our teachers can focus on classroom time and bring us back to the high standard of education excellence that Vermont was once known for.

Mark Yuengling 

Providing high-quality education and affordability in the Vermont Public school system is a balance. We have not come close to achieving that. I propose three steps: Clarify, separate and delegate. Having been through the budgeting process at the Weathersfield school five times and also at the supervisory union level, I have found the general public to have been understandably misinformed about the budgeting process. As a cornerstone of our communities, our classrooms do so much more than simply educate the next generation.

So much of what we see presented as our school budgets are in fact, not directly related to the education of the pupil. I will work with other legislators to separate out actual education costs from the costs of supporting a public institution. If mandated by the state, the cost of healthcare for public sector workers along with social, emotional, and mental health services should be the responsibility of the state.

Clearly identifying only the costs that our local school boards have control over would hold both the institutions and the professions to account only for the education of the students. Recent changes to the AOE seem to have muddied the waters and diverted energies from the core mission, which is education. Let’s refocus the AOE on academic excellence and best practices instead of funding modules and unrelated service provisions.

More housing

Mark Yuengling

The lack of availability of housing suited for supporting all different segments of our population is stifling our ability to grow.

Our state should be in the business of not just mandating regulations for development, but also providing simple, scalable, and preapproved plan options for localities to implement. Particular focus should be placed on models for clustered housing with innovative, sewer, and water plans and increased renovation support.

Every locality should not be asked to shoulder the costs of permitting and development modeling that a functioning state government could provide with less regulation and expense. This effort should be coordinated with the already existing town boards to ensure the usefulness of the work. This will require coordination and cooperation but should increase housing starts.

We want more easily developed, appropriate housing, not more hoops. Economic growth from increased manufacturing in the state of Vermont requires predictably available, single-family or multi-family houses. Financing models for towns to implement should be developed by the state to help provide down payments for properties permanently deeded as full-time residences.

It is reasonable to have workforce housing developed by and for permanent residency. Investment properties i.e. short term rentals should be excluded if any taxpayer dollars are involved. Our labor, retirement and housing needs go hand-in-hand. Far too little of our housing stock is truly accessible to all. We should see that any taxpayer funds supporting development serve all Vermonters. Passage of Prop 4 on the Nov. 3 ballot could honor that ideal.

V.L. Coffin

Vermont needs more housing. We are over 30,000 houses short , making that affordable again will take hard decisions. Act 250 needs to be revamped to bring it in line with the challenges we are now facing.

We need to remove the bureaucratic obstacles and regulatory barriers that delay approvals and raise building costs by sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, while updating rules to allow more homes to be built per individual parcel.

We need to expand our existing programs like VHIP, MHIP, 802 Homes and the CHIP program. We need to lower costs in order to make it easier to renovate our state’s aging existing housing stock. I will continue to support these initiatives to help Vermonters get into affordable housing.

Protecting rural hospitals

V.L. Coffin

Protecting and preserving our rural hospitals can be achieved with a multi-step  plan. Firstly we need to take full advantage of the $195 million that Vermont received in the federal Rural Health Transformation Program grant. This is a five-year program.

Helping to ensure staffing we can implement a workforce housing and “Rural Residencies,” housing assistance to attract primary care doctors to our rural areas, and by establishing a rural residency training program in our local community hospitals and clinics. These are some of the steps we can take to attract medical personnel that will both expand and keep our rural hospitals viable and here for decades to come.

Mark Yuengling 

Vermonters need universal primary care. The state can support the struggling rural hospitals by establishing a consistent flow of young general practitioners that are essentially bonded. No interest educational loans should be offered to candidates that agree to serve Vermonters as general practitioners, or other underserved disciplines for a determined period of time. Preemptive care, mobile delivery, and reduced preventable disease will pay dividends in short order.

Midwifery, town doctors, and localized counseling in smaller clinics needs to see a resurgence. This could reduce the cost strains on localities’ health costs. Rural Vermonters know what they need and when they need it. We need the larger, more advanced facilities for what can’t be done locally with forethought.

The for-profit model of service provision simply does not meet the needs of rural America. Rural hospitals that cannot deliver patient care above corporate profits need to be subject to the laws of the free market. If the market cannot handle sustaining the population that supports it, Vermont must step in. It is literally life or death.

Attracting families

Mark Yuengling

We all want to see a state that sustains or welcomes young families into Vermont. Addressing the aforementioned points along with increasing wages and childcare in Vermont will be the fastest ways to attract young families. Wages are crucial to any consideration of affordability. Inflation coupled with wage stagnation is at the core of the problem. That is precisely what we have seen here in Vermont for the past decade.

Cutting spending alone is like trying to dig your way out of a hole. Better to put down the shovel. Focusing on the development of labor and wages instead of corporate profits benefits all. We should be empowering the next workforce with the adoption of Prop 3 guaranteeing them the right to form their own collective bargaining unit should they determine it is in the best interest of the industry. This much I know: Formations cannot be mandated or forced by labor unions. Though not currently a union member, I have been through the organizing process before. The hope of creating a better life is great. Having options to do so is better.

Americans are some of the hardest working humans on the planet. Most are not looking for an easy way out and if they are, our climate and terrain should discourage them from being here. In these tumultuous times, we need resolve to deal with the issues we have as a state. I’m confident we can get it together, Vermont.

V.L. Coffin

On the question of attracting families that is only possible when we can solve the problems presented in the first three questions plus JOBS. Again we need to look towards revamping all the regulations and bureaucratic burdens that make it impractical to bring businesses to Vermont. Our tax burden, electrical costs, and healthcare costs are all things that need to be addressed to attract jobs to Vermont. Jobs, Quality Education and a lower cost of living will bring families to this state. Areas that offer the best education will draw young families to their communities.