Uses 700 pages to examine justice frankfurters life. Brad snyder and his book democratic justice on this episode of notes . There are a lot of places to get information, but only on cspan do you get it unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. It happened here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on cspan, powered by cable. Candidates in vermonts 2022 governors race participated in a final debate. Republican incumbent phil scott is being challenged by democratic candidate Brenda Siegel. Questions focus on climate change, party affiliation, opioids, and dairy farming. This is just under an hour. Welcome to the vermont public general election debate. Today is the third in our series of debates ahead of the 2022 Midterm Election on november 8. Though you do not have to wait until then to vote, ballots have already gone out to all registered vermont rotors. Todays debate is between the Major Party Candidates running for governor of vermont. Joining me live in a vermont public studio is the republican nominee for the office, incumbent phil scott of berlin. He was first elected governor in 2016 and is now seeking a fourth term. Welcome. Governor scott thank you very much for having us on. Also in the studio is Brenda Siegel, who has worked as a teacher and choreographer. Welcome. Ms. Siegel thanks for having me. In the first segment, i will ask common questions to both candidates. They will each have 60 seconds to answer. Then the candidates will ask each other questions. They will have 30 seconds to ask a question. Next, we will turn to a series of questions submitted by vermonters. Candidates will have 30 seconds to answer, and its possible i will ask followup questions during any of these first three segments. Then we will have a lightning round of questions with very brief answers. 10 seconds max, and we will conclude with one minute closing statements from each candidate. All right, lets get started. Heres some questions i have for both of you. Please let me your answers to 60 seconds and a reminder that i may ask some followups. Lets begin with a question about climate change. About what he percent of vermonts Greenhouse Gas emissions come from vehicles on our roads and more than 1 3 come from heating homes and buildings. The States Credit lawmakers and you, Governor Scott, have differed on how to curb emissions. Governor scott, if reelected, how do you plan to lower emissions for transportation and heating and what is your benchmark for success . Governor scott i know you touted the clean heat standard as an area where we disagreed, but it was not about the clean heat standard theoretically. They were going to have a public utility, and did not come up with one themselves. We do agree on many different provisions. Something we started with with the vw settlement, we put in charging infrastructure to prepare ourselves with this and we have been making strides ever since with electric public buses, with school buses, as well as trying to change our fleet in the state to electric vehicles. As well, weatherization. I believe that this saves money for the homeowner, makes vermont more affordable, but also reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions. Governor scott, you brought up electric vehicles, public transportation, school buses, but folks who are interested in buying an electric vehicle for personal use but see that price tag may say that is absolutely not possible for me and my family right now what can the state do what could you do to help . It is what were doing that can help, actually. We do have incentives, credit incentives, as well, and we are not the only ones. The federal government has incentives. Burlington electric has incentives. At one time, not too long ago, you could buy a nissan leaf with all these incentives for between 10,000 and 15,000 brandnew. So these incentives work. We are trying to do everything we can. I believe with more competition, that they will not have anything but electric vehicles in 2030, i believe, or 2035. Thats the answer. More competition, the price will come down, batteries will become more efficient as well. Thank you. Same question to you how would you propose reducing emissions around heating and transportation . Ms. Siegel we have to get out of the mindset that it will be done one electric vehicle at a time. Families like mine and around the state cannot afford 10,000 or 15,000. I have a front row seat to what we could do. We need to support our small farms and require large firms to do the same. We need to make sure heat pumps and electric vehicles can make it to low or moderate income families. Unfortunately, the clean heat standard was a really strong move towards our 2030 goals, and the veto of that was really unfortunate because it meant legislators who had done a lot of hard work, taken a lot of testimony and done research we did not all get to experience the outcome of that legislation. I did ask Governor Scott about the clean heat standard, and im curious for your thoughts because as you know, it did pass in the legislature. It does not have widespread support in the legislature, so im curious, if it comes back, what changes do you think need to be made to it . Ms. Siegel i would argue that it was 99 out of 100 votes, so i would argue that there is widespread support. We really need to have a governor that comes to the table and stays there until the work is done. Unfortunately in this case, the governors advisors gave him the wrong information, and his concerns had already been addressed in that bill. Gov. Scott the only person they did not ask about if my concerns were satisfied was me. They just assumed that to be true. You keep saying it was my advisors that gave the wrong information. I did not have anyone. I meet with the legislative leadership every single week. They did not come to me and asked me, are you ok with the solution we have come up with . Never. Not a single day. Did not hear a pete. Did not hear a peep. Then it sounds like you could have told them. And that you have the wrong information. I think we are going to move on here. We have a lot to get to. Lets move on to a question about a relationship with both of your individual political parties. Ahead of this debate, we received a number of questions from vermonters about how you square your politics with those of the National Republican party. One person pointed out that republican politicians in other states have passed Voting Rights restrictions and abortion bands, stymied action on climate change, etc. If you do not support those types of positions, why not run as an independent . Gov. Scott well, im a fiscal conservative. There are a number of republicans who might admire across the country whom i admire across the country. John mccain was a republican, but he booked party. He was a maverick. He did what he thought was right, and i continue to do the same. The party does not define me. I just view myself as a common sense fiscally conservative republican. Governor scott, you have vocally disavowed the trump wing of the republican party. You said that you voted for joe biden in the 2020 election. Many vermonters might still remember when vermont senator jim jeffords left the party to become an independent and he also caucused with democrats. Do you feel at home on the same ticket as other republican nominees in this election cycle in vermont . Do you feel like the vermont gop has left the values you have been espousing today . Gov. Scott again, they do not define me. I determine who i am and i have inconsistent throughout. You have folks on the further left, folks on the further right to get a lot of the attention, and a lot of the headlines, but i think most vermonters are centrist moderates, just like me, and care about taxes. They care about fiscal issues, they care about making government more efficient, and maybe they even agree with that the government cannot do everything for everyone. Thank you. Brenda siegel, you have not held Political Office before, yet you are running again for the highest seat in state government. What do you make of the fact that leading democrats in Vermonts Legislature have repeatedly declined to run against Governor Scott . Ms. Siegel i think it is a challenge to run in a race that is an uphill battle, and i have been clear this whole time, this is an uphill fight, but there are vermonters suffering all across the state that need us to do more, that need us to lock ourselves out of these crises, and i cannot speak to why other people have not run, but why i ran was because we need to move forward in the ways that support vermonters, and i mean all vermonters. Everyone from low income folks to upper middle income folks, all of whom are struggling to survive right now across the state. I also wanted to ask you about some of the relationships you have with major advocacy organizations across the state. Specifically vermonts largest childcare advocacy program. They have a Political Action arm that is telling voters to support Governor Scott. You would seem to be a natural fit for their endorsement, but they support your opponent. Im curious if you think you might have work to do to strengthen some of these allegiances. Flex i think theres a strong power of incumbency in this situation. Anyone who gets federal dollars would have been able to spend them in the last six years, but we have to commit, not make a goal my opponent has made it only a goal. We have to support our small childcare centers. Right now, the legislature allocated a bunch of ending, and the thinking was that these small childcare presenters were going to flood the market with this is, and we need to make sure that money gets out the door when it is allocated. This past year, i was able to support a small school that was about to close and a twoweek turnaround was bringing Community Members together in my hometown and making sure that school survived. I think we are talking about the power of incumbency in that situation. I want to give you 15 seconds to answer one quick followup. I have heard you note the distinction between a commitment and a goal. Could you elaborate exactly what that means or what you are asking of some of Governor Scott or someone in the governors position . Sure. Often times when we are working on political settlement, we say goal, we can move this way, but a commitment means we are going to get there. That is what needs to happen for our workforce and for our family. Governor scott, your response to that critique . Ms. Siegel gov. Scott i agree with goals and incentives. I try to avoid mandates. It appears much of what she is talking about is mandates, forcing people to do things. I would rather lift people up and lead them in the right direction. We have done a lot of good work over the last six years. I have not been an incumbent forever. We have had a great relationship with childcare advocates and done a lot of good work and we are going to do a lot of good work in the future. Thank you. I want to move on and talk about how vermont uses land and the collection of development regulations. What reforms would help the state allens conservation with new developments . Ms. Siegel i think the first thing we have to do is we have to fully staff our activity with the office. We can come up with, as the legislature did in the last session, locks to make sure we are still supporting the land we all love so much, but we are able to also build the housing and development that we need right now in this state. I know you have advocated for aggressive measures to build the Housing Estate needs, but building new houses takes months, years, frankly, and it is not a shortterm fix. Would you support advocacy reform that makes it easier to build in vermonts downtowns and Village Centers . Im thinking specifically of municipal water and sewage upgrades. Absolutely. That is part of my plan i released a few weeks ago on housing. We have to have a Strategic Plan for the short and long term, and each part of it has to address emergency, transitional, and permanent housing. We have to make sure that we are meeting the need and having a temporary fix right now so that people remain house. What specific reforms have you supported . We have had a number of initiatives that have had support from environmental groups, and including what ive heard from binder brendas plan, thats exactly what we are doing. We did not have agreement with the legislature, and unfortunately, some of that did not make it through, so we just need to modernize act 250 two make it easier to utilize. We need more communication. It cannot be different from one district to another. There has to be consistency. Act 250 as well should not be used just to block development. It should be used to improve development. So we have a lot of different initiatives. Again, we have some agreement with some environmental groups on this. We thought we were going to get across the finish line, but the legislature did not agree. The bill they passed was worse than what they had, and Many Democrats agreed with that, so we will go back to the drawing board. But we cannot just focus on act 250. It is about zoning as well, other permits as well as federal permits. Act 250 sometimes gets all the blame, but it is not all their fault. I want to ask you about another program. The eligibility for it is much stricter than the federal emergency assistance. Im curious if you would commit to easing restrictions and funding an expansion of the statewide program as a shortterm solution to homelessness and housing issues in the coming winter and spring. Gov. Scott again, this is an Emergency Program put forward by the government to get us through the pandemic. At that time, we had 90,000 people unemployed. They were not able to make a living, were not able to pay their rent, and we wanted to make sure we kept them whole, cut their landlords whole, kept the economy going, but the pandemic is over. So we have to go back to something that is much more reasonable, something that we can afford. We cannot afford everything that was provided during that time. We are spending 12 million a month with federal help to do this. They have changed the rules and have said we are going to end this program and then it is over. We heard President Biden say that. We need to go to something different. Lets move on. We have a lot of other topics to get to today. Lets talk about the opioid crisis. Vermont has broken its own record for Overdose Deaths two years in a row now. I know you both support some of the same ideas to address this crisis, including what are known broadly as Harm Reduction strategies, but some of these do not go far enough. Canada, meanwhile, is pushing the boundaries of the Public Health response to the overdose crisis. People can use street drugs at supervised consumption sites or get prescriptions as a safer alternative. Do you think these strategies could help vermonters, even if they are not currently sanctioned by the u. S. Justice department . Ms. Siegel yes, in fact, at Overdose Prevention sites, there have been lots of overdoses but not a single death, with a have cleaned up needles and the is off the street, they have reduced hepatitis c and hiv in areas where they are used, which also reduces our cost overall. In 2017, we had all of these overdoses. The state, it cost 100 billion of our state gdp to have people suffering with Substance Abuse disorder in our state, so spending the money it takes to address the overdose crisis is extremely important for vermonters, but i want to go a step further in march 2018, my nephew died of an overdose. He was the son of my brother, who died just over 20 years before him, also while using heroin. They both suffered from bipolar and extreme trauma and with when two years between them, they could not get the support they needed. My nephew would have survived in an Overdose Prevention center, and we need to make sure we have those supports so we are not burying our family members because once our family members die, we do not get them back. With Safe Injection Sites worked on such a rural state . Yes, there are several centers where there already is a concentration of people injecting drugs, and that is happening in front of our children on the streets, and this is also a way to protect that, and there is in other countries, we use things like mobile units where we bring Harm Reduction centers to the community where it is happening. We know that it is happening in every single corner of our state, and i deeply know the impact of that on our families, and if we dont focus on Harm Reduction first, we are not going to walk ourselves out of this crisis. Same question to you. Do you support the measures to curb the our epidemic . Gov. Scott over the last six years, we have increased funding in all areas of the issue. Sentinel is the issue driving death, so i believe we need to go after distribution. Some of them are targeting vermont because of our laws. I think we have four legs of a stool. I do not believe using government injection sites is the answer for vermont, not at this time, because we know what works and we need to put our limited resources toward that. I do not want to take money away from those proven, the hub and spoke model we have an successful with in vermont to do something with an experiment. Medicated assistance therapy is now take common practice to help people struggling with opioid addiction, but not long ago, it was viewed with skepticism as an experimental practice. In some ways, do you think experimentation is necessary to meet the challenges of this ever snowballing crisis . Again, if we want to experiment and leave behind strategies we have proven to be successful because we were successful before the pandemic hit if we want to do that, then that is for the legislature to decide and for me to decide if we want to go forward or not. I do not believe government injection sites work for a rural state like vermont, and i do not see it being proven throughout the country. We have to move on. Inflation is a major concern for vermonters right now. In the dairy industry in particular, farmers operating on already slim margins are struggling to afford fuel, grain, and other necessary supplies. Particularly in the organic dairy market, the regions main cooperative says it cannot raise prices, even though the cost of feed is up between 35 and 50 , pretty staggering. How can the state better support Dairy Farmers during this period of inflation . Gov. Scott the dairy industry is all is obviously suffering through inflation. We are losing farms every single day. Farming, agriculture is the backbone of our state. I believe during the pandemic as well, that we saw firsthand how important it is for us to be as selfsufficient as possible. We need to feed ourselves, and our farmers provide for that. We need to continue to help them, to utilize their products in every way we can. We have a lot to be proud of in vermont. The quality of the products that we produce are better than many others across the country. We are increasing our markets so we can sell them in other markets. We have done a lot of work there. We have a long ways to go, but the inflation we see now, fuel in particular, feed prices, machinery, everything is going up. It is very difficult for farmers, but we continue to do everything we can to support them. As we all know, vermonts Cannabis Market just opened up, and the way it is set up, sellers are required to work with small growers for a percentage of their business. Can you see a similar set of working for the organic dairy industry . Again, the organic market was somewhat tailored the same way. Smaller market, smaller number of producers, smaller number of heard, so it did work, but, you know, people have been willing to buy that at a high cost. Our dairy industry as part of the fabric of vermont, and it is really true we need to make sure that Dairy Farmers are at the table and we are asking them what they need and that is informing other decision, but we have to make sure our Dairy Farmers and dairy farms are not just commodities of vermont. They are people who are people who are part of the fabric of vermont. The ones who want to stay in that industry to help support them in doing things like paying higher wages, making sure the people they bring to work on their farms can access housing in our state and supporting a stronger industry in that way. Yes, it would be great for them to be working with our small farms because we really have a lot of small farms across the state, and we have to do it in a way that is sustainable. Can you give an example of how you would do that . I have not had the opportunity of being the governor, bnke do have to when i have talked to Dairy Farmers across the state, what they have told me is that they need better support in making the transition they have to make to get higher wages, to have paid family and medical leave so that they can do better when they are selling their products as well. Thank you. This concludes the first segment of our debate. When we come back, the candidates will have an opportunity to ask each other questions. This is the vermont public debate with the candidates for governor. With us today are democratic candidate Brenda Siegel of new fame and republican governor phil scott of berlin. The candidates when i have the opportunity to ask each other questions. Responses are limited to 60 seconds. A reminder, you can ask a brief followup question. Brenda siegel, first question to you. Ms. Siegel in 2018, my nephew died of an overdose alone in a bathroom. In 2020, my friends brother died of an overdose alone in a bathroom. In 2021, my friends son died of an overdose alone. Peoples mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, have died of overdoses since you became governor alone. If they were at a prevention site, they would have overdosed but not died. We know that because there has not been a single day in an overdose of engine center. My question is were their lives worth saving . Gov. Scott somewhat of an unfair question. We have all lost friends and family members through a number of different issues, including overdoses. We have done a lot of Work Together over the last six years. Governor someone brought this to our attention years ago. We have increased treatment throughout vermont, access to treatment, but we have to be realistic. We are a rural state. We cannot provide a governmentrun injection site in every single town and city in vermont. We just do not have the resources to do that, so i think it is unfair to think that providing that would have saved all of their lives, but unfortunate that we lost them to begin with. I do not believe that we should be experimenting, taking those precious resources away from the measures we know work, and i dont believe we should be legalizing small amounts of recreational drugs, either, and i dont really we should be erasing the records of drug traffickers, as well, which means they could buy a gun eventually. Thank you. Do you have a response . Ms. Siegel yes, i think it was unfair that i had to bury my nephew. I think it was unfair that we had to bury my brother, so i dont think it is an unfair question for all the families that have lost people to ask you if their lives were worth saving because so many of their lives if they were in Overdose Prevention centers would have been saved. Im not asking if should divert resources away because we need it all. I support Recovery Centers and places we need to work on that, but im asking, work their lives worth saving . Gov. Scott obviously every life is precious. Everything we can do to save lives, and we have it across the board, if its drug overdoses, car crashes, cancer i lost a cousin yesterday due to cancer. I mean, it is across the board, every single day, we have to make choices about what we can do, what we can afford to do and where we want to focus. I believe the strategy we have used is saving lives as many lives as possible. I do not believe your strategy will save every single life. I just dont believe that. Governor scott, your turn to ask a question. Gov. Scott you have made a lot of promises during these debates, if its housing proposals to take out hundreds of millions of dollars of federal aid, childcare proposals, another 100 million, paid family leave, Universal School meals, and a primary care, about another 200 million. You have made a lot of thomass, and those were all priorities of yours. You have made a lot of promises. Where are you going to come up with the half 1 billion to pay for that . Ms. Siegel right now, the average cost for the person experiencing homelessness is 35,000 a year, and we have about 3000 on house people in vermont and that means we are spending about 105 Million Dollars a year, 525 million in five years, and 1. 05 billion dollars in 10 years. It we address the housing crisis upfront, then we end up actually saving taxpayer dollars money, and i can go through that. With health care, we are paying 6. 5 billion right now. In childcare, we are paying with our workforce not being available. In the opioid use disorder, we pay 1. 8 billion in 2017, and that is before it exploded. I would argue we are spending quite a lot of money right now by not solving these problems, and it is time for us to be responsible with vermont taxpayer dollars. Gov. Scott im not saying we are not solving this problem because i believe we are. Im asking you because youre making all these promises, where are you going to come up with half a billion to 1 billion. I know you say we are paying for it now, but there has to be a transition. You dont have a magic switch to do this. You have to have money to invest. Where are you going to come up with that money . Exactly. You have to make strategic investments. One of my concerns about the administrations you have not made those two did investments over the last two and half years, we have paid over 5,000 a month for hotels when instead we could have started with that plan and come up with a transitional plan for people who work on house so we are not wasting so much money. We cannot just throw money at new bills and hope that it solves the problem. We have to have a plan that transitions us from point a to point b, and right now we do not have that. Am going to give you a chance to ask another question to Governor Scott. Ms. Siegel you said in our last debate that people cannot be evicted in the winter. They can be. Similarly, you did not anyone living on the street was still living on the street, and they were, and they are. Now 8004 hundred 11 families are going to lose Legacy Housing vouchers. For those people losing vouchers directly related to keeping their housing and already 3000 families have had thereabouts ripped away. Meanwhile, you awarded 4. 3 million to a company to create jobs that existed. Is it a good use of taxpayer dollars instead of keeping people housed . I think we can do both. We have to grow the economy, lift people up. We have more Jobs Available today then we have people to fill them, so we need to provide the Wraparound Services to those who are homeless, provide them with the skills necessary if they dont have the skills necessary for a job, we need to provide that for them. We have all of these programs in place to help them. We just need to make sure that we are giving to them. During the pandemic, obviously, that increase i think you mentioned before we are spending 5,000 or Something Like that on hotels. I think it must have been whole lot more than that, but we cannot afford to continue with the program we have today. We just do not have the resources to do that. During the pandemic, it was federal money, and that is ending. Ms. Siegel theres no transitional housing because that Program Ended on september 30. Our shelters are full, and the prepandemic ga program has never been adequate and will not be now. At the last debate, you asked me about how we are going to go blind by line in the budget and reevaluate priorities. This is what im talking about. When youre spending 4. 3 million to a company that never creates the jobs that we get the money to, this is a place where we can prep we privatized. Do you think it is responsible to give millions of dollars to companies that do not bring any new jobs to vermonters . Gov. Scott can you name the company . Ms. Siegel i do not have the name written down right now. Gov. Scott because i do not recall what youre talking about. Ms. Siegel absolutely purely have it right here. They made the grant to marvel. Marvell technology. They eliminated jobs. Gov. Scott again, what was the question . Ms. Siegel the question is we are giving 4. 3 million to marvel technologies did not create jobs when we are talking about going line by line in the budget and reprioritizing. Is this a good priority over housing people who are experiencing homelessness . Gov. Scott this is something the legislature had agreed to. We put it into this independent body to make these grants, and they have to fulfill those responsibilities. There are certain requirements go along with that. If marvel did not provide for that, then they dont get the money. Ms. Siegel they already got the money. Gov. Scott then they pay it back. That is a requirement within the grant process. That is an independent body. That is not something that we did, but i do think it is a good idea. We need to keep the economy going. You have to pay for all the programs you want. If we dont have a healthy economy that brings in tax revenue, we will not be able to take care of the very people you are trying to help, so we have to have a healthy economy, and that is one small little piece of what we need to do to provide for a growing economy in vermont. We have time for you to ask one more question. Gov. Scott across the state, we are significantly understaffed in Law Enforcement. State police are down in record numbers. No burlington, richmond, sheldon, and many others are other staffed and struggling to hire. Many Law Enforcement site morale as one of the challenges. As someone like yourself who has advocated for defunding the police, can you think it is time to admit you were wrong and invest more in Law Enforcement to make our communities safer . Ms. Siegel what that meant was Funding Police to do the work that police do and funding social workers and people who work on Substance Use disorder and our communities to do what they do. Thats always what that meant. Unfortunately, republican talking points brought it to another realm, but what we do need to do right now is make sure that we are both supporting access to treatment for the root cause and supporting the police in what they need, and regardless, we do have a police chief, chief party who is working extremely hard has been able to attract police officers, has been able to retain more police officers, and shes working with our communities and the naacp to make sure she is building support, and those kinds of Community Policing models do work, and we need to make sure police like all workers are ended so they can thrive and survive here. Gov. Scott i agree. The chief is doing a great job. Not condemning any of her actions, but that workforce is down by 30 to 50 , so it is not working there either. There is a morale problem. You said defunding the police. You did not say anything about anything else. Ms. Siegel thats not actually true. I did talk about Funding Police through the work police do and supporting Mental Health and Substance Use treatments to do what they do. No, thats not what i said. With the work that we have to do is making sure that we address our root causes. When i looked at your plan on crime, its initial phase did not address the Mental Health crisis, did not address Substance Abuse disorder, did not address root causes. We know that law and order alone will not address this crisis. The majority of the crime that is happening in our state right now has happened to people with Substance Abuse disorders or suicides, and both of that needs to be addressed. We have questions from vermonters next. I want to make sure we have time for those important questions. This concludes the second segment of our program. As i said, candidates will answer questions submitted to us by vermonters. Welcome back to the vermont public debate with the candidates for governor. Joining me live today in the vermont public studio in downtown winooski is governor phil scott, the republican incumbent, and democratic nominee Brenda Siegel. It is time now for some questions from vermonters. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions to us. Just a reminder to candidates to please limit your answers to 30 seconds, and im going to be strict on this one. Our first question is about working with the legislature from irvine in northfield. Governor scott, your veto reform for teachers on publicsector workers was overruled unanimously by the legislature. How can you say youre working with legislators when you cannot even get members of your own party to sustain your veto . And Brenda Siegel, if elected, how would you use veto power and coordinate with the Legislature Prior to issuing a veto . Gov. Scott again, that was based on principle, the veto was. I was not part of the process completely. I had asked the legislature to take up some initiatives as well to make sure we were fixing the problem. They put a bandaid on it. I believe in five or six years we will be back to the drawing board, back to the same position we were in before, which is unfortunate. When i veto something, though, i tell them exactly what i would need to move forward and we have been successful in some of those initiatives. Ms. Siegel unfortunately, i just want to say that that veto was wasting taxpayer dollars. In addition to that, i would say that what i have been able to do with the legislature is work collaboratively on sometimes very complicated bills that are not necessarily the easy yeses in the beginning and we have been able to work with republicans, democrats, and progressives, and i am known to sit at the table until the work is done so we can find a compromise to move forward. Thank you. For your next question is about childcare from james. As a lifelong vermonter and dad of a fouryearold, my question is what is your plan to address the Early Childhood crisis so we can support educators and make their positions which competitive . First of all, we need to make sure families are only paying 10 of income toward childcare. We need to support Early Education initiatives. We need to do more so theres less risk and we need to make sure we are working with families to support having childcare in the communities that they need and the hours that they need and in order to do that, we have to make sure that theres housing and benefits for those folks. Again, i have been an advocate for early care and learning from the beginning. I believe in a cradle to career approach. I believe theres a lot of money in the system when we have over 1 billion we are spending for an education. What i am advocating for is to utilize or use different strategies within the system itself, but also take advantage i propose to use all the money from the waiver decision, that was online sales tax money, for childcare. The legislature turned me down. That would have then 30 million a year. Thank you. Our next question comes from arlington. They asked, governor, how will you support the resettlement effort afghan refugees, especially given the lack of Affordable Housing . That is to both of you. Gov. Scott again, we have. I would say down in brendas region in particular, we have a lot of refugees from afghanistan that have landed there. We have a moral obligation to make sure we accept as many as possible. I had asked the former administration, the trump administration, to increase our allotment. We never received a response on that. I did the same with the biden administration, and they have increased our allotment. We are using that, again, from a moral perspective, responsibility, but also pragmatically, we need more people. We need more diversity here in the state. Ms. Siegel i also really do support that. In my area, there are some incredible advocacy organizations really doing the work right now, and i really am just proud of the people i know that are working so hard on that. I am a little concerned that in many areas of the state, people who are refugees who do not know the language and do not have transportation are being sometimes housed in places that are extraordinarily rural, and they do not have access to Grocery Stores because of it and other types of support, so that is a little bit extra work we need to do to make sure we are not doing that to folks do not have resources. We do have time to squeeze in a brief lightning round before the end of this debate. Candidates, please keep your answers as short as possible. 10 seconds or a couple words please. Number one, do you think vermonts laws regulating shortterm rentals like airbnb should be tighter, looser, or stay the same . Gov. Scott i think somewhere between staying the same and could be tightened up a bit. Ms. Siegel they definitely need to be tightened so we can get better revenue from those. Thank you support efforts to legalize sports gambling . Ms. Siegel i think we need to do an analysis of what that will look like, but its happening now, so any efforts we can make to bring it to light so people can get help when they need it. Gov. Scott absolutely. Over the last three or four years, we have advocated every single year for this, and finally it looks like it is coming to fruition. Would you support the proposal to limit the governors role to four years in office . Gov. Scott i think four years is necessary, yes. Ms. Siegel i think we need to stick with what we have. You have criticized Governor Scott on issues like housing and the opioid crisis. Can you name what issue you agree with him on . Ms. Siegel refugee resettlement. Gov. Scott i would say we agree with the goals in terms of opioid misuse and overdoses and so on. The goal is the same. How we get there is different. Thank you. Please name one individual action you have taken to lower your own carbon footprint. Gov. Scott if its the electrical vehicle for state security that drives me around, but also i live that. I recycle. I have a solar panel. Again, we keep our heat down to 58. We do everything. That is very cold. Ms. Siegel i recycle and use composting is much can. Unfortunately, some of the things i would like to use are not available to me as someone who is struggling financially. What is a significant issue or policy about which you have changed your mind . Ms. Siegel you know, drug policy. I would say at the beginning of my familys journey, i felt very differently and had drug or types of police, and after reviewing the science and data, i change my mind. Gov. Scott i would have to say probably the gun policy and some of the changes we made back in 2016, 2017, which disappointed a lot of people, but i thought was necessary. Vermont is the only new england state that applies the renewable label to large hydropower producers. Should vermont continue to recognize this type of hydropower as a Renewable Energy source . Gov. Scott yes. Ms. Siegel absolutely not. It displaces indigenous people. Do you support updating the states Renewable Energy standard to cap large hydropower in favor of more local wind and solar power . Ms. Siegel yes. Gov. Scott we are going to need it all. Name another state leader whom you admire. Gov. Scott governor baker of massachusetts. He is just very straight and narrow hes just a great person that works for the people. He just wants good government, and i try to follow his lead. Ms. Siegel governor janet mills in maine. She has done a really good job of listening to advocates and bringing them to the table and supporting them around all these things, drug policy, housing. She has been incredible. We will end with one more question and we will make it a fun one. What is your favorite vermont town to visit . Ms. Siegel gosh, thats hard. I have been to so many. I think my favorite vermont town to visit is sometimes burlington because my son is there. Gov. Scott elmore. All right, we did it. Time now for one have minute closing statements. In an order determined randomly before the show, Brenda Siegel, you will start us off. Ms. Siegel in the last six years, the things that matter most to vermonters have not gotten better, they have gotten worse. Vermont has not become more affordable, it has gotten less. The housing crisis is been barreling at us and there is no plan. We have seen the most Overdose Deaths once the history of our state, and the governor is vetoing the bills. The Climate Crisis is exploding and we have Public Utilities commission that is stopping the process. What i know is there are solutions to the problems we face. We do not have to throw your hands up anymore. Together, we can have safe and strong communities. This is a tough fight, but its not even close to the toughest fight i have had to face in my life, and i am still standing. I know there are vermonters across the state who have to get up every day and fight anyway even though it is hard, and im inviting all of you to join me and your neighbors and Community Members to build a Brighter Future for our children and they vermont we all love so much because of children are watching, and they need to know we are ready for this moment. Im Brenda Siegel, and i would be proud to serve as your next governor. Gov. Scott if its measuring a once in a century crisis or building a budget within our means, being governor is about making tough decisions. Sometimes there are no easy or perfect solutions, so you end up splitting your options at making a decision to the best of your ability and based on your experience, and after years of press conferences, i think many of you know me well enough to know i make decisions based on the facts and on what i believe is right and on what will help every day everyday vermonters. What i will not do is overpromise just to get your vote. What i will do is continue to lead with integrity, respect, and civility. We have many historic challenges here in vermont right before us. They have plagued us for decades. But we have an opportunity to transform that today if we put partisanship aside and then Work Together and focus on these three Guiding Principles grow the economy, make vermont more affordable and protect the most vulnerable we will be successful. Thank you to both of our candidates. This concludes the debate with the candidates for governor on vermont public. Thank you to democratic candidate Brenda Siegel and republican incumbent governor phil scott. Middle and high school students, it is your time to shine. You are invited to participate in cspans studentcam documentary competition. Feature yourself as a newly elected member of congress. We asked this years competitors what is your top priority and why. Make a five to six minute video showing the importance of your issue from. Opposing and supporting perspectives. Dont be afraid to take risks. Be bold. Among the cash prizes is a 5,000 grand prize. Video must be submitted by january 20, 2023. Studentcam. Org. For competition rules, tips, resources, and the step i step guide. Coming up, the candidates in georgias secretary of state election. Ohio democratic representative tim ryan and republican j. D. Vance participating in ohios u. S. Senate debate. Senator marco rubio his democratic challenger, the 2022 u. S. Senate race, val demings. Debating at palm beach state college