This story by Matt Hongoltz-Hetling of the Valley News was published on Oct. 15.
[T]HETFORD โ When it comes to helping Vermontโs working class, the two candidates for the Orange Senate district have starkly different visions of what to do in Montpelier over the next two years.
State Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Williamstown, tends to focus on livable wages and corporate greed.
โAbout half of my constituents are paycheck to paycheck workers, 40 hours a week at least,โ said MacDonald, a 75-year-old retired history teacher in Randolph. Though unemployment is low, he said, workers struggle to make enough money, particularly when employed by chain stores that are headquartered out of the state, a growing part of Vermontโs retail sector. MacDonald said the state needs to provide more work training opportunities, and to continue to provide programs to support people on the lower end of the economic ladder.
But Republican challenger Bill Huff, 60, of Thetford, offers a much different take, focusing instead on eliminating financial barriers to both individuals and potential employers โ high taxes, Act 250 regulations and corporate licensing fees.
โVermont has essentially said, โWe donโt want businesses to move into the state,โโ Huff said. โTaxes are a problem for me. Iโve got two grown children that are trying to settle in Vermont with grandchildren, and Iโd like to see them be able to stay here.โ
Huff, a retired pilot and certified financial planner, said he also would take steps to patch a $4.5 billion gap in the retirement program for state workers by maintaining pension commitments to existing employees, but changing to a defined benefit plan for new hires moving forward.
โThat way, itโs not an open-ended liability,โ Huff said. Otherwise, he predicted the debt would snowball in a way that would affect the stateโs credit rating and ability to function.
Huff briefly served on the Thetford Selectboard; MacDonald has represented the 11-town Senate district for eight terms.
A longtime member of the Senate Finance Committee, MacDonald said the Legislature took bipartisan measures earlier this year to partially address the funding gap, and said he disagreed with reducing benefits for state workers.
โSocial Security is the system that, when you work, if you finish, you have some retirement. Folks with a lot of money can retire with no problem,โ MacDonald said. โOf course they want to cut retirement benefits for people at the bottom. Thatโs how they get more money.โ
Over the past months, both candidates have been active campaigners at civic events and doorsteps.
Huff has visited transfer stations to engage the public and staked out the best places to wave at passing vehicles. MacDonald is most of the way through an effort to visit each of the roughly 4,000 households in the district, which includes Braintree, Brookfield, Chelsea, Corinth, Randolph, Strafford, Thetford, Tunbridge, Vershire, Washington and Williamstown.
Huffโs printed campaign materials attack MacDonald as โno longer an effective legislatorโ who is โjust filling a seatโ while Vermontโs problems go unaddressed.
MacDonald says his record shows that heโs continued to advocate for Vermonters on a variety of issues.
โAt the end of the last session, I got a rather complicated and technical law through that allowed ECFiber to borrow money from Wall Street at municipal rates,โ he said. The move has allowed the company to accelerate its work to build out internet service in area towns, which MacDonald said has made the region more attractive as a place to live and found a business.
โIf I had been an inexperienced legislator, I donโt think I could have pulled it off,โ he said.
The โEssex Plan,โ a carbon tax proposal that would use revenue from new taxes on propane and gasoline to reduce residential electricity bills, has been introduced by Democratic lawmakers. Huff said a carbon tax would hit border towns like Thetford particularly hard, and that he is opposed to the idea of using taxes to shift consumer behavior.
โItโs crazy to think we should penalize our residents because not everybody thinks the same way,โ he said.
MacDonald said the state-level carbon tax proposals heโs seen are not feasible, and accused Republicans of focusing on the issue as a way to curry favor at election time.
โYou always hear about that three months before the election. … You canโt change basic policies without having ordinary citizens saying they want it, and they arenโt,โ he said. โI donโt see it getting out of committee.โ
Though MacDonald voted in favor of gun control legislation that increased the age to purchase a gun to 21 and expanded background checks, he says he had reservations about a provision to limit magazine sizes. He characterized political disagreement as a gender split.
โWomen said it wasnโt going to do a lot (to solve gun violence), but theyโre the ones that often find guns pointed at them. The men said it wasnโt going to do a lot, but it was the beginning of the end,โ he said. โThe women made more sense, and I went with the women on this.โ
Huff said Vermont is generally a safe state, and that the new gun laws, which were signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, have not made schools more secure. Instead, he advocates for the creation of a school safety task force that would work with area officials to implement measures like better oversight and control of entrances. Huff said he would vote to repeal the gun laws, but that he doesnโt believe heโs going to get the chance.
โItโs not going to happen,โ he said. โThereโs no way.โ
Vermont recently passed laws allowing for the cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana. The candidates agreed that the state shouldnโt take steps to retail sales.
โI think it was the right thing to do,โ MacDonald said. โBut it doesnโt mean we should take off like a lightning bolt. We have to listen to law enforcement, listen to schools, listen to hospitals to tell us whatโs going on.โ
Huff said he would have voted against legalizing recreational marijuana.
โI was opposed in the first place, and Iโm also opposed to the commercialization,โ he said. โThere are plenty of studies that show itโs not going to have an increase of revenue to the state. It creates more problems than itโs worth.โ
The State Board of Education currently is deciding whether to force a number of school districts to consolidate under Act 46, the 2015 school reform law that seeks to bring down the cost of education while promoting affordability and equity by herding districts into larger administrative units.
Both candidates want the state to back off.
MacDonald, who voted against Act 46, said he felt forced consolidation oversteps the boundaries of the law, which he called โappalling.โ
Huff said he feels the law might have worked in Chittenden County, but not the rural areas in the Orange Senate district, and that it should be revised so that every town could maintain an independent elementary school, with school mergers limited to the high school and middle school levels.
โIf a town votes to opt out, then let them opt out,โ Huff said. โThen they would opt out of the benefits too, the pooled money and the taxes sent back to the town.โ
Several Orange County towns in the Bradford area are in the two-seat Caledonia Senate district. State Sens. Jane Kitchel, D-Danville, and Joe Benning, R-Lyndon, are unopposed for re-election.
