This commentary is by Elaine Haney, executive director of Emerge Vermont.
In Vermont, we pride ourselves on our easy access to government. We love talking about how we know our representatives personally and how responsive our legislators are to emails and calls.
We also pride ourselves on our traditional “citizen legislature.” But, sadly, because we pay our legislators very little and we don’t provide them with health insurance, what that really means is we are comfortable with being represented only by people who can financially afford to work for us for almost nothing.
Recently Rep. Kate Donnally, D-Hyde Park, announced she was stepping down because the Legislature “asks you to forgo money, stability of schedule, accessibility to family and more with little regard to the mental, emotional, and familial toll that these demands require.”
Before her, former senators Josh Terenzini, R-Rutland, and Corey Parent, R-Franklin both opted not to run for reelection due to the low compensation and the toll on family life.
At the start of this year’s session, Rep. Ashley Bartley, R-Fairfax, lost her job — and her health insurance.
In other states, it is the norm for state legislators to earn a living wage, have full state health coverage, and even to have staff support. Here it’s not so much the case, and it’s time for that to change.
As the executive director of Emerge Vermont, an organization that trains Democratic women to run for office, I know firsthand the challenges of recruiting candidates to run for our Legislature. Our legislators’ extremely low compensation and lack of health insurance coverage prevents many Vermonters from stepping up to serve.
We cannot afford to continue shutting the door on public service, especially if we believe representation from underrepresented groups matters.
A Vermonter should not have to decide he can’t run for office because he can’t afford to live on an income that is less than the 2023 federal poverty level for one person ($14,580). A Vermonter should not have to set aside her dream of serving her community in the Legislature because she needs health insurance for herself and her children.
I believe Vermonters value their government, their representation, and their elected legislators more than that. That’s why I am glad a new policy is being proposed in a bill this session, S.39, that gives us an opportunity to demonstrate this in a truly substantive way. We have an opportunity to begin to dismantle the barriers to serving in elected office, which could increase the number of women and others from underrepresented populations in our Legislature.
Vermonters value our citizen Legislature. We can demonstrate how much.
