Biography
Alison Clarkson has served in the Vermont Legislature since 2005. She started in the House representing the towns of Plymouth, Reading and Woodstock. And, for the past eight years she has been a member of the Vermont Senate – currently serving as the Majority Leader of the Senate. She is one of three Windsor County District State Senators. Alison serves on two Senate standing committees: as Vice-Chair of Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, and as on Government Operations. In addition, Alison serves as Chair of the Senate Sexual Harassment Panel, is a member of the Legislative Climate Solutions Caucus and the Women’s Caucus and serves on the State Workforce Development Board.
Before moving to Vermont, Alison was a theater producer in New York for 15 years – where she produced plays On, Off and Off-Off Broadway. She is a founder of the New York Theatre Workshop, one of New York’s finest non-profit theater companies, and worked with the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. Currently, Alison serves on the board of directors of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Friends of the Statehouse. She is a former board member of the Vermont Arts Council, Pentangle Council on the Arts, Vermont Natural Resources, Sustainable Woodstock, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Park School of Buffalo and was chair of the Billings Park Commission for many years.
She is married to Oliver Goodenough, professor at the Vermont Law School, and is the proud mother of Ward and William.
Candidate occupation
Vermont State Legislator
Why are you running for office?
With the values and experience I bring to the Legislature, I believe I can help make a difference in the lives of Vermonters and in the welfare of our state. I love my work as a legislator – solving problems for constituents, Vermont and all Vermonters.
Issues in brief
Do you believe Vermonters are better off now than they were 10 years ago?
Yes
Do you believe Vermont needs a new education funding formula?
No
Do you support imposing new taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters?
No
Do you support the establishment of overdose prevention centers?
Yes
Do you support a ban on flavored tobacco products?
Yes
Do you support increasing penalties for property crimes such as shoplifting?
No
Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election?
Yes
Issues in depth
What would you do to help grow Vermont’s economy?
I would continue to work on these main areas affecting our economy at the moment: creating more housing, supporting entrepreneurship and innovative business, building a stronger workforce development pipeline, supporting health care reform and following through on providing first class child care for our working families.
We need to continue our work with targeted regulatory reform and build more housing. I support exposing our young people earlier to Career and Technical Education opportunities, expanding the Governor’s Institute programs for our high schoolers and creating additional apprenticeship and internship programs. Also, I am working to ensure we better coordinate our current workforce development system – in and outside of state government.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
I have always thought that our education funding model was one of the most progressive and equitable in the country, but I now am feeling that it is out of whack. The Legislature has tried for years to update this formula, and we’ve never been succeeded. But rising costs and challenged revenues are ‘calling the question’ on this now outdated model. Here are a few of my concerns.
The inherently inflationary aspect to the way in which we fund education is troublesome. The fact that we pay the bill after the budgets are set is challenging. It not only seems backwards – but it encourages higher spending. Surely it is better to know what you can afford to spend before you spend anything.
In addition, while Act 127, the re-weighting of pupils – which gives more per pupil support to school districts with children living in poverty, learning English as a second language and living rurally – was well intentioned, it has resulted in unintended consequences which need to be fixed.
There are many cost and revenue issues which need to be addressed. My hope is that our Commission on the Future of Education will identify these and make recommendations to the legislature. This must be a top priority of next year’s legislative session.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
We are not yet doing enough to rein in our fossil fuel consumption or climate change but we are doing what we are able. We are making progress in so many arenas – but none of it is yet at a scale to have the impact it must have if we are to do our part in affecting the course of climate change.
While I am proud of the progress we have made in weatherizing our homes, building out our renewable energy capacities and supporting our renewable energy sector, creating a climate super-fund, establishing our electric vehicle infrastructure, and growing our recycling and composting efforts – we need to do more to enable our survival on this earth we treasure.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
Until Vermont has fewer homicides and suicides by firearm and fewer domestic violence deaths resulting from the use of guns – I believe we have work to do regulating firearms. As reflected in the many bills I’ve been a part of sponsoring and supporting – I support increasing our safe storage opportunities, banning assault style weapons, registering firearms, prohibiting ‘open carry’ at any public gathering and supporting gun safety measures and education.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
1. Continue to invest in incenting low hanging fruit: further support our Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP) which brings back online vacant, blighted, non-weatherized and non-code compliant properties, and builds more Accessory Dwelling Units; use our infill spaces in our downtowns and village centers to build, and expand our Home Share programs.
2. Continue to reduce barriers to building housing in our downtowns and village centers and in areas we agree are appropriate for housing.
3. Figure out a cost-effective way we can help our smaller communities build sewer and water infrastructure for housing and business development.
4. Continue to invest in our Tax Increment Financing program which enables so much housing and downtown development.
5. Figure out how to sustainably finance state investments in housing on the scale we need.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
First and foremost we simply need to build a lot more affordable housing. And, second, we need to better address the root causes of homelessness – like trauma and mental health in Vermonters lives. Otherwise, we will continue to experience rising homelessness. We can help with building supportive housing and transitional housing, but we really need to invest in reducing the cost of housing, preventing trauma in our lives, providing more and better mental health care, and substance abuse treatment.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
Work towards establishing a Universal Single Payer health care system for Vermont.
Financial disclosure
Candidates for state and legislative offices are required to submit a financial disclosure when filing to run. These disclosures include each source, but not the amount, of personal income of each candidate, and of their spouse or domestic partner, that singly or jointly totals more than $5,000 for the previous 12 months. The information provided is an opportunity for voters to learn about candidates’ potential conflicts of interest.
You can find Clarkson’s financial disclosure here.
Disclaimer
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