Biography
Irene Wrenner is an advocate for affordable, transparent, accountable government. She’s known for seeking out voters’ opinions and incorporating their points of view into her policy making and floor votes.
All the senate bills she introduced came from constituents, and none came with a price tag. She is a fiscally conservative, common-sense lawmaker who identifies as a Democrat and votes as an Independent.
Irene was elected 4 times to the Town of Essex Selectboard, serving as clerk, vice chair and chair. During those 12 years, she never missed a meeting. She asked probing questions, called out inconsistencies and spoke up for marginalized populations.
This 27-year Essex resident has been a community leader on many issues. The public voted 9 times to support the causes Irene espoused and work toward on their behalf.
Irene has a business background, having worked in technology, communication and human resources.
She ran a small newspaper before the legislative map was redistricted, prompting her run for State Senate.
Irene has a B.S. from Cornell in Industrial & Labor Relations, the study of the workplace.
https://www.facebook.com/SenatorIreneWrenner
Candidate occupation
State Senator
Why are you running for office?
Vermont needs common sense laws and legislators who understand / speak up for their constituents. Voters are aghast at some bills passed this biennium. I understand why and want to continue to fight for their interests.
I work to gather information, digest it, and then communicate difficult concepts, such as the necessity to pass a yield bill, in a way that all constituents can grasp. I regularly report out to both traditional and tech news outlets.
My reach into this Senate district is broad and deep from attending meetings / events and canvassing homes. I’ve demonstrated critical thinking, insisted that statutes be followed, and called out wasteful spending.
It’s important to me to take what I’ve learned in these first two years and leverage it to sustain the Senate as an institution, while taking bold steps to “clean house” in places where money is being diverted to ends that don’t meet the spirit or letter of the law.
Issues in brief
Do you believe Vermonters are better off now than they were 10 years ago?
No
Do you believe Vermont needs a new education funding formula?
Yes
Do you support imposing new taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters?
Yes
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?
Yes
Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election?
Yes
Issues in depth
What would you do to help grow Vermont’s economy?
Incentivize students to train for and stay with jobs in health care and building trades, for example, so that businesses have skilled labor to hire.
Encourage private-public partnerships to build congregate housing in densely populated areas and along bus routes, so that potential workers have places to live and the means to get to work.
Reduce the unfunded mandates and red tape that grow with each passing (pun intended) legislative session.
Spend more time listening to and believing business owners who complain when regulations are too onerous.
Streamline regulation and find other ways to minimize government interference.
Treat business owners with the respect they have earned for taking risks and losing sleep over how to make ends meet and keep their business (and their employees) afloat during these difficult economic times.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
I don’t serve on any committee that has researched and taken testimony on how school funding should change, but it must. A statewide average double-digit increase is unsustainable for taxpayers.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
Vermont’s climate policies (S.5 and H.289, among them) are being developed by industry insiders.
They are extracting money from taxpayers to set up, for example, a credit swap market that no one understands and may not even be legal.
Electricity ratepayers shouldn’t have to fund the erection of solar panels by for-profit firms under the guise of “renewable energy everywhere” and “electrify everything”.
In fact, renewable sources aren’t always reliable. They are wrecking the planet in a unique way.
Conservation, not consumerism, needs to return as a viable means of addressing climate change.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
I voted for gun legislation this biennium. Next term, I’d like to see us tweak it.
The three-day waiting period for a gun purchases makes sense in some cases but not in others. For example, why should an existing customer of a gun shop, much less a police officer who already carries a gun, be forced to wait three days to pick up a purchase? Common sense adjustments would show that the legislature is listening to the voters.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
We should prioritize the rehab of existing buildings in already-developed areas, to minimize sprawl. I’m glad to see millions of dollars allocated each year from the General Fund toward increasing the supply of housing.
Need to ensure that we keep aesthetics at the forefront of development, lest we lose the Vermont brand. What makes Vermont appealing is its natural beauty!
Even before we build out the housing supply to meet demand, we must shore up wastewater treatment facilities to stop the near-constant accidental dumping of raw sewage into our waterways by old and insufficient infrastructure. If our waterways can’t support life forms other than blue green algae, tourist dollars will go elsewhere.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
I have a friend living out of their car, who is bright, articulate, and job-worthy. They cannot be the only one for whom one financial hiccup has left them completely untethered.
We need to set up sytems that allow people experiencing homelessness to maintain their dignity and have access to basic services.
When a city shuts down its public rest rooms, how can it expect people to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and move forward?
There’s a minimum level of assistance that anyone in their predicament needs to get their bearings. If they can stop worrying about where they will sleep at night and get a shower, they may be able to move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s worth a try.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
A headline in VTDigger yesterday shows one way: “Vermont hospitals implement new rules for accessing free medical care;a 2022 law aimed at freeing more Vermonters from medical debt went into effect Monday.”
The less people have to pay out-of-pocket, the sooner they will access care when they have a health issue and the less costly it will be to the health care system to treat them at that early stage.
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 Wrenner’s financial disclosure here.
Disclaimer
We emailed a questionnaire to every candidate with a valid email address. The responses provided by candidates are in their own words. VTDigger has not edited or fact-checked information provided.
If this is your candidacy and you’d like to fill out the questionnaire or report an error, please contact us at voterguide@vtdigger.org.
