Biography
MARC MIHALY joined the House of Representatives in 2023, serving on the Appropriations Committee. He lives in East Calais with his wife, a children’s book author. They have three children and five grandchildren. Marc was born and raised in Cincinnati. After college, he spent two intense years as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador. Marc attended law school in California, worked as a Legal Aid attorney, and then joined the environmental unit of the California Attorney General’s office. In the 1980s, he and two partners started a law firm, one of the nation’s first to focus on public interest environmental cases. For more than twenty years, Marc represented farmers, community groups, tribal governments, and environmentally progressive cities and counties. In 2004, Marc and his wife found their way to Vermont where they have felt truly at home. Marc worked at Vermont Law School as professor, director of the environmental program, and President and Dean, retiring from that post in 2017. He has served as vice chair of the Calais Selectboard, and has served as a member of the boards of the Vermont Land Trust, VEIC (the parent of Efficiency Vermont), Stone Environmental, UVM’s Rubenstein School, and the Vermont State Colleges.
Candidate occupation
Legislator, adjunct law professor
Why are you running for office?
I care deeply about Vermont’s villages and farms, the backbone of the iconic Vermont landscape that makes the state unique. And I know intimately the growing issues surrounding our rural economy, issues we must address both for those of us living here now and to attract young families to the state: the need for affordable housing, good schools, good childcare, affordable higher education and job training, and a reasonable and equitable tax system. In the last two years I’ve been able to help protect the state’s environment, reduce our dependence on expensive fossil fuel, work on higher education and training, create an affordable childcare program, and begin to address the housing issue. I’ve successfully pushed through legislation addressing timber theft and dam safety. In the next two years I’d very much like to continue my contribution, working for the wonderful citizens of the three great towns I represent—Calais, Plainfield and Marshfield.
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?
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?
Existing businesses cannot find the workers they need, whether in construction or medicine. The key is to make Vermont attractive so that we can attract new young people to Vermont. That means good schools, reasonably priced housing and good affordable childcare.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
The current tax rates are simply the result of all the budgetary decisions made by local school boards. If we’re to reduce the cost, we’ll have to make difficult choices. In the interim we have “bought down” the tax rate with funds from the general fund, but that just leads to higher income taxes, so it’s not a real solution. I support the new Commission on education and want it to listen to all Vermonters and make recommendations on funding and approach.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
We’re doing fairly well, but need to do more to facilitate electrification of our transportation and conversion of our home heating fuel away from oil and gas to electricity. I support the Affordable Heat Act and will work with all parties to refine and implement it in the next session if elected.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
We could do a little more. Vermonters generally have a sensible attitude about guns, and Vermonters should continue to have a clear right to use firearms for hunting and recreational use. But we have a ways to go to ensure our children are safe. We have addressed thee issue that guns are the primary cause of Vermont’s high suicide rate, and many of those who die are young people who utilized their parents guns. We need open carry laws. And we need to bar the ownership and use of assault style weapons. I believe that automatic weapons with high capacity magazines have no place in a civilized society except for the military and police.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
The free market can no longer produce housing affordable to normal Vermonters. We need to supplement free market efforts with some governmental subsidy. That means finding the funding and prioritizing housing in the budget. The recent reform of Act 250 will help, as will additional regulatory reform at the state and local level to make it easier to build, but that alone won’t begin to do it–we need the state subsidies.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
In the short term with the motel program, as inefficient as it is, and with shelters. In the longer term with housing solutions for the homeless.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
No answer
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 Mihaly’s financial disclosure here.
Disclaimer
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