Summary

David Zuckerman

Current Position: Lt. Governor
Affiliation: Democrat
Candidate: 2020 Governor

I am running for Governor because I know, when we step up and work together, we can build a better Vermont for all.

We can create a Vermont where everyone is rewarded for hard work, not just the wealthy; a Vermont where everyone has a safe, warm house with clean water, healthy food, and quality healthcare; a Vermont where everyone is valued based on their own individual skills and actions; a Vermont where we know we have done everything to ensure our children have a healthy planet to grow food, raise families, and build a better future.

As a legislator, farmer, husband, and father, I have been working for this future my entire life

For more information, go to the David Zuckerman post.

Phil Scott

Current Position: Governor since 2017
Affiliation: Republican
Candidate: 2020 Governor

Throughout his years of public service, Phil has listened to, and learned from Vermonters, and is always willing to roll up his sleeves to help get the job done.

Phil has consistently focused on economic and affordability issues. During his first two legislative sessions as Governor, he worked with the Legislature to ensure the Fiscal Year 2018 & 2019 General Fund budgets did not raise a single tax or fee, and made critical investments in economic and workforce development, workforce housing, childcare and early learning, career technical training, higher education, clean water, addressing the opioid crisis and more.

For more information, go to the Phil Scott post.

Issues

Governance

Phil Scott 

Moderninzing State Government

Creation of the Agency of Digital Services

• Created the Agency of Digital Services to unify all aspects of the state’s IT operations under one roof, providing more efficient support for state employees, delivering better customer service, and enhancing accountability.
• ADS streamlined existing processes and in its first year, already identified $2.19 million in statewide savings or cost avoidance. Additionally, ADS has improved procurement processes, increased project successes, enhanced communications, and better utilized statewide resources – all without increasing IT staffing.

Merging the Department of Liquor and the Lottery Department

• In January 2017, the Governor issued an Executive Order creating the Department of Liquor and Lottery, a merger that was enacted via Act 1 of 2018 Special Session. By merging these two departments, the new unified department will align programmatic services, eliminate redundancies and leverage shared assets for strategic planning and growth to deliver better outcomes and service, and achieve cost savings and efficiencies for taxpayers.

Bolstering cybersecurity

• Created, by Executive Order, the Cybersecurity Advisory Team to enhance the state’s preparedness and protection against cyber threats.
• Proposed and passed the creation of the Vermont Security Operations Center (SOC), which will be developed and coordinated by the Agency of Digital Services to mitigate cybersecurity risks. This will be executed through a public-private partnership with Norwich University, which will help educate students, provide hands-on job experience with real threats and cutting-edge technology products and create job opportunities in Vermont.
• To combat growing cybersecurity threats, the FY19 budget adjustment and FY20 budget include the Governor’s proposal of $2.3 million to strengthen the state’s firewall and upgrade critical IT infrastructure.

PIVOT and LEAN – Improving government service and efficiency

• The Governor’s Program to Improve Vermont Outcomes Together (PIVOT) has been implemented to improve operations and ensure state government is working more efficiently and effectively.
• Through PIVOT, state employees are working closely with the state’s Chief Performance Officer to identify and eliminate inefficiencies. This program was modeled after Toyota’s successful LEAN program, a process designed to increase productivity by empowering employees to systematically reduce waste.
• There are currently about 44 PIVOT projects underway, developed by state employees to conduct operations better and faster.
• 541 state employees and 130 leaders/managers have been trained in some level of Lean or Results-Based Accountability (RBA).

Modernizing boards, commissions, studies and reports

• Conducted a review of existing Executive Branch boards and commissions to identify opportunities to improve efficiency. Proposed and passed legislation to streamline reporting requirements, eliminate unnecessary reports, merge or phase out redundant boards and commissions; and create a committee to review the future status of boards and commissions.
• Passed Act 61 of 2019, which eliminates and modernizes several state boards and commissions to operate state government more efficiently.

See post for more info.

David Zuckerman 

N/A

Economy

Phil Scott 

Economic Expansion

Increased the Number of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts

• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a tool designed to stimulate private development, support public infrastructure investments, and benefit taxpayers. The Governor proposed and signed (Act 69 of 2017) legislation creating six new TIF districts throughout the state.

Expanded Downtown and Village Center Tax Credits

• Continuous expansion of the Downtown and Village Center Tax Credit program, including:
  • An additional $200,000, resulting in tax incentives for 22 projects in 11 counties across Vermont in FY18,
  • Another $200,000 for this important program in FY20 to revitalize our downtowns, bringing the program total to $2.6 million.

Act 250 Reform

• Introduced a series of initiatives to modernize and reform the regulatory process. This effort aimed to streamline the permitting process, reduce duplication and increase predictability, all while preserving important protections for natural resources. Specifically, the Governor’s proposal called for:
  • Creating an enhanced designation process that would remove Act 250 jurisdictions for state designated centers that demonstrate robust zoning and protections;
  • Strengthening the presumption of other state permits in order to mitigate the overlap between Act 250 and other environmental permitting programs;
  • Supporting rural industrial park development by simplifying the process and reducing fees;
  • Allowing more flexibility for our forest product businesses;
  • Removing on-farm accessory businesses that rely on agritourism and direct-to-consumer business from Act 250 jurisdiction;
  • Exempting federal-aid transportation projects (which already receive significant federal oversight) from Act 250 review; and
  • Modernizing and improving protections for unique natural resource areas, forest blocks, connecting habitats, flood hazard areas, and river corridors.

Supporting Small Business Development

• Proposed and passed an increase in the number of small business advisors in Vermont, with priority for underserved counties, to provide small businesses greater access to resources and counsel, helping them thrive.
• Proposed and passed the ThinkVermont Innovation initiative, which aims to accelerate small business growth by making funding available, leveraging federal programs, testing cutting edge broadband deployments, and assisting in the development of co-working and other non-traditional work environments.

Leveraging our Outdoor Recreation Assets for Economic Growth

• Through Executive Order, created the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC), a task force to strengthen and expand Vermont’s outdoor recreation economy and support overall economic growth. Acting on the Group’s first set of recommendations, the Scott Administration:

• Proposed and passed the “Outdoor Recreation-Friendly Community” pilot program, to grow local outdoor recreation economies. You can view the recipients by clicking here.
  • The FY20 budget signed by the Governor expands this important program by an additional $100,000.
• Launched a new camping gear loan program in state parks, giving more Vermonters access to Vermont’s camping facilities to expand interest in outdoor activities.
• VOREC’s recommendations have also led to the creation of a private sector group, the Outdoor Business Alliance.

Expanding Access to Broadband

• The Governor proposed and—with the help of the Legislature—passed, legislation and funding to improve broadband and connectivity across Vermont. This includes:
  • Nearly $1 million to fund connectivity-related grants that support broadband buildout;
  • Half-a-million-dollars to create a partnership with the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) that invests in broadband development in underserved areas;
  • Increased investment in the ThinkVermont Innovation Initiative specifically for technical assistance grants to help Vermont municipalities planning broadband projects; and
  • A new Rural Broadband Technical Assistance Specialist to support broadband development in rural areas.

See post for more info.

David Zukerman 

Jobs & Economy

Vermont is home to some amazing homegrown businesses; King Arthur Flour, Rock of Ages, HearthStone, Switchback, Chroma Technology and Orvis to name just a few. We must find ways to encourage and support the talented and creative entrepreneurs who call Vermont home. We also must help connect Vermonters who are ready and willing to work with jobs in their area and supply training programs to ensure we have a pool of workers that businesses require. And we must ensure that working families can afford to live here.

First and foremost, we must identify the real burden of taxes and fees on Vermonters. We must be honest and smart in differentiating Vermonters who are struggling and cannot and should not pay more in taxes from those who have benefited from our collective infrastructure investments and are able to contribute more to our communities and the benefits of all.

We must increase broadband access in rural Vermont by starting with community access hubs and expanding to individual residences. In 2019, the legislature allocated funds to establish a broadband innovation grant program. This program leverages public-private partnerships to expand existing network investments to create municipal infrastructure open access to state and federal grants. Expansion of this program may be one way to improve broadband access in rural communities. We have seen this before with rural electrification and phone services, which built the economy of the past. Now we must invest to build the rural economy of the future.

We must raise the minimum wage and pass paid family leave. Imagine how much easier it would have been to proactively tackle the Covid-19 pandemic in Vermont had we had such a program in place. While the legislature has made significant strides this past session on the minimum wage, the cost of living continues to increase for Vermonters across the state and many are struggling with the ability to access affordable childcare. This is especially true for women, who disproportionately make the minimum wage.   Ensuring that the minimum wage keeps pace with the cost of living and that all Vermont families can use paid family leave will help those working full time have the resources to meet their and their family’s needs. We support a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

We must ensure that all Vermonters have access to safe, healthy, affordable housing. Almost one quarter of our housing stock is more than 80 years old. While annual investments are made in weatherization and modernization, we simply are not keeping up. We must support the creation of new affordable housing at the local level as well as improvements to our existing homes. This investment will create good-paying jobs all around the state, improve energy efficiency, reduce housing expenses for hardworking Vermonters, and ensure a safe and healthy environment for younger and older

See post for more info.

Education

Phil Scott 

Creating Cradle to Career Education System

Investing in Early Care and Learning

Governor Scott has proposed and secured a 30% increase in funding for early care in learning since he took office. This includes an additional $2.5 million to expand the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) in the FY18 budget and an additional $7.4 million in the FY20 budget. Increased investment in this area makes childcare more affordable for working families, and supports the early-developmental needs of our kids.
Supporting preK-12 Education

Increased annual support for our preK-12 school system, while working to mitigate the property tax burden.
Proposed and passed the creation of a Career Pathways Coordinator position in the Agency of Education to help students access the education and training they need to obtain and advance in high-wage, high-growth careers.
Boosting Support for Higher Education

Proposed and passed legislation to offer free college tuition for members of the Vermont National Guard.
Proposed and passed an increase investment in the base appropriation to the Vermont State Colleges by $3 million in FY18. Secured an additional $3 million in funds to support the Vermont State Colleges in the FY20 budget, including $2.5 million in base funding and $500,000 in one-time funds.
Proposed and passed a nearly $1 million investment to support the merger of Johnson and Lyndon state colleges.
Passed a $500,000 investment in Advancement Grants with the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC), which will provide opportunities for students to follow non-traditional paths.

David Zuckerman 

Education

Education is a fundamental keystone to economic opportunity for all Vermonters. Schools are the heart of our communities. To give our children their best futures, we must focus on education from pre-k through higher education. We need educational opportunities for all Vermonters seeking more education, including trade schools, internships and mentoring, that meet them where they are and help them realize their full potential as members of our communities.

We must support and respect our teachers for the vital services they provide to our children and our state. We are continually asking them to do more: prepare for active shooters, deal with health emergencies, update their teaching to a trauma-informed curriculum and more. Teachers dedicate themselves to educating our next generation and are part of an education system that will draw young families to our state.

We must expand our understanding of societal issues that inhibit learning and overextend  teachers, such as poverty, substance abuse, migration and mental health challenges, and work to address them. By closely connecting the Department of Health and the Agency of Human Services with the Agency of Education and working with frontline state, local and designated agency employees, we can find ways to save money by reducing redundancy, provide a stronger continuum of care and improve outcomes for some of our most vulnerable Vermonters.

Vermonters show their support for their local schools by passing the vast majority of school budgets each year. As our student population declines and other school costs increase, it may be time to rethink how we fund our schools and what we need to do to invest in schools of all sizes. Schools are a natural gathering point in many communities. By expanding the ways we use public school spaces, including expanding them into community centers, we can build connections between different community members, including folks of all ages, entrepreneurs, small businesses and others. This could also expand financial resource opportunities for our schools.

We are facing a shortage of people prepared to work in the trades. We will support these solid occupations and celebrate both those who want to attend higher education and those who want to learn a trade in Vermont. In addition, we will encourage demographic groups who have historically been underrepresented in the trades, including women, to take advantage of these opportunities in Vermont. Trade schools and higher education should be affordable and accessible to those who want to take that path, which is why we support free in-state tuition for Vermonters.

We will support universal afterschool and pre-K education. These programs keep our youth safe, and working families need reliable childcare options. We must work to destigmatize parental childcare and uplift the women and men who provide this vital service to our society. Childcare is a part of our children’s growth and education. We need to increase access to high-quality, affordable, child care for those who must or choose to work. By supporting and expanding programs like T.E.A.C.H., we will not only improve education for Vermont’s children, we will raise wages for workers in a field dominated by women.

Environment

Phil Scott 

Preserving the Environment

Joined the U.S. Climate Alliance to demonstrate continued support of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Created, through Executive Order, the Vermont Climate Action Commission to recommend tangible actions to reduce emissions.

Worked with Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) partner states to agree to lower the CO2 emission cap; Vermont is in the process of adopting the necessary regulations to achieve that result.
Worked with regional partners to update the Zero Emission Vehicle Action Plan to further the electrification of the transportation sector.

Joined the Vermont Climate Pledge Coalition, through which the state is helping track progress toward our emissions goals and encouraging those in Vermont to participate.

David Zuckerman 

The Environment

As a farmer, David lives and works on the land every day. Like many farmers across the state, David sees and experiences the real and unmistakable effects that climate change is having on our land, our farmers, and our Vermont way of life. As a father, David also wants his child and all children in Vermont to have a safe and healthy future in our state.

Vermonters have long recognized our role in protecting our beautiful state. In 1970, under increasing development  pressure, we passed Act 250 to ensure larger developments would complement Vermont’s unique landscape, economy and community needs. We also saw our first Green Up Day in 1970, now an annual tradition of coming together to clean up our roadways. In 1987, the first solid waste law (Act 78) was passed, and in 2012 it was expanded to include universal recycling. Taking care of our Vermont environment has always been a priority.

We believe that it is important to do everything we can to listen to our youth and step up to stop climate change. Despite laudable goals, our carbon emission rates are the highest per capita in New England! We must address this issue for our children and grandchildren and because older and rural Vermonters deserve the economic opportunities that local solutions will bring. We can do this in a way that builds jobs in our rural areas and strengthens our economy and our resilience to future storms.

We will work toward a future where Vermonters’ primary energy sources are renewable and sustainable — built and maintained by hardworking Vermonters and small businesses right here in the state. We will ensure that Vermont workers and unions are involved as we keep our promises to reduce emissions and reliance on fossil fuel sources.

We will ensure the solutions that we put forward reduce working Vermonters’ energy bills by investing in opportunities like weatherization, which improves health, conserves energy, creates jobs, and helps struggling Vermonters and seniors pay their bills and put food on the table.

We will support an invigorated agricultural economy that will create jobs in communities around our state. By working with farmers to build healthy soil for their farms, we will reduce further water quality degradation and create the best chance of mitigating flood impacts by holding phosphorous and other nutrients in the soil and sequestering carbon.

By protecting our environment and rural landscape, we elevate our rural communities and ensure our traditions and way of life are protected for future generations.

Health Care

Phil Scott 

Supporting Safe And Healthy Communities

Improving Affordability of and Access to Quality Healthcare

• Launched a pilot project with OneCare Vermont, where doctors are compensated based on the quality of care rather than the quantity of services. This new model of health care is designed to focus on prevention and quality, which will also moderate costs of the system.
• Developed strategies to ensure the functionality of Vermont Health Connect, and it is now properly serving Vermonters. The Administration continues to evaluate a path forward to provide continuous quality service in the most cost-effective manner
• With improvement in the economy, the State is seeing a decline in human services caseloads as people transition up the economic ladder.

Strengthening the Mental Health System

• Piloting a Street Outreach and Crisis Response initiative, which places outreach workers on the streets to support individuals in need, the moment they’re in need. This initiative serves to connect individuals with appropriate services, get them the right level of care in a timely manner and reduce the need for emergency room visits.
• Secured funding for a permanent therapeutic community residence to replace the temporary facility in Middlesex, which will also expand capacity.
• Proposed and secured investments in our mental health system and worked with the Legislature to develop a plan to increase bed capacity at one of our designated hospitals, the Brattleboro Retreat.
  • The $5.5 million in funding will increase our state’s capacity of level-1 beds by creating an additional 12 beds at the Retreat. The FY20 budget provides $1.5 million more to fund additional beds.
  • By increasing out statewide capacity, we are making investments that will help us be more flexible in where patients are located, support those needing care, and reduce emergency department use.

Maintaining the Safest Schools & Communities

Vermont is currently one of the healthiest and safest states in America. We also have some of the best and safest schools in the country. Yet, as events in 2018 made clear, Vermont is not immune to the risk of extreme violence in our schools or communities.

• In February of 2018, the Governor issued a memo to lawmakers recommending a range of next steps to help make our communities healthier and our children safer.
• Worked with lawmakers to pass commonsense gun safety reforms aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them.
• Proposed and secured $5 million in funding for school security grants, which will help schools improve safety and security infrastructure. Secured an additional $1.5 million in FY20 for school safety grants for schools who weren’t able to receive grants in the original round of funding.
• Launched a statewide comprehensive security assessment of all Vermont schools, to help schools further strengthen their safety and security procedures, best practices and infrastructure.
• Created, by Executive Order, a Violence Prevention Task Force.
• Advocated for and signed into law Act 135 of 2018, a domestic terrorism law to criminalize the behavior of those who would plot a crime designed to maximize casualties, like a school shooting – closing a gap in our laws to ensure law enforcement can prevent a tragedy like this before it happens.

See post for more info.

David Zuckerman 

Healthcare

Our campaign is about bringing people together to address the healthcare challenges in our state. Whether we are faced with new healthcare threats like the coronavirus, or consistent issues like increasing costs and uninsured and underinsured Vermonters, we must come together and find solutions that are affordable and accessible. A universal healthcare system would help address many of these acute and chronic issues. But until we get there, we must keep working to address the many shortfalls of the current system.

Coronavirus

On March 12th, we were the first campaign in Vermont to announce (via Facebook) that all in-person group campaign events would be canceled to help mitigate the potential spread of the coronavirus. For information on COVID-19 in Vermont, please visit the Vermont Department of Health page dedicated to this worldwide pandemic. I believe it is critical that as a government we take steps to get in front of this challenge.  Studies have shown that proactive action saves lives.

Beyond our immediate response, it is more important than ever to acknowledge the invaluable contribution that our healthcare workers provide to our society. We must support them, their families, their unions, and their work in this critical time. We must come together to support each other, while taking care to confine our circles of contact to as few people as is practical.

If and when a vaccine is available for the coronavirus, it should be free for all Vermonters, universally accessible, and mandatory if medical professionals recommend that it be made so. If quantities are limited, however, we should prioritize making it accessible for the highest-risk populations like those over 60 years old and those with underlying health conditions. In the meantime, we should all follow guidelines from the World Health Organization and other national and international organizations.

Vaccines

I believe in vaccines. I support vaccines. And I support the law – that I voted for – that makes vaccines mandatory in Vermont and removed the philosophical exemption to vaccines. As mentioned above, I also support listening to medical professionals about making a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. Watch the video below to see my full response to my opponent’s negative ads.

If you would like to read more about my position on vaccines and my objections to some of the claims leveled against me, please read this press release.

If you would like to watch an educational video on COVID-19 and the importance of herd immunity that I filmed earlier this year, please click here.

See post for more info.

Safety

Phil Scott 

Addressing the Opioid Epidemic