By STEPHEN SEITZ
Special to the Eagle Times
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — State Senator Becca Balint believes that Windham County families need help.
Democrat Balint, a former history and social studies teacher, wrote in response to an Eagle Times questionnaire, “I know from talking with my neighbors — and interacting with the parents at my children’s school — that many Windham County families are in crisis. I will continue to support legislative initiatives that will support these Vermonters.”
Among these, she wrote, are a higher minimum wage; paid family leave; more affordable health care; more support for mental health services; and affordable housing. Should the Powerball jackpot fall her way, Balint said she would spend much of it on affordable housing.
“If I won the current Powerball jackpot,” she wrote, “I would set up several funds to promote housing initiatives across the state for low and middle income earners, as well as for the homeless. So many of our problems could be mediated or greatly contained if we had safe, affordable, desirable housing for all Vermonters who seek it.”
Balint said she is concerned about the number of children in state custody.
“The numbers are truly alarming,” she wrote. “Some of this crisis is due to the opioid epidemic, to be sure, but the crisis itself pre-dates the influx of opioids into the state. So many of these families involved with Department of Children and Families are living in poverty and do not have the supports and the resources they need. I’m very concerned about the large number of children who are involved in Termination of Parental Rights cases and the high demand for foster homes.”
The solution to some of this, she added, falls under the heading of improved mental health services.
While Balint describes herself as a strong supporter of public schools, she does have quarrels with Act 46, the school consolidation law.
“When Act 46 was written in the Senate and House Education Committees,” Balint wrote, “I explicitly sought information related to Section 5 and Section 9 of the bill to ensure that there were ‘off ramps’ included in the proposed legislation. We were reassured on numerous occasions that the Alternative Governance Structure option was indeed a potential off-ramp for a supervisory union that could meet the goals of the law without fully merging its governance structure. We also understood when we passed the law, that the local vote in regard to any proposed governance merger was designed to guarantee that any change in governance structure would have to be acceptable to voters in those districts affected. I don’t believe the State Board of Education should ignore the will of the voters.”
Balint serves on the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs, as well as the Senate Committee on Institutions.
The other Senate incumbent in Windham County is Jeannette White. She and Balint are opposed by Tyler Colford, a Republican profiled in the Oct. 22 Eagle Times, and Beverly Stone (Independent), Aaron Diamondstone (Liberty Union Party), and Jerry Levy (Liberty Union Party).
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