Platform

HOUSING FOR ALL

The greatest danger to our future is apathy. -Jane Goodall

It is time we replace the regressive municipal property tax system with one based on an ability to pay. The State’s education tax program, which is income sensitized, is a model we should explore for people’s primary residence and rental housing.

We need to build and maintain more mandatory affordable housing that low-income and working people can afford. This includes changing zoning laws that keep density far lower than it should be in large areas of the city. It includes looking at innovative programs like Seattle’s Measure 135 which created  a public development organization that will own, develop, and maintain social housing, public-owned apartments that are “removed from market forces and speculation” and built “with the express aim of housing people equitably and affordably … to remain affordable in perpetuity.”

We need to address the miniscule home ownership rates for Black and Brown people, both by dismantling systemic racism in government's housing policies and affirmatively providing resources in ways designed by the impacted communities.

We need the Legislature to pass and override Gov. Scott’s veto of "just cause" eviction to provide housing security for tenants following the rules. And given the housing crisis, we need to seriously consider rent stabilization like voters in Portland, Me. did in 2020 and people all over the country are passing.

We need our Permitting and Inspection Department to do a much more effective job of making landlords fix substandard units. The recent case involving Handy Properties is just one example of lax enforcement that allows landlords to avoid for far too long fixing their units while they profit from the housing shortage.

We need a much more vigorous policy and programs to provide housing and shelter with dignity for the unhoused and homeless. This includes State support for new transitional, supportive shelters appropriate to the needs of distinct groups facing homelessness. This also includes increased support for outreach and support staff.

RACIAL EQUITY

The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends to justice. -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

If we are to dismantle the crisis of systemic racism, we must address the white supremacy that is ingrained within all of our systems. White supremacy stops us from taking responsibility for the system white folks have created. It stops us from recognizing the source of discrimination’s signs, like the disparities in generational wealth, wages, employment, land and home ownership. Like the health disparities Covid revealed.  Like the police stop and incarceration disparities. It stops us from taking the bold actions to repair the harm. It hurts all exploited, oppressed, and discriminated people.

We need a system that builds equitable community wealth, that transforms our housing system. One that opens real access to home and land ownership, the greatest source of family wealth people have and, therefore, the possibility of building generational wealth and avoiding generational poverty. One with protections.

We need a system that builds equitable community wealth, that transforms an education system that has largely failed students of color, who experience exclusionary discipline which create pathways to juvenile detention centers, a school-to-prison pipeline. 

Worse health outcomes have been exemplified through COVID, where BIPOC have been more likely to contract and die from the virus throughout the pandemic due to barriers in healthcare access and increased exposure through low-income essential work. In order to disrupt this, we must take a data-driven approach that produces material anti-racist outcomes. 

We must continue to expand upon and support the work of the Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB), explore the rehabilitative opportunity of reparations, and create a city budget that reallocates funds into BIPOC communities who have historically been marginalized.

  • If we are to dismantle the crisis of systemic racism, we must address the white supremacy that is ingrained within all of our systems. White supremacy stops us from taking responsibility for the system white folks have created. It stops us from recognizing the source of Discrimination’s signs, like the disparities in generational wealth, wages, employment, land and home ownership. Like the health disparities Covid revealed.  Like the police stop and incarceration disparities. It stops us from taking the bold actions to repair the harm. It hurts all exploited, oppressed, and discriminated people.

  • We need a system that builds equitable community wealth, that transforms our housing system. One that opens real access to home and land ownership, the greatest source of family wealth people have and, therefore, the possibility of building generational wealth and avoiding generational poverty. One with protections.

  • We need a system that builds equitable community wealth, that transforms an education system that has largely failed students of color, who experience exclusionary discipline which create pathways to juvenile detention centers, a school-to-prison pipeline. 

  • Worse health outcomes have been exemplified through COVID, where BIPOC have been more likely to contract and die from the virus throughout the pandemic due to barriers in healthcare access and increased exposure through low-income essential work. In order to disrupt this, we must take a data-driven approach that produces material anti-racist outcomes. 

  • We must continue to expand upon and support the work of the Department of Racial Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (REIB), explore the rehabilitative opportunity of reparations, and create a city budget that reallocates funds into BIPOC communities who have historically been marginalized.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Fight for the things you care about … do it in a way that will lead others to join you. -Ruth Bader Ginsburg 

  • We need a robust public safety system embracing a holistic approach that includes a police force that is well-resourced, well-trained, unbiased, and accountable, a public health focus, and a recognition that without addressing root causes with diversified staff responders, policies and programs we will not foster the change and accountability for people who cause harm in our community and have the safe Burlington we need.
  • A properly sized, resourced, trained, unbiased, and accountable police force: The work to attract and fill empty officer positions and retain officers must continue but it is insufficient without consistent training and updated policies to eliminate bias, racial disparities, and excessive uses of force, plus greater transparency and accountability to the community.
  • Increased capacity for alternative responders: Our public safety system needs a significant expansion of social workers, addiction and recovery specialists, mental health professionals and others trained to respond to deescalate conflict in a non-violent manner. Without a diversified staff of responders, an appropriately sized and resourced police force will not have the effect we need.
  • Increased action on the drug crisis, preventing gun violence and increasing support for victims of violent crime: The drug crisis requires a new focus, including adaptations in our treatment system, the use of Opioid Settlement funds, and preventing gun violence. It also includes expanding funding options for victims of crime and generally centering the needs of victims and survivors in the justice system.
  • Addressing Root causes: Research is clear that real safety happens when communities invest in taking care of each other and making sure people have what they need to thrive–livable wages, affordable housing, strong public schools and supports for youth, vibrant public spaces, and access to healthcare, substance misuse treatment, and mental health resources. These investments are public safety & health investments we desperately need to make.

CLIMATE ACTION

We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis … and if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself? -Greta Thunberg

  • Catastrophe awaits us, our children, and grandchildren if we don’t break free from the fossil fuel economy; the cost of a transition will skyrocket if we don’t act now and with urgency. But let’s be clear: a just and equitable future cannot be built on the backs of the people with the least resources. We need a just transition to a fossil fuel free world, a People’s Green New Deal.

  • We must develop policies that allow homeowners and landlords to transition away from natural gas, oil and other carbon-based heating fuels to ones relying on Burlington Electric.

  • We need to transform the way people travel within the city--be that increasing bus ridership, electric cars, biking, and walking.

We have some powerful friends in the movement for a climate action plan that is not built on the backs of low and moderate income people. Working class people are the very people who have suffered from the extractive and exploitative system that caused the climate crisis in the first place and continues to perpetuate it.

In an op-ed published on Jan. 9, 2022 in the Vermont Business Magazine by its executive director, Liz Medina, the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, which represents some 11,000 unionized workers in Vermont, has just put out a strong and comprehensive statement critiquing the Vermont Climate Council’s recently adopted “Initial Climate Action Plan” (CAP). 

I’ve worked with union leaders, including Liz and Burlington AFSCME leaders on creating a democratically run, not-for-profit municipal consolidated solid waste program, and I am continually impressed with their commitment to building a democratic and equitable Vermont.

The op-ed is worth the read for the critique of the CAP and the calls for some specific steps we need to start taking for a just transition to a fossil fuel free future. I thank executive director Medina for her permission to repost her op-ed on my campaign website. Please note that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO has not yet made any endorsements for the Burlington City Council election, including my own. My goal here is to amplify the voices of Vermonters who I believe share a powerful and good vision for our state.

To read the op-ed, go to this link.

  • As Bernie says, “It’s not me. It’s us.” We have serious challenges that can only be overcome if we unite to work for fundamental change. People in Burlington are clamoring for fundamental change to the ways government operates. I believe that we, as a community, have the collective ability to create an affordable, livable Burlington through a city government that works especially hard for the most vulnerable and those who have suffered at the hands of systems that have at best ignored their needs, and at worst have discriminated against and exploited them. 

  • We can have a city government that looks at major problems and proposes actual solutions and then actually implements them. A city government that commits to a vigorous community, ecological, and economic agenda. Doing this expresses our fundamental values: solidarity, empathy, kindness and respect. And together, only together, can we can win the government and community we need and deserve. Please join me to help make it so.

Tax Fairness

Taxes are the way we pay for our common wealth and wellbeing (infrastructure, parks, public safety, etc.). In a fair and just society, taxes are based on an ability to pay. They are “income sensitized”. Burlington’s municipal residential property taxes are not income sensitized. 

Municipal property taxes continue to be high and regressive. This inhibits home ownership and destabilizes neighborhoods. It encourages displacement and gentrification. Miro has not made change a priority and we have not made progress on tax fairness in the last two years.

Two years ago, I called for new directions on affordability because we had not done enough to address high and regressive municipal property taxes. The 2021 reappraisal, the first since 2005, made a hard property tax situation worse. Residential property owners received a huge tax increase in every ward and the total increase was over $10 million, rising almost 2% to 80.6% of the City’s property tax collections. At the same time, taxes for commercial properties decreased by over $900,000, 2.2%, to 16.2% of all property taxes generated, and the very highest valued homes received a tax bill reduction. 

Taxes are the way we pay for our common wealth and wellbeing (infrastructure, parks, public safety, etc.). In a fair and just society, taxes are based on an ability to pay. They are “income sensitized”. Burlington’s municipal residential property taxes are not income sensitized. 

Our property taxes are unfair because all homeowners are taxed at the same rate, regardless of their wealth or their ability to pay.  Second homes, houses purchased as investments, and homes used for short-term rental pay property taxes at the same rate as primary residences.  Low and moderate-income renters absorb tax increases passed along by landlords who profit from the housing crisis. The burden of property taxes has increased over the past decade and when we start repaying the new high school bond the burden will increase even more. Valued community members are being driven out of the city and all but the wealthiest are discouraged from moving here. 

We must reduce the impact on our lowest income residents and shift more of the property tax burden to those most able to pay. We need to ensure that Burlington’s tax system promotes homeownership and tenancy that is affordable to low and moderate income households.  We need mechanisms that adjust the cost of taxes more fairly across businesses and higher income households to help to accomplish this.  

This means the City property tax should:

  1. Reflect residents’ ability to pay based on their income.
  2. Rely more heavily on revenue garnered from the highest value real estate in the City.
  3. Shift the balance toward commercial property owners.
  4. Increase revenue generated from second homeowners and from short-term rentals.
  5. Create tax incentives to keep apartment and home rentals affordable.
  6. Include a rent rebate for those of modest income.
  7. Provide more latitude to support bonded debt for future community infrastructure.