Hi Friends and Neighbors! I am writing because I believe our state is at a critical juncture. Like in the rest of the nation, housing, food, health care and other needs are becoming increasingly unaffordable, the impacts of synthetic drugs continue to ravage our families and communities, the impacts of climate change are being felt, but not addressed, and people are feeling increasingly unable to make a difference in their lives and in our communities. These problems seem intractable because money is the language of power in our political systems. This money is not being invested in our people - we are spending trillions of dollars on campaign ads, tax cuts for billionaires, ginormous data centers and wars that no one wants or needs. This all needs to change. Our state is strong, community-minded and caring, but also struggling. At the statehouse, many potential solutions are not given the light of day, and the ones that are are then vetoed by the governor. If the governor had not vetoed Act 68 for referenced-based pricing, our state would have saved tens of millions of dollars from the education fund. This is not radical policy. It is law in Montana, Colorado and North Carolina. If he had not repeatedly vetoed bills providing for housing, we might be in a better place now. It is time to end the reign of Dr. No in the governor's office. I believe that we can work together to build housing without giving millions away to big developers to build soul-less suburbs like Southern NH or CT. I believe that we can provide health care to Vermonters, keep our birthing centers and pay our nurses a respectable wage. I believe that we can provide great education to all families without giving away our tax money to private schools. I believe that we can build a fairer tax system that does not allow second home owners to be taxed at a lower rate than local residents in 74 towns (PS - that is true here in Randolph!). Our Homestead deduction income thresholds have not been adjusted since 1995. This is why working class households see their tax bills double, while second-home owners aren't impacted as heavily. We need someone who is willing and able to look under the hood and make changes that invest in our communities. I believe that Amanda Janoo has the policy chops, the willingness to listen to all stakeholders and most importantly the political will to work with the legislature to really tackle our problems. If you agree with me, please join me at an organizing meeting for Orange County for Amanda Janoo on Wednesday, Sept. 16th at 6:30pm. Here is the link to the meeting. I'm sorry I can't seem to make it clickable. https://janooforvt.solidarity.tech/orange-county-for-amanda-janoo-virtual-organizing-meeting If you can't make the meeting, just shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you. We've got six weeks until this election. Let's get together, have some fun, and make some real change in our community. Sincerely, Vickie Johnson