Priorities

Gabrielle's PRIORITIes:

Gabrielle understands that many issues are important to Vermonters. She has worked hard on health care, human rights, workforce development, protecting Vermont’s environment, and supporting the arts and education. For over a decade, she has focused her advocacy and management skills on energy issues because climate change will impact every issue we care about. This experience has shown her the tremendous opportunities, like green tech and sustainable agriculture, that lie within today's challenges.

Vermont needs an economic strategy that meets the needs of Vermonters - one that prioritizes our strengths and opportunities and creates an equitable path forward for all. Our challenges are interrelated; so too are the solutions.

Since my election on November 3, 2020, I've participated in hundreds of hours of virtual meetings. These include discussions with constituents, subject matter experts, other legislators, state agency staff, the City of Burlington, Burlington School District staff and Board members, neighborhood planning assemblies (NPA 5 & 7), and many more.

The first priority for 2021 is to help Vermonters struggling from the impacts of COVID. We must also ensure that we do not simply rebuild what we had before: we must improve upon it.

I am currently working on a variety of potential bills that, depending on how the session unfolds, will: help our students, address (in small ways) government spending and property taxes, make some improvements in the costs due to household hazard waste, assist Vermonters in saving money spent on driving and heating our homes, and will hopefully help improve our state family services programs. This is just the start. Please do let me know what you would like to see from Montpelier!

So many Vermonters are struggling to pay their bills and feed their families - particularly now that COVID-19 took such a toll on the economy. It's time to step back, look at Vermont's strengths and opportunities, and prioritize how we invest in those areas. Vermont must reform our economy to reverse the decades long trend of growing inequality.

A $15 an hour minimum wage is important to ensuring the economic wellbeing of the state and everyone in it. People are the engine of our economy, and by investing in them our businesses will thrive by promoting greater circulation in the economy. The minimum wage should always be a livable wage.

My 12 years advancing clean energy, combined with chairing the Burlington Electric Commission and directing Vermont's renewable energy trade association, has taught me that the next century of climate change presents challenges and opportunities. In order to overcome the changes in our global atmosphere we must invest in energy efficiency and renewables. From new energy sources to refurbishing older buildings, these investments promise to bring both significant job growth and a newly revamped economy, while keeping dollars local.

It's no secret that our current healthcare system is broken. It's time for bold action that can ensure the financial and physical health of everyone in our community. We need affordable, accessible-to-all, universal healthcare. It's time to begin lowering the age requirements for Medicare and move away from the "fee-for-service" payment model.

Taking care of our loved ones is both our right and our instinct. This practice shouldn't be at odds with our work culture. Through paid family leave people can take care of loved ones without fear of drastic financial repercussions.

Vermont's geography makes access to this vital infrastructure of the 21st Century difficult. If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us, it's that Internet access is critical to ensuring that every Vermonter remains connected to the broader community. From healthcare to work to education, the world is increasingly moving online. It's critical to ensure that nobody gets left behind.

"We must take the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks, and transform. The ongoing murdering and subjection of people of color must stop. We must change our 30-year "broken windows" policing approach, increase community oversight and the presence of social workers within the police, limit the use of force, make investigations independent, and institute racial trainings throughout our schools, businesses, non-profits and government entities. But we cannot stop there. Our centuries of systemic racism pervades throughout our society, so we must also reform our criminal justice system, support social service and mental health programs, and increase economic opportunities. For example, by making it just as easy for people of color to access capital so they too may buy a home, build a business, go to school and realize their dreams. We are not a just and equitable society. We must listen. We must change.