BRATTLEBORO-I watched BCTV's Democratic Candidate Forum, featuring five candidates for the Vermont House of Representatives, then later I had an opportunity to question David Gartenstein, a candidate for District 9, where I live) about his experience and answers at the forum. Together, both helped me to understand why I think he is the better candidate.
David has prepared himself thoroughly by serving in a range of local government roles over a 20-year period. He stands out for his depth of understanding about how our state government systems work and how certain gaps in these legal systems aggravate some of our most persistent problems.
He is insightful about how the lack of supportive state programs results in abandonment of at-risk individuals and aggravates the criminal justice system.
Or about how certain gaps in statewide funding structures for regional town services place an additional tax burden on hub towns like Brattleboro, contributing to housing prices in our town rising to an unsustainable level.
Or about the lack of transparency around how our schools are funded, which makes public understanding about that spending difficult, if not impossible.
This kind of experience and insight matters when it comes to the hard and complicated work ahead for state representatives.
Millicent Cooley
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].