The
Doyle Poll, created and still conducted by former Senator Bill Doyle,
has been a tradition of Town Meetings in Vermont for decades. 113
Charlotte voters shared their opinions this year, about the same as
last year's number. Of the fifteen questions, three dealt with
affordability. A strong majority feel that Vermont is currently not
an affordable place to live. Similar majorities believe that the
minimum wage needs to increase and that employees should have paid
family leave. These policies would mitigate the affordability problem
for many low income Vermonters and dual income families.
Clearly,
most people think we need to do a lot more to address the opiate
crisis, water quality, and finding alternatives to prison for
non-violent offenders. A question not answered is whether this
translates to a willingness to increase spending tax dollars on these
problems?
There's
a strong consensus that we rely too heavily on property taxes for
education, but respondents are also quite satisfied with the quality
of education our district provides. The bill H.911, recently passed
by the House, takes steps to relieve some of the burden on property
tax by relying more on income and consumption taxes.
Governor
Scott's approval rate exceeds his negative rating by 34%, which bodes
well for his re-election at this time. About 34% also had no opinion
on the question. About 2/3 of respondents favor a four-year term for
the office of Governor. This would require a change to the Vermont
Constitution, however.
There
is also strong support among respondents for increasing the scope of
the bottle deposit system. There are many ways to expand it
including adding non-carbonated beverages such as bottled juice,
water and tea, as well as adding a deposit on wine bottles. I would
favor this if the law were also changed to have the state collect and
manage the system. This way the deposits for unredeemed containers
would accrue to the state rather than the beverage distributors.
Here
are all the results of the poll in Charlotte.
| Q# | Question | Yes | No | Not Sure |
| 1 | Are you concerned about the Vermont opiate crisis? | 95% | 3% | 2% |
| 2 | Do you believe water quality is a major issue in Vermont? | 79% | 12% | 9% |
| 3 | Should Vermont increase the minimum wage? | 60% | 26% | 14% |
| 4 | Do you believe Vermont is an affordable place to live? | 9% | 65% | 26% |
| 5 | Are you concerned about the decrease in Vermont's population? | 60% | 34% | 6% |
| 6 | Should Vermont have a four year term for Governor? | 65% | 16% | 19% |
| 7 | Should Vermont's bottle deposit law be expanded? | 72% | 15% | 13% |
| 8 | Do you believe Governor Scott is doing a good job? | 50% | 16% | 34% |
| 9 | Should Vermont have paid family sick leave? | 61% | 24% | 15% |
| 10 | Does Vermont rely too heavily on property taxes to fund education? | 79% | 9% | 12% |
| 11 | Are you satisfied with Vermont's health care? | 45% | 32% | 23% |
| 12 | Are you optimistic about Vermont's economy? | 35% | 35% | 30% |
| 13 | Do you think that Vermont values are a reason that many people live in Vermont? | 75% | 12% | 13% |
| 14 | Should we reduce Vermont's prison population by using alternatives for non-violent offenders? | 90% | 5% | 5% |
| 15 | Are you satisfied with the quality of education in your local school district? | 69% | 12% | 19% |
As your
representative in Montpelier, I appreciate your input on these and
other issues. Your comments help me look at issues from several
perspectives, and that is a valuable opportunity for me. You can
always contact me by phone at 802-425-3960 or email me at
myantachka.dfa@gmail.com.
