2024 Washington-2 House candidate survey
October 27, 2024 | Compiled by Waterbury Roundabout
The Vermont State House in October. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The Washington-2 state House district has two seats representing the towns of Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren. Four candidates are running for these spots: Incumbent Dara Torre, a Moretown Democrat, along with fellow Democrat Candice White of Waitsfield, Warren candidate Gene Bifano on the Common Sense ticket, and Independent John J. Burns of Moretown.
Waterbury Roundabout asked them why they are seeking a seat in the state Legislature, what issues are of high importance to them, and their opinions on topics they are likely to face if elected.
Here are their responses.
Gene Bifano - I, Warren
John J. Burns - I, Moretown
Dara Torre - D, Moretown (incumbent)
Candice White - D, Waitsfield
Name, age, occupation (your day job or jobs)
Gene Bifano, over 70, retired but very active
John J. Burns, 57, Self-employed, retired U.S. Army officer
Dara Torre, 57, program coordinator at energy policy nonprofit
Candice White, Communications Consultant
Have you run for elected office before? If so, what elected offices have you held?
Yes - Elected Mayor of the town of Briarcliff Manor, New York. Was a Republican candidate for Vermont Secretary of State in 2008, and an Independent candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives in 2022.
No - This is my first time as a candidate.
Yes - State Representative
No - This is my first time as a candidate
List other qualifications you have that you believe are relevant such as education, boards you have served on, organizations you have volunteered with, etc.
BS Marketing & Business, equivalent Assoc in electronic engineering, (courtesy USMC); 45 years business experience in leadership positions fixed failing business units and programs, key member in successful start-ups, successfully solved international business problems, firefighter, EMT, rescue tech 45 years in leadership roles, law enforcement officer 11.5 years, ski patroller 50 years, mayor that cut costs, enhanced laws, created laws (Cell Tower and Tree), helped negotiate two union contracts and worked with developers to the point they donated two little league baseball fields and teen center — in only two years. Successfully negotiated with the EPA to stop $10k fine/per day; appeared successfully before both the New York and Vermont legislatures. Worked as a roofer, cement mason and iron worker, deli clerk and delivery boy.
I’m a lifelong observer of Vermont politics with a BA in Political Science (UVM) and a Masters of Public Administration degree from Norwich University. In my military career, I worked and taught for many years in a defined role that included questioning established methods and seeking alternative solutions. This sort of thinking is currently essential in Montpelier.
I have served on a number of boards over the years, including Home Share Now, MRV Health Center and Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice (current). I’ve also been active in local and regional planning and served on the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission board. For many years while raising my children I was Moretown School’s PTO president. My educational background includes an undergraduate degree in history and government as well as graduate certificates in nonprofit management and climate change and public health.
I have an undergraduate degree in English literature from Boston College. I have worked for over 20 years in marketing/communications/guest experience, including 10 years on the senior leadership team at Sugarbush Resort. I have also led several nonprofit boards in Vermont, including Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation and the Vermont Women’s Fund (current co-chair). I have worked with and/or support a number of local organizations including the Kelly Brush Foundation, Vermont Adaptive, Neck of the Woods Childcare Center, the Mad River Riders, Northeast Wilderness Trust, and the Lake George Association.
Why are you running for a seat in the Vermont State Legislature? What issues are high priorities for you that you would sponsor legislation to advance them?
I am running so I can fix some of the problems that are making living in the place we love unaffordable. When we retired we chose Vermont to live. We have had property in the Valley for 50 years and commuted 30 of those years. We literally subcontracted with our GC to build the basement and 1st floor of our forever home to save money. We love our location and our neighbors. One, end the CLA which is the main driver of unaffordable school taxes, which I think is unconstitutional. Pass a law that forces the legislators to look and prioritize spending with a 2-3% cap. Work to make “cash” our legal tender and require all essential services to accept it — to help reduce unnecessary credit card debt.
The unbalanced legislature is an issue itself, it needs to be balanced. Structural reform for the dysfunctional education finance system. This system leads to an affordability crisis which is forcing Vermonters to leave the State.
I’m running for re-election to put my experience and relationships built over the last couple of years to work for our district and state. There’s quite a learning curve when you start out in the State House, and important initiatives often take more than one session to get over the finish line. I’d like to focus on the key drivers affecting affordability in the state — housing, health care and education — in the next term and also continue to advance on climate action, flood resilience and policies to support safe and healthy aging in the state.
I am running for a seat in the VT legislature because I believe my business experience combined with my nonprofit leadership will bring a valuable perspective to the conversation. I believe in the value of collaboration, and the importance of involving different perspectives and ideas in solving critical problems. School funding reform, climate change resiliency and reduction, and affordable housing are all pressing issues that demand the legislature’s focus.
The cost of public education in Vermont is in the spotlight with multiple contributing factors including school district budgets, school facility needs, equity in distributing tax dollars, and the state’s complex funding formula. Consensus is building that change is needed to rein in costs while maintaining quality education. What direction would you like to see the state take?
1st of all the question is finding a way to provide access to equal education. Equity is a nebulous term with no way to quantify success. We need to develop standards as to what and equal education is. Clearly money is not the answer as we have seen. The structure of the statewide school system needs to be reconfigured; no amount of tinkering with funding can fix it. First of all school districts large enough to fund themselves need to be excluded from the funding formula. Act 60/68 never intended that small towns like the Valley fund large districts like Burlington $119 million budget for 3,700 kids.
Repeal the laws that create the current dysfunctional and complex education funding formula, and implement a functional system that supports the Brigham decision guidance to afford children “substantial equality of educational opportunity.”
I support the two-pronged approach, underway now, to tackle both the funding mechanism and longer term cost controls and right-sizing of our education system. We have to respond to the urgency of rising property tax costs from education by shifting what we can out of school budgets, starting with social services that should be covered by the state’s General Fund instead. The recent Picus report offers various savings approaches though we have work to do to adjust recommendations to the scale of Vermont. We have learned that our state spends less on instructional time and more on administration than other states, and we need to take steps to change this, improving student outcomes and reducing the price tag. We owe our schools and our taxpayers a more predictable, transparent funding system, and I’m committed to prioritizing this issue next term should I return to Montpelier.
The state needs to do a complete analysis of the costs currently included in the education budget and of the current funding mechanism. Every cost should be justified, and the funding formula must be re-imagined. It is not working.
The number of individuals and families in Vermont without stable housing continues to grow. Cuts to the state’s motel-hotel emergency housing program are resulting in more vulnerable people being unhoused. What steps would you support to ensure safe shelter for more Vermonters?
The Gov’s doing it now for the short term. However the way to solve all problems is to ask question like who, why, what where and when. Who are these people? Why are they homeless and fix the why. The legislature seems to try to solve problems by trying to fix the symptom(s), not the cause. It’s like going to the doctor with severe lower right-side pain and he sends you home with morphine to fix the pain. Then your appendix burst and thousands of $$ are spent trying to keep you alive.
I have to believe that (some/many) unhoused persons could have a situation to go to (family, friends, distant relatives) but there are deep reasons that they can’t approach these situations on their own. Perhaps the state could help facilitate these situations. I can only speculate that currently no one even asks about this and we only seek to warehouse people instead of connecting on a human level.
While serving last term, I gained insight into the significant gaps in our state when it comes to the availability of transitional housing for the growing numbers of families and elders who lack safe housing. Although the motel program made sense during the pandemic as a stopgap, we still don’t have a real system or program in place to address rising homelessness. In addition to upstream investments in families, mental health and substance use treatment to prevent homelessness, we need to make continued progress on building affordable housing, senior housing and more rentals to house our most vulnerable Vermonters.
Vermont needs more affordable housing, and needs an all-hands-on-deck plan to involve builders, architects, developers, nonprofits, and any relevant state and federal programs. Vermont needs more housing in numerous areas: dry beds for unhoused Vermonters, rental apartments, single-family homes, elder housing, and disabled housing.
Affordable housing continues to be in high demand across Vermont and poses a challenge for people to settle and remain in the state. The legislature has eased some regulations around development and poured millions of dollars into housing initiatives.
What more can the state do to drive more affordable housing opportunities?
Like all the other issues lets define, who, why, what and where. The legislators don’t even know what kind of housing to build or where for how many in each region. And the Big problem How to keep that housing affordable — There are ways to do that! We did it in New York.
Recent Act 250 reforms eased development restrictions in urban areas, this needs to be extended Statewide.
We need to make it easier for property owners to become housing providers. The statewide zoning changes we made last term set the stage for more in-law apartments, duplexes and multiplexes, but there’s more to do locally to open the door to more housing, including making it harder for a few naysayers to stall out a much needed housing project. I’d like to see tax incentives for homeowners who sell to locals or rent to locals long term, and a program that makes it easier and less risky to rent out an accessory dwelling on your property. For those of us feeling priced out of our homes, adding a long term rental would be a win-win.
See above.
Do you support the Waterbury armory as a site for an emergency shelter?
Maybe
Yes
Maybe
Maybe
As large-scale flooding becomes more common in Vermont, what are the top 2-3 priorities you would like to see the state and municipalities embrace to be better prepared for future flooding events?
Go to states who have learned to tame flooding and see how we can learn from them and perhaps divert rivers and streams such that we can harness them for hydro power. Take funding form climate initiative and apply them to the state developed in initiatives they only can fund 33% of them.
Stop getting distracted by the fixation on “carbon” and put this energy into figuring out how to do hands-on projects to mitigate the next flood event. This includes working on waterways, floodplains and settled areas.
We made a lot of progress last term with the Flood Safety Act that will improve dams and better protect wetlands and floodplains. Towns and regions will be developing land use maps that identify where it’s safe to develop, and statewide river corridor regulation will help towns limit development in risky areas. In addition to better planning, the state and towns need access to durable funding to help with recovery efforts due to gaps and delays with federal funding. We also need to develop a statewide flood recovery plan.
We must learn from the past floods and make changes to our land use so we allow space for water to flow, evaluate our roads and bridges and address structural issues so they are mitigating flooding and not contributing to it, and move buildings out of flood-prone areas.
While the climate-change spotlight is on flood mitigation, do you think it’s important for Vermont to continue to work to reduce carbon emissions given the Vermont Climate Action Plan goal of achieving net zero by 2050?
No
No
Yes
Yes
Do you support a ban on assault-style firearms?
No
No
Yes
Yes
Does Vermont need additional gun regulations? Why or why not?
No! We already have a good Red Flag law that I support. As an EMT and LEO I have seen people that clearly should not have had a gun. However, the state law is flawed in that after court adjudication people have to buy their property back — which is unlawful taking by the government. Vermonters have been armed since the 1700s without the issues that have developed in the last 10 years due to poor policy decisions made by the Democrat super majority. Again, we need to look at who, why and what could be done to curb them.
No, remember that laws are ignored by those who may commit crimes involving a gun. Also, responsible gun ownership/awareness is growing and this is a better societal response than additional regulations.
Yes, we need to continue to improve gun safety and prevent gun violence in our state. We should pursue a ban on assault-style firearms and restrict guns in more types of public buildings.
I am unsure where I stand on this, but I do support hunting.
A joint legislative committee is charged with studying whether Vermont needs a stronger system of county government to shift decision-making and resource allocation to a more regional level. Do you think stronger regional government would allow Vermont to better address issues such as the housing shortage or flood mitigation strategies? Why or why not?
Well look around our great country, what do they do? Are they successful? Are things more affordable when spread over a larger group of tax payers? The Town system made sense in the last 200 years or so when towns actually governed themselves. However, any change would need a vote of at least 66% of the voters and all the political baggage needs to be left out of the equation. We need to move forward out of the past which is not working.
Perhaps, it seems a new idea to Vermont, but many other states have stronger county-based government systems. It’s worth developing and may lead to administrative efficiency if done correctly.
The challenges we’re facing from flooding and housing shortages would benefit from shared resources and regional initiatives. I like the strong traditions of local government in our towns but am concerned by the scale of costs hitting us from frequent flooding and the rising difficulty in meeting emergency services needs. I’m eager to see the recommendations of the regional governance study and for the community discussions ahead on this issue.
Yes, I believe that different towns can be learning from each other and working together to strengthen their flood mitigation strategies. The Mad River Planning District is a good example of this, involving Warren, Waitsfield, and Fayston.
Do you believe that President Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020?
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
“Affordability” is the buzzword of this election season. What one improvement would you support to move the needle on making Vermont a more affordable place to live?
End the Democrat super majority — the cause of all our ills.
Stop taxing Social Security.
More housing of all types!
Re-envision the school funding mechanism.
Reader submitted question: How can Vermont better curb crime associated with illegal drug trafficking?
Go back before the legislators decided to legitimize drug use by ignoring federal law. Close the border. Let the police take into custody drug users and bring them to drug court to help them solve their addiction. We need to change our philosophy on crime.
We have a system based on law and order, and in many ways we are losing sight of that. Valuing our system and allowing law enforcement to work will curb the rising drug trade in Vermont.
One way is to do a better job supporting our judicial system. We have quite a backlog of court cases that built up during the pandemic, and the Legislature added resources in the last budget to address severe staffing gaps. This should speed up processing time and hold criminals accountable sooner. Our police resources need more support and investment as well to address this type of crime. Keeping our drug laws up to date is important, and we did that last term in S.58, which also made it harder for drug sellers to evade accountability.
Unsure
Reader submitted question: When can we expect an affordable balanced budget with decent infrastructure as a byproduct of tax paying?
Who knows? Until we begin to understand the demographics of Vermont. About 1/3rd of the population is employed, 70% of taxpayers are on school tax income assistance and 38% of school funds are paid by second homeowners (most flatland). Stop all this nonsense of the Super majority’s love raffia with the UN’s Climate change solutions and focus on the issues we have today. VT has the 2nd smallest carbs footprint in the U.S. and was the lowest before VT Yankee closed. Looking at other countries like China adding 17 coal plants to the 1,742 they already have and other countries jumping on the coal train. with 100K sq. mile of destroyed rain forest resulting in trillions of tons of Carbon not being converted to O2 with more destruction every day. And with the DOE latest report on the further we move to solar and wind the higher the cost of energy — the biggest cost of inflation. Let’s moderate, think hybrid vehicles that can lower emission by 40%. Let’s convert oil and kerosene home heating to gas which will be faster and less expense while further reducing commissions. Please keep in mind the tragedies in North Carolina and Florida and the old adage — Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.
We can expect this when we stop sending a Democrat/Progressive controlled “supermajority” legislature to Montpelier whose answer to everything is to raise more money through taxes and fees. It’s as simple as that.
We do a good job of always passing a balanced budget in Vermont but we face mounting challenges to our social and built infrastructure from our changing climate and aging population. I hope that our commitment to housing investment will pay off in the next several years and enable more people to live in our state and help spread the costs of state services among a larger tax base.
Our goal should be 2025.
Finally, fill in the blank. The best thing about the Washington-2 House district is _____________.
Vermonters and the great place we live — which I don’t want to be forced to leave because of the super majority’s quest to bankrupt Vermont.
The opportunity it holds as we work to preserve the remaining virtues and ethics of traditional Vermont.
Our special place in the heart of Vermont and the rich recreational opportunities and community connections we share here.
Our unique and wonderful community.
Please add anything else you’d like people to know about yourself and your ideas.
Thank you for taking the survey!
As to the legitimacy of Pres. Biden’s election — I DON’T know. And the question should have had a 3rd choice — I don’t know! Clearly there has been a good deal of information from Georgia, Wisconsin, Detroit with anecdotal information that could suggest otherwise? However, without a good investigation of fact we don’t know. And the FBI, as a former LEO I truly hate to say, couldn’t investigate because of their complicity in the Russia Collusion Hoax’s. I am a problem solver with the capability of knowing there is a problem and how to understand the various pieces and solving all the piece to the problem. I don’t carry and political baggage and focus on the issues and not trying to squeeze them into a political philosophy for a solution. I will work with anyone to address the issues at hand and more than capable to deal with all the special interest groups trying to run Vermont.
I am a lifelong Vermont resident and have watched politics with interest since childhood. We are at a very low point. I am compelled to run through a sense of civic duty. I will bring a measure of decorum and compromise back into our system. I’ve been endorsed by the governor as he seeks to build a more balanced approach in Montpelier. Consider your vote, are you voting for “supermajority” candidates who didn’t support the governor, but did vote to raise their own pay? It is an honor to serve as a representative of the people, not a position to exploit for financial gain.
It’s been an honor to serve our district, and I’ve learned so much about what makes Vermont great as well as the real threats challenging our small state. I’m committed to being responsive to your needs, changing course as needed, and not being afraid to make the transformative changes we need to thrive. Thank you to the Waterbury Roundabout for helping us all be better informed and engaged in keeping Vermont strong!