LETTER: Kane Sweeney announces run for re-election

December 4, 2024

To the Community: 

My name is Kane Sweeney and I serve on your select board. 

We stand on the precipice of a monumental shift in Vermont and decisions will be made that will impact generations to come. 

There is no denying that costs for everything from housing to groceries have increased exponentially since the end of the pandemic. Vermonters, especially working Vermonters, have time and time again been saddled with rising rents, rising taxes, rising interest rates and the growing ever-distant dream of owning a home. Though working Vermonters are not the only people who've had to shoulder this burden, they are the ones whose load is the heaviest. 

As costs have risen time and time again, their wages have flatlined, leaving them unable to attain that first home or, if they own a home, pay down their principal. 

When I ran for select board, in 2023, like many of you, I saw the writing on the wall. I knew the rent hikes and unaffordable grocery bills were not going to be temporary and I knew that the wallets of Waterbury's working folks were about to get a whole lot lighter if something didn't change. 

Since March of 2023, I have clawed affordability to the top of the select board's agenda. We passed the local option tax – a 1% tax on commodities like beer and meals at restaurants, short-term rentals and retail purchases. This has allowed us to pursue infrastructure, housing and flood mitigation projects all without increasing property taxes. We passed new zoning rules that allow for more housing to be constructed in our downtown. We used $100,000 of federal funding to assist our local affordable housing developer with the construction of a new project that will break ground very soon. 

In the interest of working renters, I along with other members of the board negotiated for the creation of a housing trust that will use funds from the local option tax to permanently fund housing projects in Waterbury. 

Renters are not the only working Vermonters that are feeling the pinch. Working homeowners are shouldering their own weight – education taxes. While our select board cannot control that spending, we can control municipal spending. 

For 2024 the board proposed a mere 2.5% increase in property taxes. So far, the talk for 2025 has been no increase or low increase. When we were informed in June that we may have a small surplus of funds, we voted to hand it back to taxpayers. Though the total may only reflect a few dollars in tax bills, the need to drive down costs was at the forefront of the conversation. 

Affordability doesn't stop at housing. Personal vehicles take up a colossal amount of personal resources and when I got into office, some of our roads were so derelict that you could almost feel your bank account empty every time you hit a pothole. We have started turning that around too. Within my first six months in office, we'd repaved one of Waterbury Center's least cared-for streets, and our work has continued on Union Street, Little River Road, Blush Hill and Guptil Road where that old bridge finally got a facelift. 

The affordability issue that hits home for every single person in Waterbury is the issue of floods. In the last 13 years, we have hosted four major flooding events. Three of which were within one year of each other. Floods aren't cheap, and though there are certainly federal and state dollars for clean-up and mitigation, those funds can sometimes take years to arrive and by that point, the financial damage has already been done. 

After the floods of July 2023, December 2023 and July 2024, our community rallied. Volunteers from every walk of life pitched in to dig out their neighbors. Businesses and local organizations provided food and coffee to volunteers, and we made it through the other side. At the select board level, we gave the go-ahead to spend tens of thousands of dollars on clean-up. After those events, I saw an opportunity to not only get us ready for another flood but to keep us ready as well. I proposed to the board that we create a committee whose sole purpose would be just that. That committee is now working hard to create the blueprint for a permanent natural disaster volunteer corps that will have the tools needed to – at a moment's notice – dig out flood-affected residents. 

When I ran for office in 2023, my campaign had a slogan, “Waterbury for Working People.” In my time on the select board, I have turned that slogan into action. Working people are the beating heart of Waterbury and Waterbury must stand behind them, lift them up, and create a community that everyone can afford to live in. 

Making Waterbury affordable for everyone is no small task and our work is not done. That is why I will be seeking re-election to the Waterbury Select Board in 2025. 

Thank you, 

Kane Sweeney

Waterbury 

Kane Sweeney says he plans to file to be a candidate on Town Meeting Day for a three-year term on the Waterbury Select Board.