LETTER: Gene Bifano, Independent candidate for Washington-2 House district
September 25, 2024 | By Gene Bifano
I ran for this seat two years ago trying to alert the Valley to the major issues we are facing today. As well as trying to avoid the issues were having as a vocal member of the House. Sadly, the Valley chose a member of the ruling party.
The Valley has an opportunity to elect Independent candidates that will help end the Super Majority the majority party has. Just by changing the Super Majority will require negotiations and stop the runaway spending. Stop the unsustainable bills enacted in the last session.
It seems to me the Vermont legislature has become the playground of special interest groups.
My wife and I commuted to Vermont for 30 or so years, 18 with our kids to ski. I have been ski patrolling in the valley for 50 years this year. When we retired 21 years ago, we chose to come to Vermont to live. We literally helped design and build our forever home – so we thought. We subcontracted with our builder to build the basement and first floor of our home – to save money. We were finally in a position to build a garage after shoveling snow for 17 years.
So, we really don’t want to leave.
Let’s agree action needs to be taken on the school system/funding, the climate, homelessness, mental health/addiction, the healthcare system, flood mitigation and unprecedented lawlessness and violence.
The issue today is how to address those issues without creating an unsustainable economy.
The legislature reminds me of a patient going to the doctor for pain in his lower right abdomen. The doctor prescribes an opioid to mitigate the pain and sends the patient home. Subsequently the patient appendix bursts and is rushed to the hospital where tons of money and effort are used in the hope of saving the patient.
The big elephant in the room that hides behind issues is the cost of government. We need to start a parallel study on how to reduce and control its spending. I’m not specifically talking about cutting services, but how to make them more effective. I’ve done this in my career.
As far as school funding there are immediate steps that can be taken to reduce the theft of our towns funds and long-term effort to reimagine the structure of the statewide school system.
The first thing is to require the Department of Taxation to use the actual assessed value of our property, not some arbitrary number. We have assessed property values for the very purpose of stopping the government from arbitrarily deciding property values. I looked long and hard, and couldn’t find the specific statutory authority giving the Dept. of Taxation the legitimate authority to create arbitrary values.
It’s sorta like the Dept. of Tax. looking at your income tax and saying, “That’s not enough, give us more because we need it.”
I do know H.480 proposes to take away from municipalities the legal right to assess property and give it to the Dept. of Tax. The are over 300 municipalities, each with two listers. How many employees would the state have to hire?
When will their madness end?
Historically I have been a problems solver and innovator. In the Marines in Vietnam, I was called upon to resolve issues and sometimes I took it on myself to solve problems, sometimes not within policy.
In corporate America working for such companies as RCA Information Systems, Citicorp, MasterCard, ADP, and IBM, mostly in senior management positions to be part of business transformation and innovation. Other times I was given the opportunity to resurrect failing programs and business groups usually accomplished in less than a year with very good results. In many cases creating or adjusting exiting policies and procedures or changing culture.
I worked with two international organizations – one creating the first international ATM network, the other working with an airline association to conduct POS transactions over their network. In both cases I had to understand cultures and the ways things were done in other places.
I forgot to mention I served my communities for 38 years as a firefighter, EMT(A), rescue tech (urban& backcountry); fire/rescue officer and ambulance crew chief. In the Valley I got about $200,000 for firefighter and EMS grants; 11.5 years as a law enforcement constable.
I have an Equivalent Assoc. Degree in Electronic Engineering (curtesy USMC) and at the age of 28 achieved a BS in Marketing and Business – at Fordham University, both of which I used extensively in business. In my public safety roles, I was personally involved of the many issues on the table.
I grew up in the Bronx in a family of four in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a five-story walk-up in a diversified neighborhood. I didn’t know I was poor.
I was the mayor of a village of 10,000 where in two years, rewrote ordinances, created a S of the A Cell Tower and Tree Ordinance, helped rewrite and negotiate two union contracts, got donations of two regulation little league fields and a building for a teen center which was moved to our site – by working with developers, not against them.
Appeared before both the New York and Vermont legislatures that helped modify legislation.
I attended high school with about 2,500 Black and Puerto Rican kids from the South Bronx and Harlem. My high school football team was the United Nations. I shared beers with Bro’s on a stoop - in Watts when I got off the wrong stop. I was a member of an almost all-Black cadet corps/drill team. I lived in a Hollywood gay community as a straight guy for about two weeks.
So, if you hire me to represent you at the Vermont State House, I bring a wealth of experiences, in low-income, diversity, business, technology, public safety and how to fix things.
And I will fight for you!
Gene Bifano
Warren
Warren resident Eugene Bifano is a candidate on the self-described Common Sense ticket for the Washington-2 legislative House district which covers Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren.