Dear Editor, Francis Legayada, and voters,
I would like to take this opportunity to directly respond to the content of your letter to the editor last week. You report that I “kowtowed” to party leadership voting to raise your taxes multiple times. In 2013, the proposed tax revenue bill received a “no” vote from me, and in 2014, the school funding vote also received a “no” vote from me.
These departed from the party position as I made an effort to represent my district honestly. Unfortunately, these votes are not even accurately reflected in the Republican Party search-by-town tool to see how representatives and senators voted on issues, as it reports my 2014 education vote as a “yes” vote, which is simply inaccurate. You correctly call me out on allowing Governor Shumlin to withhold healthcare spending plans. However, I see it less as “withholding,” and more as failing to deliver by the date defined in statute. I believe the complexity of this shift demands a patient process, and that the final proposal will be more carefully vetted come January. This can be regarded as political, but I see it as practical, and I hope that a single payer plan will provide an affordable and sustainable alternative to the current health care system, which has seen unsustainable increases over the past decade. Rest assured I will not vote for a plan that clearly creates economic harm.
Please use the Vermont Legislature page to search specific roll call votes. I stand by my votes as reflected by the legislative record.
Anne Gallivan, Vt. State Representative, Rutland-Windsor 1
