Industry sign banking new hampshire living will safe
hello on behalf of Dartmouth College and the Nelson a Rockefeller senator for Public Policy in the social sciences I would like to extend a warm virtual welcome to everyone today for the 2020 Democratic gubernatorial candidate school my name is Jason Davis and I'm the new director of the Rockefeller Center as well as a professor in the Department of government at Dartmouth I graduated from Dartmouth in 1993 and shortly thereafter I went into public service in Springfield Illinois working in the governor's office so I appreciate personally the willingness of the candidates to compete for this important position in the state of New Hampshire in the past the Rockefeller Center has held civic engagement forums such as this one in keeping with our mission to foster conversations around public policy at the national local and state level as well as to promote public understanding of important issues of the day this year the Rockefeller Center is pleased to host the 2020 Democratic gubernatorial candidate primary forms featuring state senator dan Feltes an executive councilor and with vilensky they will be introduced shortly but first let me take a moment to introduce the moderator of our event professor with Charles Weiland professor Whelan is a senior lecturer and policy fellow at the Rockefeller Center dr. Whelan is a 1998 graduate of Dartmouth and it holds a master's degree from Princeton University as well as a PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago he is a veteran of these sorts of forums as well as many other public events at the Rockefeller Center in addition to the public policy courses he teaches and I should note that he just recently warning Dean's Award for Excellence in teaching additionally Whelan has been a writer for The Economist and is the author of several highly accessible books on public policy economics and statistics provocatively titled naked economics naked statistics and as well as a fictional novel that has been called a public policy thriller about a hypothetical global pandemic this book which is called the rationing was published months before these topics became part of our day-to-day lives in 2020 there's a thoughtful way to shine light upon many of the political economic and public health issues that were all confronted Whelan has also vied for public office himself in a congressional primary in Illinois and I can think of no better person to moderate and candidate policy forums such as this one professor Whelan thank you for serving in this important role and please begin the public policy forum thank you Jason thanks to the candidates and for those of you who are tuning in I will allow the candidates to have expanded introductory statements in which they can introduce themselves but for now we're privileged to have with us Dan Feltes who is the state Senate Majority Leader and Andrew velinski who is the council executive for district 2 which stretches from Keene to the Dover Rochester area broadly speaking the way this is going to work is that each candidate by virtue of a coin flip will begin with their introductory statements those will be 5 minutes we'll reverse the order at the end for 2 minute closing statements between then each candidate will have a chance to answer a series of questions many of which I'll offer up but I will encourage all of you to send any questions as well those will be 90 second responses the candidates will hopefully stick to the time and we be able to cover a lot of material for those of you who are watching you have the chance to the Q&A function to send your own questions those will be fed to me but if you click if you like the questions that have already been asked those will be elevated in the queue and that makes it possible for us to ask the candidates the questions that are most commonly filled so with that we'll get started a senator Feltes if you would begin your opening statement thank you very much well thank you very much Charles and to Dartmouth and the Rockefeller Center all the students in particular alumni faculty and staff thank you very much for having us and thank you for listening in I can tell you as the majority leader in the state Senate the singular obstacle to meaningful bipartisan progress for all our families all our communities in the state of New Hampshire is Chris Sununu and with your help we're gonna beat Chris new on November 3rd and I do have the privilege of serving as majority leader I live in the south and a Concord on Hope Avenue with my wonderful wife Erin our two amazing daughters iris and Josie our two dogs Franklin and Roosevelt and I have a distinctly different perspective and background than the current governor you see my dad wasn't governor my brother wasn't a US senator and I was never gifted a ski resort my dad worked in a Furniture Factory for 45 years the same Furniture Factory doing the same job day in and day out in an air-conditioned Furniture Factory for 45 years my mom she worked part-time jobs including the night shift while raising four kids and the gifts they gave to me were the values of hard work honesty and integrity and looking out for everybody especially working families those about the values I've tried to live my entire life right out of law school and not taking a job as a corporate attorney taking a job as a legal aid attorney with New Hampshire legal assistants for about a decade helping low-income families in seniors fighting for veterans to get the VA benefits that day need they deserve helping people protect their homes during the last economic crisis the Great Recession battling Wall Street banks foreclosing on folks all around you have New Hampshire helping people get back up on their feet clean access to health care unemployment job training and in my three terms in the state Senate each and every day fighting for working people and working families fighting on the progressive issues we all care about and as majority leader doing the same and if I have the honor and privilege of serving as the next governor of the state of New Hampshire each and every day I walk into that office that's what we're gonna fight for when we replace Chris Sununu with some legal a lawyer from the south and a Concord and we got to because we've got a governor doesn't get what ordinary folks are going through it doesn't get how to accomplish anything to make progress we have the highest health care costs in the nation right here in New Hampshire under Chris Sununu the second worst opioid epidemic but the second worst treatment capacity is to deal with it the highest student debt load the third highest energy rates we have a governor who's fixated on pushing taxes for big corporations down while property taxes are going up and we need to we need a different approach and a different approach in conduct in office giving out property tax credits and tax credits to Waterville Valley his family ski resort no bid contracts the corporate campaign donors we need real reform to drive real reason for ordinary people that's why I'm honored to be endorsed in this race by n Citizens United because we need reform to move forward for everybody in this race and we've gotten results despite Christine you know we got the biggest public school education budget in state history Kristen una veto that ultimately had been accepted Chris Sununu is the barrier to Education Policy and just came out with quote-unquote guidelines that leave it all up to our local communities on Public Health and signed off on a report and sent taxpayer money to Betsy DeVos his consulting firm to do it and we made progress on solar but the glowing obstacles Christie knew he vetoed all of the bills on clean energy that we've sent forward of substance on solar including my bill to advance new solar in the state by seven times not only veto aniconic crony capitalism for the solar industry I've been the climate champion in the state Senate I've been the champion on campaign finance reform I've been the champion on voter protection endorsed by let America vote and the voter protection project and I've led the way in paid Family Medical Leave insurance was purchasing you not only vetoed he called it a vacation and not once not twice but three different times but this fall we're gonna give Chris Sununu a permanent vacation tonight you're gonna see distinctly different approaches from the two campaigns our campaign a positive campaign focused on lifting people up not tearing one another down our campaign a campaign focused on unity not dividing the Democratic Party because we got it we got to solidify our support to move forward in our campaign talking about real results for real people the kind of results that we let on and real solutions you'll see two totally different visions and approaches tonight and that's what you'll see and I'd be honored to have your support in your vote in this race and I look forward to the conversation we're about to have thank you very much terrific you nailed five minutes right oh my god I like that it's a good precedent go thank you very much counselor or vilensky your five minutes introductory statement thank you so I hope we talk about three topics lowering property taxes improving education and no pipelines we are in the midst of a COBIT economic climate change and racial injustice crisis the time is now for bold ideas and courageous leadership I was the Clermont school funding lawyer I organized a team of volunteer lawyers that exposed how unfairly our public schools are funded and how the quality of the child's education depends on where she lives we did more than just expose the problem we convinced the New Hampshire Supreme Court for the first time in New Hampshire history to recognize a constitutional right to a state-funded public education that was a bold idea but because of a lack of courageous leadership the promise of Clermont has never been fulfilled that is why I am running for governor look when I first went to Clermont it was like going home for me I grew up in a mill town where the mill failed my dad was mechanic and a maintenance man and the union shop steward my mother a homemaker I'm the only one in my family to have gone to college I went on scholarship I paid for Law School by working as a carpenter I understand the difference that educational opportunity makes and that is why I will never take the pledge the pledge is a promise to fail it chains us to the past in fact we've released a new pledge the pledge to reduce property taxes for the majority of New Hampshire citizens look over the course of the last two years I helped conduct over 70 forums on how school funding works in New Hampshire it's clear that there is a consensus of people in our state ready to move forward to move forward to a future that allows seniors to stay in their homes that makes taxation fair that allows young young families and working families the ability I houses and allows businesses to grow broadly across our state there is a future that we can all participate in and when I think about the future I also think about climate change my wife Amy and I are new grandparents we have a nine week old grandson who we have never held and I confess that when I think of climate change I do it through the lens of a grandfather I say the time for half-measures is gone there is no excuse for just one more pipeline I'm the only candidate in this race opposed to the granite bridge pipeline fracked gas 400 million dollars by the same company that tried to build a pipeline in your area Lebanon to an over but stopping the bad stuff is not enough we need to move New Hampshire with its neighbors forward to a regional green New Deal and we need to make New Hampshire state government carbon neutral by 2030 look Chris Sununu has to go he's the most cynical politician of our time he vetoed paid family leave during a pandemic he hired a DC Betsy DeVos connected consulting firm to do our school reopening plan on the one who figured that out and it became public yesterday during our council session I've shown that we can beat sanity we stopped his heart right rabidly anti-choice nominee for Chief Justice of our Supreme Court we turned back to climate change deniers that sania wanted to lead key state agencies and we denied sandy knew the release of any money from the State Treasury absent revealing how he was going to spend the cares Act relief money my vision for New Hampshire starts with ending our extreme over reliance on the property tax there's a consensus the system is broken we can move forward together join us go to vilensky NH calm I humbly ask for your vote in the September 8th primary and thank you very much so for the short questions let's go in reverse order so counselor velinski you will still be up obviously the issue that is hanging over everything right now is Coppa 19 it is a pandemic unlike anything that any of us has lived through how would you evaluate governor sununu's response to Coba 19 and specifically what might you have done differently councilor wolinski 90 seconds thank you well public health has to drive our decisions and public health data should be the basis for those decisions Sununu has been too little too slow too late I confronted him at the beginning of April that we should issue an order that requires people to wear masks indoors in public spaces Sununu said the public health data doesn't support that that is not true we need to issue that kind of mask order just like Vermont and just like Massachusetts we both have mentioned the reopening of schools look the change the safety of our children should not be a political issue we should be able to agree on a consensus approach that protects our children it should be based on wearing masks reducing density keeping children outside as much as possible and planning for the resurgence of the virus so that we're all ready to go to remote learning when it happens in the late fall that's how I'd approach it businesses are getting more clear and explicit instructions than Sununu and as Betsy DeVos plan have given our schools and so I want to be protective of our children and take the politics out of this koban 19mm Thank You senator Feltes the same question evaluate governor sununu's response to cover 19 and specifically what might you have done differently thanks Charles well first and foremost certainly does a better job at press conferences than Trump but that's a low bar and this isn't about press conferences and photo ops it's about solving real problems for real people New Hampshire by has a worst Cove in 1940 cases and unfortunately per capita deaths and we have over 300 Granite State seniors in a heartbreaking situation have been lost to Cove in nineteen in her nursing homes in a nursing home crisis right here in New Hampshire and he hadn't take any steps to deal with that crisis for about a month and a half and the first thing he did is go out to a no-bid contract on testing to a corporate campaign donor that was fully insufficient didn't mitigate the problem and didn't stop the outbreaks we need to look at the problems and be honest about it with the public at press conferences included that's what we would have done differently we would have dealt with the nursing homes with the CDC guidance both testing and an PPE would have entered the Northeast Regional PPE purchasing partnership which he failed to enter other states are leveraging buying power and getting PPE for their businesses right now and their nursing homes and their health care providers we're not we're not stockpiling it we're not preparing under Sununu for the second wave and we have talked about schools briefly we need a concrete school plan Walmart just instituted mass in Walmart in New Hampshire it's it's a sad state of affairs if you're safer and a New Hampshire Walmart than you are in New Hampshire schools so we have to go forward in a concrete way in a productive way looking out for public health I'm actually gonna ask you to follow up on that both of you but I'll have senator Feltes continue which is let's talk in more detail about the school reopening because we have pediatricians and other child advocates warning that is quite dangerous for kids to stay out of school and deleterious to their development for a long time on
he other hand teachers are much older and much more vulnerable it would appear than the young population so can you talk specifically senator felt us about how we balance the safety of teachers and the families to whom children go home and the need to just get children learning again or learning back to more effectively in some cases sure absolutely so first and foremost there needs to be clear and concrete guidance and six weeks out from when school starts Chris Sununu punted it all to local school districts wash his hands of it that's not your job gotta put out clean clear and concrete guidance including what happens when a kid gets sick including what happens with the bustles and dealing with social distancing in I would propose and I've had proposed making sure that the state step up to the plate to support teachers and faculty by providing medical grade n95 masks to teachers and faculty they should be paying for that out of their pocket the average teacher in New Hampshire spends over $400 a year in out-of-pocket cost to do their job we need to provide safety and PPE for our schools and our students mandate masks for middle school high school and on buses and do what North Carolina did which is provide five cloth face coverings for every student to start the school year we can balance this if there is guidance and you're absolutely right Charles the American pediatric Society has indicated that as what you said and the CDC as well but what happened here in New Hampshire is Chris Sununu completely abdicated his responsibility provided no guidance to schools and if he was going to do this he should have done it two months ago and actually given our schools and our families an opportunity to plan all our schools our teachers and our families want is certainty and Kristin you just delivered complete chaos Thank You counselor velinski please answer the same question specific thoughts on getting kids back to school safely look if you don't put resources with the things that need to be done in order to reopen schools you just double down on the property tax problem local communities have very different abilities to pay for the things that are needed to safely reopen so New Hampshire has four hundred and eighty-eight schools some are new but many are older schools what's the air exchange like in those places no one's talking about about the fact that there's an engineering standard the air in a classroom should turn two-and-a-half times an hour are we testing the classrooms to see if they're safe if they meet that that standard to the extent we can keep children outdoors and old classrooms outside under a canopy we should be doing that we should then move indoors with the windows open and air exchangers there are some communities in New Hampshire that don't have air exchangers in their schools yet we're not talking about that we're not putting resources aside for them we know that the cold and flu season in addition to COBIT is going to hit mid October mid November that's gonna confound and compound the problem and we're likely looking at a further school closure at that time we need to be prepared for it let me add one last thing on vaccines we hope to have one this winter at the last council meeting yesterday I asked who's in charge of that vaccine program and Sununu and the Commissioner of HHS did not know that's a problem thank you before kovat came along the education discussion we would have been having is about whether we're giving our children sufficient skills to compete in a modern economy and particularly can close the gap the vast inequities in this state so could each of you speak and we'll start we'll go and reverse order with Senate with a council velinski here can you speak about your plans to upskill new hampshire students and narrow the economic gaps that have developed over time well my plan to improve schools is to fund them fairly that's where we need to start there are grave differences between schools in property wealthy communities and the rest of the state three-quarters of our children now live in communities with below average property values and their parents and their neighbors struggle to create and fund a 21st century education system so I would start there on funding I would then look to teacher recruitment and teacher training we need to have a much more culturally diverse and Raich racially diverse curriculum and we need to have role models that are also diverse in order to keep young people in our state we need to drive down the cost of tuition to young people too many teachers my son included my son's a middle school science teacher in Denver we need to lower tuitions in New Hampshire so that young people are more likely to go to school here and stay here and then go into the workforce so I would do that Community College needs to be free we need to work towards that goal so that we can get our first two years of general education credits without cost and further incentivize students to stay in New Hampshire thank you very much senator Feltes your plan for providing the requisite skills to all New Hampshire children so they can succeed in a 21st century economy thanks Charles we need a cradle to career approach on education of Workforce Development recognizing the best investments we make as a society of the investments we make in our kids they pay dividends down the road 10 to 15 fold and it's not just Irish our daughters iris and Josie's future it's all of our kids future and they deserve a foundation for opportunity and success that's as strong as a granite under our soil we need to build a bigger and better and brighter future for everybody that starts with completing what we've started down making sure full-day kindergarten is accessible we finally did that in this budget Kristen Univ you know it ultimately accepted it we need to end the reality that New Hampshire is one of only six states that doesn't provide support for pre-k pre-k we need to do that in the next budget we need to build off of this most progressive budget in state history for public school education funding and move forward with disparity aid for property poor districts which is what we put in the budget for the first time in New Hampshire history we also need we also need Charles to work on job training in apprenticeships and unlock the innovation and the research and development potential including the Upper Valley we had legislation to do just that Kristin you knew vetoed it but for graduating Granite State seniors who may not want to go to a four-year degree they have opportunities right now and we need to work on and I'm sure we will talk a little bit more about it student debt we have the highest student debt in the nation we need to get a handle we got some concrete ideas about that and I'm sure we'll talk about it after this red sheep is shown terrific yeah let me file what both of you have spoken about things that are gonna cost some money the the pledge has already come up so let's stick with you senator Feltes have you taken the pledge and if you could talk about your rationale for that position well I don't support a broad-based income tax Charles I know that some folks do but what we did in this last budget is we made the most progressive budget in state history with the greatest public school education funding in state history in that budget we did it by closing loopholes in our tax code for multi-state and multinational corporations including companies like Netflix which you may have heard of if you didn't hear out prior to the pandemic and the shutdown you probably got Netflix Netflix paid nothing prior to this budget neither did Amazon they now pay that's in part how we we built a budget that was the most progressive in state history we need to protect it and build off of it so we've delivered results on this by closing loopholes for those at the top and big corporations we're endorsed in this race by the chair of Senate education by the chair of House education by the chair of the school funding Commission and they endorsed us because we are delivery not just debating this delivering concrete results for our communities and reducing property tax burden and Chris Sununu said after he finally accepted our budget that two superintendents of schools he considers that funding one-time so we know which direction Chris Sununu wants to take us he wants to go backwards on education funding we need to win this election so we can go forward protect that budget and build off of it and I respect people who argue for a broad vyas income tax but 2020 in my view is not a broad-based income tax year 2020 is a redistricting year the implications are not just for the next - they're for the next ten and we can continue down the pathway a progressive but you need to help our schools when we win this race thanks Charles councillor velinski I think you've already answered the question but if you could talk in about your rationale for that position yeah let's be clear I refuse to take the pledge for the reasons I stated and has taken the pledge that progressive budget guess where we are in the nation for state support for public education we remain 50th in the nation in state support for public education even under this progressive budget three great governors jeanne Shaheen Maggie Hassan John Lynch tried to close loopholes in order to solve school funding crises and all three failed there's no reason to believe that now all of a sudden there are enough loopholes available to make a significant dent and move us out of last place in funding for schools under Chris Sununu and under this legislature the property tax has gone up three hundred and twenty million dollars more than any other time in our state's history the legislature and Chris Sununu keep down shifting responsibilities education funding for most amongst them to the local community and that puts us in a position where there is so much unfairness so many wealthy communities are able to avoid paying their fair share and while poor poorer communities struggle we need to do a lot better there are a number of questions about specific issues that have come in in advance that are coming in on the qat so I think we'll work our way through some of those will continue with councilor wolinski the first is about the granite grit granite ridge pipeline if you could talk about your position on that and again how you came to that position it's it's easy for you to say right so look granite bridge is a four hundred million dollar fragged gas pipeline that Liberty utilities would like to build from the Seacoast to Epping to the north-south trunk line in Manchester that south trunk line goes to Boston let's not be kidding ourselves they're building that pipeline if they get permission I oppose it because fracking is especially hazardous to the environment methane gas is released it's 80 times more dangerous than carbon for climate change four hundred million dollars is a lot of money we will be paying that off the ratepayers for Liberty utilities will pay that off for twenty to thirty years look the Public Utilities Commission has found that New Hampshire has sufficient capacity and if we took a fraction of that 400 million and put it towards heat pumps and solar panels we could take care of every affordable housing project that we can currently build or that we would like to build in New Hampshire there is no good reason and I worry about the future if we build this pipeline no more pipelines thank you very much senator felt it's the same question your view on the granite bridge pipeline well look I don't think we should be critical of other Democrats and clean energy when Chris Sununu is a singular obstacle to clean energy in the state just like I don't think we should be critical of other Democrats on the most progressive budget that was crafted in state history including the best education funding in state history we just protected and build off of it the Public Utilities Commission is looking at this particular proposal what I've said is if it's determined that it's needed to meet the home heating need in the state for natural gas and oil heat which the vast overwhelming majority of Granite Staters heat their home in the wintertime with either natural gas or oil heat if it's determined to be needed then I'm not gonna cut people off at natural gas heat but this is going to be decided in the next few weeks or next month or so and the reason why I said that is because it's it's a sensitive issue to me as a legal aid lawyer I represented people who got their natural gas heat cutoff in the wintertime by use of the company or their landlord family to pay the bills and they actually heated their homes Charles with their electric oven open so when you talk about this that's the perspective I take in look I gotta tell you we have led on clean energy Chris Sununu is the barrier to clean energy so we need to win this race I've led on community power on community solar unmet metering on energy efficiency undistributed generation and you know what that is the barrier to moving forward so you know look we got to focus on the concrete solutions that Chris Sununu has veto preventing a transition to a clean energy economy rev a thank you I have a follow-up let's just make this a short one a 30 second question would either of you consider supporting a carbon tax perhaps with a rebate to offset its regressive effects and perhaps regional or nature or or at the state level senator Feltes well representative ox and ham who supports this campaign had a piece of legislation in the house I think they went a long way to crafting it fairly well it didn't make it out of the New Hampshire house but what we need to do is move forward on everything everything that Chris Sununu has veto net metering distributed generation energy efficiency stuff that I've led on as a climate champion in the state Senate stuff that I'll continue to lean on if elected and when elected the next governor in state of New Hampshire terrific same question 30 seconds councillor bilinski would you consider a carbon tax to change the incentives around fossil fuels a carbon tax was the subject of resolutions on over a hundred community ballots this last round and many supported it I would support it if it was sent to me I would sign it it's part of a broader view that we need to take but look I'm not listed on the granite Bridge website as a supporter of that project I don't think there's any equivocation you hear about who supports and who opposes thank you Charles if I if I can surely 15 seconds since that was invoked sure I look again as I said at the outset I'm not interested in attacking other Democrats on clean energy I'm interested in unite so we can move forward with a clean-energy obstacle which is Chris Sununu and on none of these clean-energy debates Charles none of them that I talked about earlier that I've led on did we see counselor of Olinsky at any of them so it's one thing you know look I was I told my mom that it's about showing up not sounding off so let's be real about the record here and about who's leading combating the climate crisis that's this campaign actually Charles I think I get 15 seconds 15 seconds then we're gonna move on okay I'm not a legislature so I don't pass legislation but I'm the one who stopped sununu's climate change deniers from leading our environmental services agency and from leading the site evaluation commission that approves these big energy projects so when things come before the Executive Council I am the leader on climate change another follow up for both of you and this will be a full 90 second question which is I don't think it's terribly hard to persuade Democrats that we ought to to move forward with clean energy but it's a purple state and as you know around the country around the state there is fierce resistance so my question for both of you and honestly I've forgotten who went at what order so we'll go with councillor wolinski because I'm staring at you in the moment but 90 seconds talk to me about how you can't persuade those who are skeptical not necessarily climate change skeptics but those who are skeptical that we need to act aggressively on climate how can you bring people around who are not necess
rily the Democratic diehards on this issue yeah I think this is a radically moderate position that we need to talk about here this is the question of our time is climate change real I think that science is very clear on this and I think smart thoughtful people understand and accept that so we start there but then we look at the economics of it how does money influence this race Chris Sununu has taken more than $100,000 from eversource that has to influence his decisions mine is the only campaign that doesn't take fossil fuel and so we don't have that level of influence I think when you look at the dollars and cents rather than supporting a pipeline that would take us 20 years to pay off you can make the argument to moderates and independence that we shouldn't support the shareholders of Liberty utilities with this kind of large infrastructure project when we can make smaller investments and turn around greater return very quickly for the people of our state terrific senator felt the same question how can we sell action on the climate to those who are not the climate change faithful Oh real quick it's not true this campaign doesn't accept corporate money so what was said just now isn't true but here's what we do here's what we do we do what we did the legislature bipartisan coalition's leading as a majority leader we've gotten bipartisan support already Charles on a whole bunch of pieces of legislation it's Chris Sununu that vetoes it he vetoed bipartisan net metering three different times so we know how to cobble together these coalition's we've done it we have the record of doing it and here's the argument you make it's not just about combining the climate crisis it's about clean energy jobs right here in New Hampshire and it's about reducing energy rates the reason why we have the third highest energy rates in the country and the highest growing rates in New England is because of regional transmission costs allocated to the state of New Hampshire and the driver of that is our peak demand relative to surrounding states and when surrounding states do energy efficiency to shave beat the man distributed generation and solar and we don't because Chris Sununu vetoed um your rates went up so you talk about rates on ordinary folks and families and businesses and you talk about jobs we're the only state in women that lost solar jobs last year only state as a direct consequence of krysta noonas vetoes so when I say Chris Sununu is a singular obstacle to bipartisan progress clean energy is Exhibit A and Chris Sununu all right we're good yeah we're good as you hear one second question because it came up and because it's raw my Q&A queue here are either you taking corporate PAC money just kind of yes or no and make your one sense explanation senator felt is no and councilor wolinski never have terrific it was a two-second question that's a pleasant surprise here so let's go back to another issue that we were talking a lot about before coab in nineteen is still a serious threat and that is the opioid crisis that came to the top of the list here so if you could talk about your strategy for dealing with this devastating challenge I will go with councilor vilensky so look I start from the position that access to health care is a basic human right sitting on the executive council I've heard Chris Sununu say that he invented the hub-and-spoke system for treating substance abuse disorder I heard him say that and then I went to Vermont and met with the legislative leaders who had that system five years before us and I talked to them about the shortcomings of that system the shortcoming is there are never enough providers in the community to be the spokes and part of that problem is New Hampshire even after this last budget has some of the lowest provider reimbursement rates in the nation we gave providers a 3% rate we need to do a lot better look there is an approach to government expenditures that considers everything of cost to be minimized when in truth some governmental expenditures are an investment and you nurture your investments New Hampshire had a nation leading mental health system and we let it wither on the vine we need to do better and investing in that I spent six years on the community health center board in Manchester that's a federally qualified health center I think that becomes the backbone for a lot of our primary care needs and we need to better invest in it senator felt us your thoughts on strategies for dealing with the opioid crisis thanks Charles well first and foremost we have the highest health care cost in nation right here in New Hampshire in part because we haven't dealt effectively with behavioral health services including treatment across the continuum of care and the most expensive way to treat is in the emergency room and it's just not right it's not fair that's not the right way to go and those costs are spread over everybody else that's part of the reason why we have the highest health care cost in the nation so we need to deal with the opioid epidemic we have the second worse opium in the country the second worst treatment capacity to deal with it we need to pass paid family and medical leave insurance to make sure that people have a meaningful opportunity to get into inpatient treatment without risking their family's economic security that's a bill I let on Sunnis not only vetoed it he auctioned off a copy of us being about a partisan political fundraiser we need to get addiction treatment services across the continuum of care a bill that we sponsored got 24 ovo out of the state Senate for Sununu vetoed it harming our addiction treatment capacity again he is the barrier to bipartisan progress on so many of the key issues in our future and especially on this he had said the so-called doorways program is working and it's doing great despite everybody on the ground saying the opposite I just had a ride-along with chief Coonan of the Manchester Fire Department and we discussed this and talked about safe stations which we funded in the budget this is a real problem on the ground that's only being exacerbated under kovat 19 and we need to take these steps moving forward with treatment capacity across the continuum of care another issue that people are writing about up voting is child care we had a child care crisis before koban 19 we have a child care crisis if president just happened to feel different but what are your thoughts about easing the child care crisis for working families and will continue what Senator felt us and we'll go back to councilor bilinski well thank you Charles and Aaron and I are living this right now with our daughters iris and Josie were fortunate to have childcare some parents don't even have child care if they do find it it's prices are through the roof and this is an economic issue it's an issue about not choosing between work and family if you value a work you value family you should value the proposition that affordable quality child care is widely available we've pushed initiatives including in House bill 1246 which is on sununu's desk right now to make sure that working families working-class families have a meaningful access to the child care scholarship program that they can actually afford it and when soon you know did the whole reopening Charles the one thing you can talk about and all of that is reopening press conferences first two or three of them was child care and people were actually being called back to work in reopening without child care literally and we need to get a handle on this we got to advance the child care scholarship we got to support our child care centers and we need to make sure that we work with the business community to do so we need to make sure valuable programs like @nh ti the child care child Family Development Center are stood up and maintained I support the Child and Family Development Center at NH t I and I think we need more of those kind of hubs for workforce development and for our working parents in our kids rivet counselor wolinski your thoughts on easing the childcare crisis for working families yeah thanks charlie this actually was the subject of discussion at my home yesterday morning our son is a school teacher he's planning to go back to school in the fall middle school science his wife's a school administrator they now have two children two and a half and nine weeks old and they're worried about how to pay for this and they both have good jobs I think this is part of a bigger picture of supporting families in New Hampshire keeping younger families here and developing the economy so I would start with the childhood educators they are some of the lowest paid workers in our state if we had a $15 minimum wage childcare workers would get a raise and they deserve it paying for college just about an associate's degree to be qualified as a child care worker that should be free in our community college system anyone who wants to go into child care should have access to tuition free child care credits as part of the bigger picture we need to think about places like the center at NH t I my wife Amy and I have been on the Merrimack Valley daycare board of directors I for five years Amy for over 20 years we understand how important this is in our state and we think it should be a high priority for the next next questions not the most popular but it's from one of my former students so I get to be partisan here we had some people asking about it earlier which is how are each of you actively supporting voting rights for students in New Hampshire and obviously that's a big issue here on the Dartmouth campus councillor wolinski yeah thank you that was a good student looking before I ran for office I was always one of the leaders of the Democratic Party's voting rights team in New Hampshire so I always was as assigned either to Dartmouth or to UNH on to in 2008 on the Obama campaign I was in court for the campaign voting rights is really important to me so nunu says if you vote in New Hampshire you need to register your car I say if you register your car or you get a driver's license you should automatically get a ballot in the mail and be registered to vote we need to make registration easier it can't just be at the Town Hall that's only open a couple of hours a week now during the crisis every state agency with clerical staff should be able to help you register the idea that Sununu gets to pass legislation that creates a poll tax on students and encumbers their right to vote is unacceptable to me if if elected governor I would quickly quickly repeal that and I would sign a bill for independent districting redistricting in New Hampshire that is one of our biggest shortcomings right now terrific senator felt as your thoughts on voting rights for students thank you very much Charles and when we talk about lifting people up not tearing people down we talked about fighting to include more people in our democracy and economy not exclude them what's talking about voting rights I'm gonna make sure people have a right to vote and we release the Cova 19 comprehensive voting rights plan back in April portions of which we pass through the legislature the first omnibus piece of legislation was vetoed hopefully the governor the current governor will sign the second piece that's on his desk right now to make sure that no one has to choose between the right to vote and in public health we need to repeal the voter suppression legislation House bill 1264 in Senate bill three that's targeting students and make no mistake they're targeting students because students disproportionately vote Democrat that's why to be partisan Charles it's actually truth and you know what we've led the way on voting rights an online voter registration an automatic voter registration on access to the ballot were endorsed in this campaign by let America out in the voter protection project I'm honored to have their endorsements having led on these issues I will lead on those issues when governor we will repeal voter suppression but that's not enough we got to do automatic voter registration and employer time off for employees to vote and expand and do mail in balloting to so these are the kinds of things that we need to do to make sure people have access to the ballot terrific thank you I loved having a bunch of policy wonks logged in here because the questions just you know it's like a policy class here marijuana that will continue a senator felt is it ty felt us is it time to decriminalize or perhaps legalize marijuana in New Hampshire well Charles II in the legislature I led the way in decriminalization we got that done and in terms of legalization recreational legalization if three conditions are met robust child protection affair amount of revenue going to the state and a significant amount of that revenue going to the state to support addiction treatment services those are three imminently achievable goals then I support the legalization of recreational marijuana the problem is as Chris Sununu said it doesn't matter what the bill looks like and I'm not gonna work with the legislature that's what he said on marijuana legalization so the barrier is Chris Sununu and I've voted for a different marijuana legalization legislation in the past but the barrier here is Christie knew in his abject failure to work with the legislature literally Charles when I talk about the singular berry to bipartisan progress this is a bipartisan issue there's by a part and support across the aisle on this and folks if they just work together in passed common-sense legislation in the reality that we're pretty much on the island on this issue and the Northeast it's not just an issue in terms of economics it's an issue in terms of justice and so in terms of moving forward we need to move forward on this if those three conditions are met which they're eminently achievable I support it terrific councillor wolinski your thoughts on marijuana policy in New Hampshire New Hampshire's he only stays state in New England in which adult use marijuana is not legal I don't have caveats I trust people in the legislature to do it the right way bring me an adult use legalization bill and I'll sign it and then I'll tax it to raise money for schools in New Hampshire the other part of it is I'm a former public defender my first year five years at a law school I worked as a public defender in the south and in Manchester I understand the social and racial injustice of prosecuting people for marijuana use and possession black and brown people in our state are arrested at four times the rate of white people for marijuana possession that is unacceptable and we need to change that no one should be in jail for marijuana possession and those who have records who have difficulty getting jobs because of a marijuana conviction need to have those records expunged on 4/20 we did a video and a fundraise for an organization called last prisoner project that works to legalize marijuana and expunge and reintroduce people accused of marijuana crimes into society I'm clearly for marijuana legalization the number one question and I've saved it for near the end here because governor sununu's name has come up so often basically is why do you think that you can be him he's had a lot of publicity with covent he's relatively popular among independents so for each of you starting with counselor velinski why do you think that you are uniquely positioned to defeat governor Sununu well here's how you beat christen in you start out by making him defend the property tax as I mentioned the property tax has gone up three hundred and twenty million dollars during his term more than during any other governor's term so you start there then you make them most clear contrast you can with Sununu so that voters have a choice Chris Sununu hasn't met a pipeline project that he didn't like and so if you're unclear where you stand about the Granite State Granite Bridge pipeline you have a hard time making that contrast with him if you demonize anyone who talks about putting all of the revenue systems on the table for discussion all options on the table then you fall right into Chris and Anna's trap Chris Sununu has eaten two pledged candidates in a row there's no reason to believe that a third pledged ca
didate would do any better I think you take the fight to Sununu on these issues on his use of the LLC loophole to finance his campaign on his taking a hundred thousand dollars from eversource on his creating an opportunity zone that benefits his own family these are the issues you go Sununu and you go at him directly and I think I'm the right candidate to do that senator filters your thoughts on why you're the guy to beat governor Sununu well I don't think that advocating or having a long history of advocating for a broad-based income tax is going to be very productive in a general election I think we ought to close loopholes for big corporations to fund property tax relief and fund education and health care Chris Sununu looks out for big corporations this is about whose side are you on are you on that side of the haves or they have nots we know where Kristina falls we know where he gives us no big contracts too we need AB and open contracts he isn't who his corporate campaign donors and to his family and to his friends he gives Marva Valley an opportunity zone designation while property taxes are going up we talk about the fact that he has no record of accomplishment literally highest health care cost in the nation second we're so feared epidemic with the second worst treated capacity to deal with property tax going up energy bills going up high student debt load in the nation under Chris Sununu and what has he done what initiative has he put forward that has gotten into law including during the Republican legislature his top initiative was so-called right to work to weaken collective bargaining rights of unions and he couldn't even get it through a Republican legislature so he wants to run for re-election a rare third term as governor with that record good luck so let's talk about the record he doesn't have a record and you know what we have in this race we're well positioned to win this thing because we have record fundraising in our race without corporate contributions corporate PAC money and without LLC money record fundraising in this race and we have 12 labor unions on board in citizens united on board steve marsha and molly kelly and colin vanos and we have a broad coalition thank you the other serious issue in this will probably be the last question before we had a closing statements the other major issue that is taking America's imagination at the moment is racial justice and policing obviously New Hampshire we are a far less diverse state than most of the rest of the country and yet what should we be thinking about in terms of that subject senator Feltes Thank You Charles look weather subtle oral vert caught on tape or not every day our plaque brothers and sisters face words actions and policies that rob them of the American dream and we're up on the four-month anniversary of the the killing of Brianna Taylor and her killers have not been arrested and an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and it's on all of us to battle systemic racism Chris Sununu actually said systemic racism doesn't exist in New Hampshire it does it exists everywhere and if not enough to be not racist we all need to be actively anti-racist which is why we've propelled in the state Senate common-sense criminal justice reforms I was a lead sponsor of bail reform I was a lead sponsor of a number of initiatives dealing with housing as a legal aid lawyer at battle housing discrimination all throughout the state honored to have the support of Manchester in double-a-c-p former president wool there let in this race and I've proposed creating an office of racial equity within the governor's office so that we can identify systemic practices and eradicate them and work to include communities of color and key decision-making in state government and make sure that we recruit and get ideas for people for key posts and state government that reflect our diversity we got to do that in that office by the way it looks a lot like what happened in Vermont what they did in Vermont so these are just some of the initiatives to move all of us forward on this key issue thank you very much councillor velinski what should we be doing in New Hampshire to advance racial justice well thank you Charles we have to first start with the admission that systemic racism exists in New Hampshire Chris Sununu denies that we have systemic racism we have over at racism in 1991 the Klan held a rally in Rochester in 2017 a young boy was almost lynched in Claremont on Memorial Day weekend a black man was stopped for having an out-of-date inspection sticker his window was busted out by the police he was tased and pulled out by the air this happens in New Hampshire and we need to deal with it black lives matters about two weeks ago issued a list of seven demands I very quickly and wholeheartedly endorse those demands and then I explained to the black life matters leaders that we need to go further I think of racial justice in a couple of categories starting with law enforcement New Hampshire's fortunate to have a single police academy we can demilitarize the police training at that Academy and introduce implicit bias training I underwent implicit bias training in 2017 it was really important to me we should do it with police officers we need to diversify our police forces across the state so that we're recruiting from places outside of New Hampshire we need to work on access to health care the fact that black and brown people have disproportionately bad outcomes under the covent situation is unacceptable we need to do a lot better on that I want to thank you both for working through a very long list of very substantive issues and sticking brilliantly to your time allotment very disciplined on that point we'll now go into the closing statements two minutes each we'll reverse what we did at the beginning so Andrew velinski will begin in the end two minutes and then we'll have senator Feltes so thank you and please conclude your thoughts so first Thank You charlie thank you Rockefeller Center for having us we're all dams we have more in common that unites us than divides us but the differences are important and so I've mentioned the differences on the pipeline on the pledge on confronting Chris Sununu on property taxes property taxes go up three hundred thousand dollars a day that's happened with ganas Majority Leader and with Chris Sununu as the governor we need to change that paradigm so seniors can stay in their homes so that young families and working families can buy homes so that we can bra we develop businesses across the state and so that we can have affordable housing everywhere it's needed in the state we need to make contrasts look I never had to give back LLC money in this race mr. Feltes took LLC money from his campaign treasurer I understand why they made that decision Nick Taylor his campaign manager told NH PR that that was an intentional decision to raise money my campaign has smashed the record on the number of contributors we have more contributors than any gubernatorial race in the history of gubernatorial races in New Hampshire I'm very proud of that that's why Ben and Jerry's Ben and Jerry have endorsed me and they're naming an ice cream after me it's called Valene skis courageous crunch and it's because of my positions on campaign finance we can beat christen a new but the way to do it is to make clear contrasts and to make him defend the property tax so again thanks everyone for having us tonight I really appreciate this opportunity September 8th is the primary please consider voting by mail because it's safer and I humbly humbly ask for your vote wolinski and age comm thank you so much terrific Thank You senator felts your concluding thoughts well you know at the outset we talked about approaches I said that our campaign is based on unity and of Democrats not attacking Democrats I think you're just closing an argument that is in charge in chief and attacking Democrats that's not the way to go and then talking about you know some project that's going to be done in about a month or two and based on your campaign on that and based on your campaign on our campaign making a mistake and give them back some donations folks we're in a global campaign endemic let's get serious here and we're going up against the governor who has a record number of vetoes of legislation that we propelled we have ordinary people who are struggling every day we need to focus on that that's what we're focused on and I got to tell you this is key right here real reform for ordinary people a system right now that is rigged for those at the top that Chris Sununu is taking advantage of day in and day out which is why we put forward real reform advocated for real reform and we're endorsed in this race by in citizens united and so I respectfully ask for your vote and support but more than that more than that I ask you for your activism everything you do in se counts I'm reminded and I quote an activism from then and then apartheid South Africa from Bobby Kennedy said each time someone stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice they send forth a tiny ripple of hope and through many acts of kindness and activism those ripples they turn into waves and those waves can shake down the greatest cause of intolerance and injustice that still exists that quote on activism it was true then it's true now that's even more true now especially in the current environment so we need you we need you active and engage stay active engaged on all the issues that matter to you let's keep fighting be safe you will thank you so much well thanks to both of you for your public service and for engaging being in the arena in this very challenging time on behalf of the Rockefeller Center thanks to all of you who tuned in and sent questions that's all for tonight thank you thank you our pleasure be well stay safe you
