Editor,
Peter Galbraith will be a Vermont governor with clear and bold proposals for the common good. Galbraith also has the backbone to move these changes through a legislature unable to find a remedy to the gridlock and inertia that have prevented measurable progress.

Galbraith has set out a series of economic justice ideas including a $15 hourly minimum wage and free tuition at Vermont state colleges. His positions are firmly anchored in a background of sound and informed economic analyses.

Galbraith has also shown the courage to talk about new specific sources of revenues to fund the changes he advocates — without increases of taxes for the majority of Vermonters. He proposes to do this through actions such as closing “loopholes” in Vermont’s tax laws which currently allow, for example, mortgage deductions by individuals with second and third homes in places like the Caribbean islands.

Galbraith understands how the costs of health care are strangling the abilities of Vermonters to use their financial resources in ways that will advance not only their own quality of life but the overall community.

Galbraith calls for state government review of energy generation facilities in the Green Mountains to provide towns with meaningful roles in the appropriate siting of these industrial scale land uses. He understands that current Vermont laws and regulations are inadequate in protecting Vermonters from market driven forces that have warped the praiseworthy goal of “renewable energy” so many have worked for over the decades into an unnecessary attack on finite natural resources.

Some have said that Galbraith’s role as a state senator showed that he is unwilling to march to the drum beat of political party leadership. Is that a bad thing when one considers the immense frustration and challenges faced by Vermonters?

I am voting for Peter Galbraith on August 9 and urge others who seek and have worked for effective change to consider doing likewise.

Ed Stanak
Barre City