With Democrat William Palmer of Cornish opting not to run for re-election for the Sullivan County District 2 House seat representing Cornish and Plainfield, Republican Michael Belanger of Cornish will face Democrat Jenny Ramsey of Plainfield in the Nov. 3 election.
Ramsey ran an unsuccessful bid for the Sullivan District 7 seat two years ago.
“I am running for more state support of public education,” Ramsey, 42, said in a phone interview summing up her main campaign message.
Ramsey stepped down from the Plainfield School Board this year after serving 11 years.
During her time on the board, Ramsey said they did all they could to keep costs down, but the board could not avoid large annual increases in health insurance and retirement.
“We received no increase in help from the state,” Ramsey said. “I think public education is a foundational aspect of our communities and it should be available to every child. Currently, the system is advantageous to property-wealthy communities versus property-poor communities. I would like to see that change.”
Ramsey said tax cuts by the state, such as eliminating the interest and dividends tax and reducing the Business Enterprise Tax, have favored the wealthy.
“I don’t want to see taxes increase for everyday people working to make ends meet,” she said. “I would rather see us use every avenue we can that would pass the bill on to the ones that are making millions. Seems the really wealthy are having an easier time than everyday people. The way we bring property tax relief is more state money to municipalities.”
Ramsey opposes the school tax cap on the ballot.
“As a School Board member, I see the tax cap as Concord’s way of shifting blame from its lack of responsibility to support public schools, to blaming local communities,” Ramsey said. “It is a gross mischaracterization of what is happening on the local level.”
While on the Plainfield School Board, Ramsey said she worked hard to control expenses, but when the state reneged on its promise to pay some of the employee retirement, and health care costs keep going up, taxpayers end up paying more because the state isn’t.
Ramsey said she is not strictly opposed to Education Freedom Accounts as “public schools are not for everyone” and parents have the right to educate their children as they see fit.
“But the lack of spending oversight is ridiculous,” Ramsey said of Education Freedom Accounts. “It will cost about $500 million over 10 years. Republicans say that is not much, but that money would have made a difference in property taxes and the lives of families in Cornish and Plainfield. I would like to see better oversight and reinstatement of a need-based income cap” for eligibility, she said.
While the state can “incentivize” building projects, Ramsey is firm in her belief that the choice on housing development should be up to the municipality.
“The only way to fix it is to let the communities decide what is best for them,” Ramsey said regarding the housing shortage.
Large-scale AI data centers raise many concerns for Ramsey, particularly with the amount of water and electricity they need to operate.
“We shouldn’t just jump on the bandwagon. I would rather have an informed discussion on how they can help communities without destroying the ecosystem,” she said.
Belanger, 66, has owned the Chase House, a bed and breakfast in Cornish, for seven years. He retired from the federal government in Washington, D.C., after 37 years. Locally, he serves on the Cornish Energy Committee.
“My concern is property taxes and how we can cap property taxes,” Belanger said.
Elderly residents on fixed incomes watched their property taxes skyrocket because what they bought for $20,000 maybe 40 or 50 years ago is now assessed at $500,000, he said.
“If they are on a fixed income, they are upside down and could be forced to lose their home,” Belanger said.
He likes an idea he heard from a friend in Kentucky, where Belanger said there is a proposal to freeze property assessments when a person reaches age 65.
Belanger points to rising school costs as the main reason for the increase in taxes. “Seventy-five percent of my taxes go to the Cornish Elementary School,” he said.
He strongly supports the proposed school tax cap that will be on the ballot across the state.
“It will cap administrative costs,” Belanger said. “There is an imbalance now. If you look at the administrative costs versus teacher costs, that ratio is not very even.”
Belanger said he is “invested” in education for Cornish students, but he is looking for a return on investments, and when your test scores are below that state average, “that is not right.”
He also is a supporter of keeping the Education Freedom Account program for private school vouchers. Those who claim the vouchers take money from public education are wrong, Belanger said.
“It follows the kid,” he said. “I believe totally in school choice.”
Decisions on increasing housing stock should be left to individual towns in Belanger’s view. “Every town has a degree of autonomy, so they set the rules,” he said.
If there are no changes to the minimum five-acre lot size in Cornish, then it is unlikely there will be much new housing, he said, adding that he likes the idea of allowing more prefabricated housing and manufactured housing because of the lower cost versus a site-built home.
“I’m on the fence with data centers,” Belanger said. “I think studying them is a good idea to look at where they are now and what the cause and effect they have on the environment.”
Belanger acknowledges he faces an “uphill battle” in a district that is strongly Democratic.
“But I have done a lot of door knocking and have been getting a lot of positive support.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
