Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
As Election Day grows nearer, so do the results of Rep. Daisy Berbeco’s bid for reelection.
Berbeco has represented the Democratic Party in Winooski’s Chittenden 21 House district since 2023, when she replaced fellow Democrat Rep. Hal Colston following his retirement.
Given she is running uncontested, Berbeco is likely to win the seat again. What would a second term in the Statehouse look like?
One of the biggest issues she’s looking to address is affordability. In an effort to reduce property taxes, she said she wants to reassess parts of the state education fund. Each year towns send money from property taxes to the fund, which state officials use to bankroll school districts.
“If you look at health insurance for teachers and staff, it’s massive. Within the health care committee is where that gets regulated,” Berbeco said. “And so next session, we’ll be looking at that and how we can reduce that insurance and how we can negotiate with Blue Cross Blue Shield and other providers to really reduce that cost so that property taxes, where that’s really tucked in, can be reduced.”
The House Committee on Health Care, of which Berbeco is a member, has a lot on their agenda for the next term. Another one of the committee’s priorities, she said, is to follow up on Act 167, the 2022 law that funded research on ways to lower costs, improve access and reduce health inequities in Vermont’s hospitals. This year, a report stemming from that law recommended major restructuring for hospitals to survive and whipped up debate.
Berbeco said, if reelected, she would devote a large portion of her time to looking at the recommendations made in that report this past August. Her committee plans to work with the Agency of Human Services and the Green Mountain Care Board to evaluate the report, she said.
Berbeco also discussed plans to introduce a new mental health bill in January, which would include measures to improve mental health literacy in schools and enhance peer-to-peer programs for youth.
“As we’re looking at our system as a whole, including our hospital system and the sustainability of that, we have to look at where we can create efficiencies in getting the right people to the right place at the right time,” she said. “And I think if we’re not addressing that up front with youth, then the rest of the system isn’t going to fall into place.”
“I think we’ve done a lot around addressing access,” she said about the prospective bill. “But you can’t address demand but not address productivity.”
Addressing productivity appears to be one of Berbeco’s key concerns looking ahead. Many of her plans are centered around ensuring that legislation is effectively helping Winooski residents.
“The Legislature does a lot of setting up commissions, requesting report funding, right? But do we do enough circling back on that data that’s collected on the findings and implementing them, and then acting on that data and improving the systems that we were investigating in the first place?” she asked. “I don’t know, but I think a lot of us are starting to notice that we could do better.”
In considering solutions to the drug crisis affecting Winooski and Burlington, Berbeco criticized how legislators have divided discussions of addiction and mental health into different committees.
“I don’t ever think we should talk about addictions and not talk about mental health. It just makes no sense,” she said. “We have to treat these two issues together, or we’re kind of working against ourselves, and we’re working against the body and what naturally happens for folks.”
Berbeco’s focus on health care comes from her prior experience in the field before becoming a politician. After spending seven years at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing in Washington, D.C., she moved to the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, where she volunteered with the Native American tribe’s peer recovery center.
“And I still do,” she said. “I am on their advisory board today, and Zoom into their calls every month. It’s really incredible.”
After two years in Arizona, she said, she decided it was time to be closer to family — which brought her to Winooski in 2019. Between then and her election to the Legislature, she served as the senior advisor for mental health policy at the Vermont Department of Mental Health.
Few legislators have expertise in mental health and substance misuse, she said, emphasizing that her background helps address policy on those fronts. And she hopes her candidness around her own mental health could help give people inspiration.
“I’m someone that’s always lived with depression and anxiety, and I think that allowing that to be talked about as a leader — and showing people that you can talk about that and you can live with those things and still be successful and still be someone that can make positive change for others — hopefully will influence other people to feel good about and safe about talking about their own challenges,” she said.
Berbeco also spoke about striking a balance between her expertise and listening to residents’ primary concerns.
“You want to represent every issue for Winooski that touches our city. And at the same time, people in the Statehouse will look to you when they have an issue in their district that has to do with behavioral health. So you have to balance that,” she said. “I don’t want to be a single-issue person in the Statehouse because of my background, so I always want to prioritize what’s important to Winooski.”
Editor’s note (11/7/24): Berbeco is married to Steven Berbeco, publisher of the Winooski News. The publisher is not involved in editorial decisions.