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Middlebury board agrees to warn citizen petition on expanded primary-care measure
Summary
After residents who gathered signatures urged it, the Select Board voted to warn a citizen petition that would place a question related to House 433—an initiative to create publicly financed universal primary care for primary-care services—on the Australian ballot at the March town meeting.
Select Board members voted Jan. 27 to warn a citizen petition asking the town to place a question on the Australian ballot about House 433, legislation that petitioners described as a first step toward publicly financed universal primary care for primary-care services in Vermont.
Petitioners told the board they collected the required signatures and urged Middlebury to give legislators a clearer signal from local voters. Speakers argued that expanding primary care could reduce downstream health costs and ease pressures on hospitals and school budgets. One petitioner described primary care as a cost-saving intervention and urged the board to allow a town-level vote so voters could 'weigh in' with their legislators.
Several Select Board members said they sympathized with petitioners’ goals but expressed concern about devoting board time to statewide policy issues; others said placing the item on the Australian ballot would start a community conversation without binding the board to statewide action. A resident noted that the petition will appear on the Australian ballot and therefore would not necessarily provoke extensive town-meeting debate.
After discussion the board approved a motion to warn the petitioned article for the upcoming town meeting and Australian ballot; the motion passed by voice vote.
