Katherine Stands for the Kingdom

For decades, rural regions like the Northeast Kingdom have been systematically under-resourced and overburdened by state policies and funding practices. Katherine’s fighting to repair harm caused by inequitable policies and ensure future policies address the unique needs of our region.

Sims collaborates across party lines to ensure our communities have good jobs, thriving local businesses and access to the things we need to raise our families and live the good life. No matter the issue, Katherine brings our rural perspective to the Statehouse so that the Kingdom’s communities are not forgotten.

Priority: Make life affordable for working Vermonters.

  • Everyone — no matter their zip code or income — deserves access to quality, affordable housing. But housing costs in Vermont continue to rise. So many of the people who live, work, and power our state are simply being priced out.

    Housing is connected to so many other challenges our community faces–workforce, income disparities, ongoing mental health crises, homelessness, or the opioid epidemic–housing is a key component to the solution.

    To attract more young people to Vermont and ease the burden on those who have lived here for decades, we must invest in building new housing and address regulatory barriers. Katherine supports common-sense solutions to the housing shortage that won’t compromise the character of our rural communities.

    In 2023 and 2024, Katherine helped lead the charge on the largest housing investments in decades and comprehensive Act 250 permitting reform.

  • We all deserve to make the healthcare choices that work for ourselves and our families. We all want to prevent, treat, or recover from illness or injury without the threat of going bankrupt.

    Our current healthcare system leaves too many people behind. Access to healthcare should be based on need, not on your job or ability to pay. Katherine believes in Medicare for All because no one should have to choose between putting food on the table and getting the care they need. Medicare for All will make healthcare simpler and cheaper: no premiums, no co-pays, and no networks. No more payments for a bloated insurance bureaucracy instead of vital medical care.

    In 2023, Katherine supported efforts to expand medicaid reimbursement rates. The legislature funded evidence-based prevention and treatment programs and raised Medicaid provider reimbursement rates. With increased rates, more doctors, dentists and mental health professionals will accept Medicaid, and Vermonters will have easier access to the care they need.

    Katherine has been a champion for Emergency Medical Services. Faced with rising call volumes, staff and volunteer shortages, and reimbursement rates that do not cover the cost of service delivery, EMS services are struggling to keep pace with the needs of our communities. Katherine was the lead sponsor on bills that passed in 2023 and 2024 to increase reimbursement rates for EMS services, make investments in training for EMS personnel, and to create a five-year strategic plan for EMS in Vermont.

  • As a working mom, Katherine knows the need for high quality, affordable child care that allows parents to make ends meet. The lack of affordable, high-quality early childhood education profoundly impacts Vermont and its economy.

    A growing number of families in the United States rely on child care in order to work and make ends meet throughout their children’s first five years. Businesses and organizations rely on those parents to show up for work. And ALL of us rely on those businesses and organizations to get our basic needs met. As access to child care becomes more of a public good than a luxury, it’s the government’s job to ensure equitable access for the sake of us all.

    In Vermont, an estimated 8,752 children under five who are likely to need care do not have access to childcare programs. If families can find child care, high-quality programs are too expensive for many, and a serious financial strain for most. When families can’t afford child care, a parent (usually a woman) drops out of the workforce which means they lose wages and they lose experience, setting them back when they do return to work.

    Businesses also suffer when workers can’t find or afford child care. Their employees call out more often or quit entirely. And when businesses struggle to serve their communities, those communities suffer. None of us should have to keep paying the price for a broken system.

    Last year, Katherine helped pass H.217 a bill that transforms the childcare system to make childcare more affordable for families, raise rates to provide financial stability for childcare providers, and boost pay for our valued early childhood workforce. This legislation makes Vermont a national leader in the care and education of young children!

Priority: Revitalize our rural economy.

  • Small businesses are the backbone of our communities, and too much red tape disproportionately impacts businesses in our region. Katherine focuses on policies and initiatives that will revitalize the local economy, reduce barriers to doing business, and create jobs without threatening the sustainability of our working landscape or forest economy.

    As your state rep, Katherine supported investing in our downtowns and workforce through tax incentives and tax-increment financing programs, better training and talent pipelines, and streamlined processes for registering a new business, including critical COVID-19 relief funds to workers, families, and small businesses most in need. As your senator, Katheirne will continue to be a champion for Vermont’s small businesses.

  • Katherine fights to support Vermont’s farmers and loggers. Despite the immense challenges they face, our farmers and forest-based businesses have been the backbone of Vermont communities for generations. They play a vital role in our working landscape, the fight against climate change, and our state economy.

    Katherine secured Act 250 exemptions for farm and forest operations to allow them to grow in place at the appropriate scale for the current and next generation.

    Katherine championed H.81 the Right to Repair bill which requires original equipment manufacturers of agricultural and forestry equipment to make available—on fair and reasonable terms—the parts, tools, manuals, and diagnostic materials needed to fix their products.

    Katherine helped secure $1M in funding to the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation for a new Water Quality Assistance Program providing financial assistance to logging contractors.

  • Katherine knows the burdens placed on Vermonters by long commute times, crumbling roads, and inadequate internet access. Nearly 15% of Vermonters live in an area without access to high-speed broadband - and for many more, high costs keep it out of reach.

    To make up for decades of underinvestment, we must prioritize rebuilding our infrastructure to meet the needs of our workforce and families.

    In 2021-2022, as a member of the House Energy & Technology committee, Katherine championed broadband investments to bring affordable, high-speed internet to every household. In 2023, Katherine helped pass a study on financing for climate infrastructure for rural towns. Then in 2024, Katherine advanced a bill to implement those recommendations to help all towns have access to resources they need to be more resilient in the face of changing weather.

    As your senator, Katherine will continue to champion investments in rural communities including: repairing our roads and bridges; delivering high-speed broadband to every Vermont family; secure cyber infrastructure; building physical infrastructure resilient to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather; and more.

  • Small towns often struggle to access funding and advance important projects due to a lack of administrative capacity. The last few years have punctuated the fact that communities that have more capacity and are more adequately resourced are the most successful in responding to not only the ordinary needs of their residents but also the emergencies of the moment. The effect is a growing divide between the municipal haves and have-nots, leaving many small Vermont towns behind.

    Katherine championed a $3 million investment for a new Municipal Technical Assistance Program to help small towns identify priority projects, apply for funding, and then have capacity to manage those projects. The capacity funding is specifically designed to help underserved communities access and allocate federal ARPA funding for projects.

    Katherine will continue to advocate for resources and capacity building measures so that towns of all sizes, but especially the smallest, have the tools they need to thrive.

Priority: Support and protect our small communities.

  • Vermont leads the nation in public safety but there’s been a recent increase in criminal activity. It is the government’s job to keep Vermonters safe and our approach must be preventative, responsive and restorative.

    The most effective way the legislature can reduce crime is by ensuring “certain and quick consequences”. Many of the public safety issues Vermont communities face right now are a symptom of the system’s inability to process criminal cases in a timely fashion. We must ensure our justice system is adequately staffed and funded in order to work in a timely manner.

    We must support community-driven initiatives that help people meet their basic needs and prevent crimes driven by poverty, isolation and substance use disorder. We must also adjust policies to be more deterrent.

  • Schools in our district are tasked with providing a high-quality education to our children while managing the pressures of inflation, the expiration of federal pandemic aid, a roughly 16% increase in health care costs, payments on school construction or renovation projects, and the implementation of Act 127.

    While the recent adjustments to the weighting system has provided some long-overdue relief in our district, It’s time to rethink our funding formula to better support children, taxpayers and school administrations across the state.

    Katherine helped pass a bill to launch a Blue Ribbon Commission to guide policymakers toward a more equitable, predictable and affordable education funding solution.

  • As we saw with the July 2023 flood, our changing weather is a persistent threat to Vermont’s economy, environment, and way of life. Our state is becoming both warmer and wetter. The costs of cleaning up after a disaster are significant–the July flood is expected to cost nearly $1 Billion. We must increase investment in climate resilient infrastructure and help communities adapt so that we can help all communities be better protected against future disasters and save Vermonters money from disaster recovery.

    In 2024, Katherine helped pass a bill to improve the state emergency response and emergency preparedness and to establish a Climate Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Fund to provide financial assistance to municipalities to plan for and respond to disasters.

  • I support the 2nd amendment and responsible gun ownership.

    One of the most effective ways to save the life of a person in crisis is to put time and space between that person and a firearm. There are gun safety reform measures that enjoy strong public support across party lines that we can enact today, without undermining Second Amendment rights or Vermont’s deeply-rooted hunting tradition.

    We are all safer when guns are stored unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition.

Priority: Respect and care for all.

  • Everyone, including older Vermonters, deserves the chance to lead healthy, independent lives. Two-thirds of Vermont residents are middle-aged or older, but our state doesn’t have adequate systems in place to support them in aging with dignity.

    Katherine believes in a Medicare for All that includes home and community based services and long term care for seniors, and I will work to ensure seniors have swift access to these services that allow them to live in dignity and in their communities.

    As your Senator, Katherine will prioritize ways to keep our communities vibrant and intergenerational. To do that, we must ensure comprehensive care for all, including long term care and home and community based services.

  • Hunting and trapping are important cultural traditions in Vermont and the folks hunting and trapping play an important role in wildlife conservation and management.

    Katherine is a strong advocate for the welfare and human treatment of Vermont’s wildlife. She supports current regulations, which are designed to make hunting and trapping safe for humans and minimize suffering of animals.

    Katherine is a lead sponsor of H.626 which establishes the Division of Animal Welfare at the Department of Public Safety to develop, implement, and administer a centralized program for investigating and enforcing animal welfare requirements in the State.

  • Katherine believes that every person has a right to make their own reproductive decisions, including whether and when to become a parent, use birth control, or seek an abortion. She believes those choices should never require the permission of a politician. These are deeply personal decisions that should be made in conversation with medical professionals, loved ones, and religious leaders.

    Reproductive rights are under attack across this country. Katherine was proud to vote for Proposal 5, the Reproductive Liberty Amendment. Ratified by the voters, Prop 5 enshrined reproductive liberty into our state’s constitution, ensuring that these rights are preserved for future generations. As your Senator, Katherine will continue to protect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions and to fight to protect and expand reproductive freedom in Vermont.

  • In recent years, we have seen significant increases in substance use and highly lethal synthetic opioids like fentanyl entering the drug supply. During the pandemic, Vermont witnessed the highest percentage increase of overdose deaths of any state in the U.S. up by nearly 70% from 123 to 209 deaths. Individuals, families and entire communities suffer from a lack of access to evidence-based treatment and support.

    We must invest in treatment, recovery and harm-reduction services for people living with substance use disorder. In 2023, Katherine supported H.222 which increases access to life-saving treatment and services like Narcan, outreach workers, drug testing sites and supplies.

In the House, Katherine has led the charge to make policies, programs and funding work for residents of the Northeast Kingdom.

Now she's running for Senate so she can do more for our communities.