Get to know your new State Representatives
Though Republican Alicia Malay will be entering her first term representing Rutland-8 (Pittsford-Proctor) in January, she has been active in her home base of Pittsford for years.
Originally from Connecticut, Malay made the move to Vermont in 2001 and to Pittsford specifically in 2007.
“I’d always liked Pittsford,” she said in a recent conversation at the Maclure Library. “I’d drive through the town and had my eye on a particular house. When I was ready to buy, it was still available. It worked out perfectly. Pittsford has been home for me, more so than where I grew up.”
She started a house-cleaning business that gave her the flexibility to care for her young children and pursue a degree in criminal justice. She now has 3 sons: Liam, 21; Declan, 18; and Brogan, 13. She spent a lot of time at the Maclure Library with her kids and eventually joined the board of trustees there, beginning the trajectory of public service that led to her election as State Rep last week.
“After I joined the library board, I started getting more involved in the community,” she said. “I started going to town meetings. I was interested in how the town worked.”
After a while, people in town began suggesting she run for Selectboard herself.
“Someone said I’d be good at it, so I ran,” she laughed.
Her first campaign for Selectboard wasn’t easy. The vote on Town Meeting Day, with three candidates, ended in a two-way tie between Malay and Susan Markowski. Malay ultimately prevailed in a runoff. At the time, she was seen as ushering in a younger generation in Pittsford governance.
Today she is the chair of the board, managing a group that otherwise consists of older men.
“It takes a certain kind of person to get a committee to move in a certain direction,” said current Rut-8 State Rep. Butch Shaw, who announced both his retirement and his endorsement of Malay as his successor at a Pittsford Selectboard meeting last spring.
“I was really happy she decided to run,” he continued. “She is not beholden to anybody. She knows the job is representing her constituents.”
Indeed, Malay sees her position in Montpelier as an extension of her work on the Pittsford Selectboard, where she says she has focused on providing quality services to residents at the lowest possible cost.
“Getting behind the scenes on the Selectboard definitely made me more fiscally conservative,” said the self-described moderate. “There are lots of good ideas, but the question is what can you do without raising taxes. You have to stay within your budget.”
Though Malay ran unopposed in her own election, she says she understands the frustration that fueled the rash of Democratic losses throughout Vermont in this cycle.
“I’d really like to see education financing not be based on property values,” she said. “It’s not sustainable to fund everything that way. We have to control costs. I personally think we pay for way too much administration in Vermont.”
In addition to reforming school financing, Malay says she would like to work on regulatory reform.
“We’ve got to make Vermont more affordable. That means growing the tax base and attracting new business. Part of that is cutting back on regulation. Daycare is a good example of how Vermont overregulates. There used to be people running small daycares in Pittsford but then the state got involved and overburdened them with regulations.”
Her priorities for Pittsford apply equally to Proctor, the other half of the Rutland-8 district that was formed after the 2020 census. Pittsford had previously been coupled with Brandon in a two-rep district.
“Pittsford and Proctor are in many ways a better fit than Pittsford and Brandon,” said Malay, noting that Pittsford and Proctor were both smaller towns without the kind of traditional downtown business district that Brandon has.
But she acknowledges that she is still getting to know her constituents in Proctor and learning about their needs.
She also agreed with the common criticism that Montpelier is dominated by lawmakers from the Burlington area who often pass bills that have little benefit to the rest of Vermont.
“I think the Democrats lost their supermajority because they spent the last two years focused on global issues like climate change to the detriment of Vermont issues,” she said, with frustration directed especially at marquis bills like the Affordable Heat Act and the Clean Energy Standard.
“Vermont’s too small to have any effect on climate.”
While she begins her term officially in January, Malay is already working, trying to learn the ropes in Montpelier from Rep. Shaw.
“It’s like learning a new language,” she laughed. “Butch has been a great mentor. He’s worked with me through every step. He’s been amazing. His advice has been ‘Read everything that comes across your desk. Don’t assume you know everything. Pay attention.’ I hope he’ll continue to help me settle in.”
For his part, Shaw sees Malay as a worthy successor, having watched her grow in her time on the Pittsford Selectboard.
“Our views are aligned on money issues,” he said. “She has the ability to analyze bills from the same perspective as me: how much is it going to cost and who’s going to pay? We don’t always agree on some social issues, but people often don’t.”
