Current News

​Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc of Rutland reported its financial results on Thursday, which show a strong second quarter. The company raised its revenue, net income, Adjusted EBITDA, net cash provided by operating activities, and Adjusted Free Cash Flow guidance ranges for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. And for the first time in Casella's history, consolidated revenues surpassed $1.0 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, 2022.

Vermont Business Magazine The state economists are expecting historic tax revenues to continue to grow through the next two fiscal years, though easing back by FY24. Personal and corporate taxes, along with rooms & meals and the sales tax, will lead the way, as they have over the last two years. Downside risks include a tight labor market, housing costs, inflation, supply chain issues, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing pandemic and the frankly uncertain effects of the Fed action to increase interest rates. On the other hand, there is no expectation of a spike in the unemployment rate nor in a housing collapse. Americans have an enormous amount of stored-up wealth and pent-up demand.

Vermont Auditor of Accounts Vermont policymakers have grappled for years with how to tackle the state’s persistent homelessness challenge. Prior to the pandemic, Vermont’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count – an annual one-day snapshot of persons experiencing homelessness – hovered around 1,100 people, but the number increased significantly during the pandemic. We conclude that Vermont has spent more than $455 million in the last six years, with $300 million of that just in the last two. Throughout that time period, 200-300 households per night were typically housed in state-funded motel rooms. By April 2021, more than a year into the pandemic, there were more than 2,000 households staying in a motel or hotel funded by the GA Emergency Housing program. While these investments benefited the many Vermonters who received shelter, services, financial support, and/or new housing, it is not clear that there is a unified vision of what a steady state system to address homelessness should look like.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont is set to receive another substantial settlement in its ongoing work to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in the opioid crises. For the second time this week, a drug manufacturer, Abbvie, disclosed a proposed settlement to its investors in its earnings report released today. The proposed settlement will require Allergan, acquired by Abbvie in 2020, to pay up to $2.37 billion to participating states and local governments, Vermont Attorney General Susanne Young announced today.

Vermont Business Magazine Comcast will expand its fast, reliable and fiber-rich network to five new communities – Elmore, Eden, Sudbury, Wardsboro, and Wolcott – and further into four communities it already serves – Hubbardton, Jamaica, Stratton, and Morristown – as part of its latest project to make broadband available to more Vermonters. This network expansion delivers Comcast’s innovative portfolio of Xfinity and Comcast Business services, including residential broadband speeds up to 6 gigabits per second (Gbps) and business speeds up to 100 Gbps, to more than 2,000 additional residents and businesses in the Green Mountain State.

Vermont Business Magazine Non-traditional educational institutions designed to support creative students of all learning styles and abilities have been under threat, according to the Goddard College faculty union. Students who need degree credentials but who find standard grading systems, enormously high price tag, and bureaucratic requirements that hem in creativity extremely prohibitive have had fewer choices for college that fit their needs in recent years.

Vermont Business Magazine Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced in a press release dated today that Seth Andrew was sentenced to 366 days in prison in connection with his execution of a scheme to defraud Democracy Prep Public Schools, a charter school network that he founded, of more than $218,000. United States District Judge John P. Cronan imposed today’s sentence. An educational entrepreneur, Andrew was the public face of the nonprofit that purchased the Marlboro College campus in 2020. After more than a year of "messy" negotiations and legal haggling, the campus was acquired last September by the operators of the Marlboro Music Festival.

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF) today hailed the US House of Representatives’ passage of legislation to increase US semiconductor manufacturing known as “CHIPS and Science Act." The CHIPS legislation now moves to the White House and awaits President Biden’s signature. The Biden Administration has been a strong supporter of increasing semiconductor manufacturing and the many jobs it creates in the US, an effort that has been led by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. GF has a major semiconductor plant in Essex Jct, Vermont, which employs about 2,000 people.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Broadband Board has awarded Maple Broadband a construction grant of $8.69 million. The award was made on July 15th and will enable Maple Broadband to roll out services exclusively to underserved areas within its designated geographic area. The source of the grant funding is the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Maple Broadband is a Communications Union District (CUD) composed of 20 member towns in Addison County.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported July 27 that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are still considered "Low." Total cases for the week fell by more than 100. Meanwhile, hospitalizations saw a slight increase. The BA.5 variant has become the predominant variant of COVID-19. There were 12 deaths in June attributed to COVID after 32 in May. May saw an increase in fatalities from April and March. June had the fewest COVID fatalities since last July 2021 (2). As of July 25, there have been 9 deaths from COVID in Vermont in July for a pandemic total of 693. The rate of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Vermonters is below 200. New COVID-19 admissions are below 10 per 100,000 Vermonters per day, and the percent of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 is below 10%.

Vermont Business Magazine Over $11 million of a $50 million program to pay overdue housing costs for homeowners impacted by the pandemic has been disbursed within the first six months of the program. The Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) launched the Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) in January 2022 with funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. It provides grants of up to $30,000 for income-eligible homeowners.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Women’s Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation has announced the release of a mid-year report for This Way UP: there’s power in our numbers, the initiative to count and identify women business owners in the state. The goal of This Way UP is to provide missing pieces of Vermont’s economic data, including the size and scope of women-owned businesses and what they need to succeed and grow. To date, the 2,250 businesses that have been identified and counted (70 of whom are business leaders running companies and nonprofits)