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Vermont Business Magazine A moving violation ticket brings many hassles, but none is more severe than the effect it can have on your auto insurance premium. A national research firm has released its annual analysis of the impact on insurance rates because of a driving ticket. Vermont made the top 10 in two categories: DUI and reckless driving. However, even relatively minor violations, like failing to signal and drving too closely, can drive up insurance rates. For Vermont residents, failure to signal can increase rates by 14 percent. For the third year in a row, insuranceQuotes commissioned a Quadrant Information Services study that found auto insurance rates can climb by as much as 94 percent on average after a single moving violation.

Senator Patrick Leahy "I’m shocked and saddened by what state and federal investigators have found. I’m especially heartbroken for the people of the Northeast Kingdom, whose high hopes for these projects have been dealt a harsh blow.  My thoughts are with the many families impacted by this.  It is a good sign that both the federally appointed receiver and the state are doing what they can to keep these businesses open and to keep these Vermonters employed."

Vermont Business Magazine Calling it a "Ponzi-like" scheme, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in a filing in US District Court, Southern District of Florida unsealed a blistering civil suit against the owners Jay Peak Resort and Q Burke Resort about noon today. The case was filed April 12. In part it says (see document below) that, "This is an emergency action the Commission is bringing to stop an ongoing, massive eighht-year fraudulent scheme in which the Miami owner and the chief executive of a Vermont ski resort have systematically looted more then $50 million of the more than $350 million that has been raised from hundreds of foreign investors throught the US Citizenship and Immigration Service's EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine State and federal officials revealed Thursday that a massive fraudulent scheme was undertaken at Jay Peak Resort and Q Burke Resort that involved hundreds of millions of dollars and which goes back to 2008. The Securities & Exchange complaint alleges that the developers, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, engaged in a "Ponzi-like" scheme that "looted" foreign investors in the EB-5 program. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell in an analogy likened it to a "bank robbery." But so far only civil complaints have been filed on both the state and federal level. Criminal charges could come eventually. About $400 million in 10 developments, along with hundreds of jobs, are at stake.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine State government officials are holding a press conference today to explain why the locks had been changed, documents seized and the executive staff was displaced at Q Burke Resort Wednesday afternoon. Governor Peter Shumlin's spokesperson Scott Coriell told WCAX, which first reported the action, that: "We're aware of the situation in the Northeast Kingdom. This is a coordinated effort. We are unable to comment until relevant information is made public."

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s tech sector makes up a quarter of the state’s workers and 40 percent of its wages, and generates higher pay and faster job growth compared to the state’s overall economy. These are some of the key conclusions from a new report released Wednesday by the Vermont Technology Alliance, a non-profit business association that represents Vermont’s technology sector. 

by Patrick Leahy Vermonters, like millions of Americans across the country, are preparing for another tax deadline.  Middle class families work hard all year and, come Tax Day, many of us question whether our tax system is fair.  And no wonder.  Billion-dollar corporations routinely write off their most egregious misconduct as nothing more than the cost of doing business, saving millions of dollars.  And, in some cases, padding the wallets of wealthy CEOs.  This is not only unfair to hardworking families who struggle to pay their monthly bills, it simply wrong as a matter of a fair tax policy.  We must close this tax loophole, and that’s why I authored the No Tax-Write Offs for Corporate Wrongdoers Act.

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, April 11th the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with CAT-TV, launched the first of a series of episodes for a show called “Bennington Made.”  The Bennington Made show will focus on locally made Bennington products and the owner, operators and staff that make these quality products.

by Mike Faher/The Commons Entergy wants additional disposal options for Vermont Yankee’s contaminated water, but federal regulators say they don’t yet know enough about the liquid to approve that request. Citing “uncertainty in the concentration of radionuclides in the water,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding off on allowing Entergy to ship Vermont Yankee water to a facility in Idaho.

Vermont Business Magazine Otter Valley Union High School in Brandon is the third district in the past three years in the Rutland region to undertake major building improvement projects paid for with energy cost savings through a partnership with Johnson Controls. The two are implementing a $3.6 million energy performance contract that will help the school make much-needed upgrades to the building and dramatically reduce its carbon emissions, while paying for the improvements over the next 18 years through substantial energy cost savings.

by Mike Faher/The Commons A developer says preliminary environmental studies — including detailed assessments of noise and visual impacts — have shown no “red flags” for the proposed 28-turbine, 96.6-megawatt Stiles Brook Wind Project in Windham County. But no scientific studies are needed to gauge the level of skepticism some residents feel about the project.

Vermont Business Magazine Orange County is Vermont's stealth agricultural county, flying under the radar as the county with the third most farms in the state (748), fourth in agricultural sales ($55 million), and fifth in land in agricultural production (105,235 acres). Beef and livestock farms are on the rise and the county is third highest in vegetable sales.