Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Paid sick leave in Vermont took another step toward being achieved, as the Senate Economic Development Committee voted the bill out Thursday with a 5-0 unanimous vote. The Healthy Workplaces bill (H187) passed the House last year with a vote of 72-63. Governor Peter Shumlin (D-Vermont) has called for the bill to pass and be sent to him for signature. Businesses have been concerned about the cost of the program and about how the plan rectifies differences between existing plans, which most employers have, and the new law. Many Vermonters work for companies that are based out-of-state.

Vermont Business Magazine Increases in local food consumption, jobs, and overall economic activity in the farm and food sector over the past five years are highlighted in the 2015 Farm to Plate Annual Report, released by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. 2016 marks the halfway point of the release of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan and the Farm to Plate Network is entering its 5th year implementing Vermont’s food system plan. 

Vermont Business Magazine Customers of Green Mountain Power are incredibly pleased with their energy company, a new study concluded, with 92 percent saying they are satisfied with the service they received from GMP. The customer study shows an improvement of four percentage points over the last year.  In addition, 90 percent rated their trust in GMP as high, up four percentage points from the previous year. Reliability, especially in the wake of recent intense storms over the past several years, is critically important to customers and 97 percent say GMP provides reliable electric service. This annual survey from 400 telephone interviews is required by the Vermont Public Service Department to measure quality levels and customer satisfaction.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Gas announced Wednesday that it now provides service to over 50,000 families, businesses and institutions in Chittenden and Franklin counties. The company is celebrating its 50^th anniversary of service in Vermont this year. “It is an honor to provide the choice and opportunity of cleaner, more affordable natural gas to more than 50,000 Vermonters,” said Don Rendall, President and CEO of Vermont Gas. “Our customers are saving money and reducing carbon emissions as compared to oil and propane heat and we are excited about extending service to more Vermonters in the coming year.”

Will Metro, of Williston, recently converted his four-unit apartment building in Colchester to natural gas.

by Tom Pelham Governor Shumlin’s recent budget speech is a vain attempt to craft a legacy of fiscal responsibility. But, it’s too late for that; the damage is done to both Vermont’s fiscal standing and the governor’s legacy. Some housekeeping is in order. Governor Shumlin points a finger at former Governor Douglas for the state’s fiscal woes; but state fiscal records reveal otherwise. Governor Douglas vetoed the fiscal 2010 budget not because it spent too little, but because it spent too much. It was Senate President Pro Tempore Shumlin and House Speaker Smith who in June 2009 lead the veto override and henceforth set Vermont on its current unsustainable spending trajectory.

Vermont Business Magazine Comcast Business has introduced WiFi Pro for SMBs and enterprise branch locations in Vermont and nationwide. Offering features previously only available to headquarters and other large office locations, WiFi Pro was built to enable a wide range of businesses to serve both guests/patrons and employees as the demand for WiFi grows. WiFi Pro is a comprehensive Wi-Fi solution that includes cloud-based controls, marketing tools and other advanced capabilities.

by Ron Miller Last year, the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD)  launched the Vermont Climate Change Economy Initiative. Organizers believe that making a deliberate, planned effort to guide economic activity in the state toward climate change mitigation and adaptation can “build national reputation, create jobs, and attract youth and entrepreneurism.” At a daylong summit attended by more than 400 business and community leaders, science and policy experts, and other citizens from around the state, VCRD gathered dozens of ideas and a clear sense of direction about how to proceed, and appointed a Vermont Climate Change Economy Council to draft a comprehensive plan. This group held three public forums around the state in the past year to further explore possible approaches.

Vermont Business Magazine As Iowa voters gear up to decide whose vision for America they support, six organizations, including Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, were honored with the Allstate/Atlantic Media Renewal Awards for innovative local approaches to pressing issues affecting communities across the country. The awards will were presented Tuesday at a summit on social innovation at Drake University. The six winners, who were identified after a year-long national search and through the Atlantic Media editorial series, represent some of America’s best social innovators. Their efforts confirm a recent National Journal/Allstate Heartland Monitor Poll that found 69 percent of Americans believe that solutions to the country’s biggest economic and social challenges will most likely come from state or local institutions.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, Lisa Ventriss, President of Vermont Business Roundtable (VBR) and Jeffrey Carr, President, Economic & Policy Resources (EPR), announced the Q4 2015/Q1 2016 results of their joint initiative, the VBR-EPR Business Conditions Survey. The survey, which is conducted quarterly, provides both a look back at the previous quarter and a predictive index going forward. The data for both the backward and forward-looking questions are weighted to the Vermont economy by sector employment and turned into “diffusion indices”.1 These diffusion indices provide a tool for analyzing and presenting insight into the Vermont economy over time through the sentiments of the Roundtable members.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Vermont once again is 49th (second worst) in the 2015 ALEC "Rich States, Poor States" report, which was released last week. New York ranked 50th (Vermont and New York have occupied the last two spots in each of the reports eight years). Meanwhile, Utah was first, North Dakota was second and Indiana third best. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, as usual, took a beating in the report, despite having many of the highest-income states.

Public Assets Institute Warm weather and a lack of snow took a toll on Vermont’s tourist industry in December. The accommodation and food services sector lost 2,200 jobs from the previous month. With gains elsewhere, Vermont netted a loss of 2,100 jobs. Accommodation and food services jobs dropped significantly in December 2014 too, also thanks to rain and warm temperatures. Typically this sector sees a change of only a few hundred jobs from November to December.

Vermont Business Magazine Are you part of, or do you know of, a Vermont nonprofit or community organization in need of a small, year-round, sustainably-built and -operable, permanent or portable structure? Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield seeks a client-partner for its fall 2016 Semester in Sustainable Design/Build program and offers pro-bono design and construction services for a building to serve an organization’s programmatic, mission-related operation. Yestermorrow’s structures are known for evocative design, energy efficiency, and quick completion.