Current News

Today the leadership of two major statewide business organizations released a joint statement in opposition to the Shumlin Administration’s proposed payroll tax on businesses. The proposed 0.7 percent tax is intended to help pay for Medicaid, reduce the cost shift to individuals with company-sponsored health insurance, and thus reduce costs to those businesses which offer health insurance to their employees.

Davis and Hodgdon Associates CPAs conducted its semi-annual economic survey in January regarding the outlook of Vermont-based businesses. Business owners are primarily concerned about what they will face in 2015 which include health insurance costs, tax law changes, and finding qualified employees. These concerns are consistent with last year’s answers to the survey. Across the board, business owners are reporting that high taxes and rising costs of health care are making it difficult to stay competitive with neighboring states.

These businesses also believe that the US economy is doing well, while a plurality see the Vermont economy as declining. SEE TABLES OF RESULTS BELOW

Senator Bill Doyle (R-Washington) has released partial results of his Town Meeting Day survey. Because of interest in the tax-related questions, which the Legislature will be gearing up for as they make the long, hard drive toward adjournment in May, Doyle tabulated those four of the 14 questions. He said that the results were not surprising among the 5,300 ballots he has counted so far (he expects to have the full results from all 7,500 returned ballots for all the questions in about two weeks). Town Meeting goers decisively opposed the payroll tax to reduce the cost of Medicaid; weren't too sure over the carbon tax; had a strong, but-split, opinion on the sugary drink tax, and supported a one-day sales tax holiday.

Senator Doyle began conducting his poll of Town Meeting participants in 1969. See tax-related results below.

by John McClaughry The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are struggling valiantly to report a balanced General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2016. The presently estimated shortfall is about $130 million, 8 percent of the proposed General Fund budget. This is a result of the chronic tendency of Legislatures to find ever more things to spend money on, and state revenues currently coming in well under the projections of funds available.

Raise taxes? It was eight years ago that the present governor declared, repeatedly, that “Vermont has no remaining tax capacity”. This year Governor Shumlin’s proposal for a 0.7 percent payroll tax is getting a “less than lukewarm” reception in House Ways and Means. Even some of the Legislature’s most liberal members are gun shy about levying any significant tax increases.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, Library Director Rubi Simon, and community partners have announced that the City of Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library (FFL) has been selected through a nationwide competitive process as one of 19 US public libraries to host “Exploring Human Origins: What Does It Mean to Be Human?,” a traveling exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the American Library Association (ALA). The exhibition will be hosted at FFL from February 18, 2017 – March 17, 2017. Through panels, interactive kiosks, hands-on displays and videos, the exhibition invites audiences to explore milestones in the evolutionary journey of becoming human — from walking upright, creating technology and eating new foods, to brain enlargement and the development of symbolic language and complex societies — advancements that define the unique position of humans in the history of life.

FairPoint Communications, Inc, Vermont's largest telecom provider, today announced it has added a senior leadership position designed to work with economic and community development leaders across northern New England. Karen A Mead, a 30-year telecom industry veteran, will assume the newly created role of Senior Vice President, External Relations and Community High-Speed Internet Development.

In this role, Mead will serve as FairPoint’s community high-speed Internet development liaison and work closely with community and economic development organizations to define and develop solutions to meet the growing infrastructure needs through creative and collaborative solutions using Ethernet and fiber-based solutions.

The Vermont Public Service Department (PSD) is developing its 2nd annual edition of the Vermont Clean Energy Industry Report. As part of the Report, the Department, through its Clean Energy Development Fund, wishes to again SURVEY the state's clean energy businesses. VMEC has been asked to assist in reaching out and spreading the word about this clean energy business sector opportunity. The Public Service Department has engaged BW Research Partnership, an independent research firm, to conduct this time sensitive survey.

The detailed information from this State-led initiative will be used to "better expand and support this growing industry." The Vermont PSD assures responders that individual responses will remain Strictly Confidential. The survey responses go directly to BW Research, who will analyze the data and present information to the PSD in a summarized format only.

Sterling College has earned a STARS Gold Rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education. This is Sterling College’s first time participating in STARS. The College’s STARS report is publicly available on the STARS website:

https://stars.aashe.org/institutions/sterling-college-vt/report/2015-02-17/

The Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) has recently approved financing that will allow 3 businesses to expand and create at least 23 new jobs in Addison County. Middlebury-based Full Sun Company and Good Point Recycling as well as Bristol-based VT Farm Table have all received loans through ACEDC’s revolving loan funds.

Robin Scheu, Executive Director of ACEDC, noted that ACEDC will lend approximately $15,000 to Full Sun Company a specialty oil-seed processor. As a result of this investment in new equipment, Full Sun expects to create 3 new full-time jobs over the next three years. Beginning in early 2014, Full Sun began processing sunflower & non-gmo canola oil crops into edible oil and high-protein meal. These oils are distributed through local CSAs & farm stores, specialty food shops, health & wellness centers, and direct to chefs in the Northeast.

The Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Vermont Planning Associations, the Vermont Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vermont Section and the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Council jointly announce the winning submittals to the 2014 Vermont Public Places Awards. This is an awards program organized to honor Vermont’s public places. Together these groups initiated the Vermont Public Places Awards to recognize special public spaces, the corridors that connect them, or networks of public spaces which have been defined or enriched by planning or design, as well as regulations that promote positive, public uses and benefits.

This year, Vermont Public Places Honor Awards have been presented to:

Hannaford Supermarkets today donated approximately $5,000 in food to the Vermont Foodbank as part of a hunger-relief campaign that produced more than $1 million in product and cash donations across five Northeast states, including $107,000 in Vermont.

Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger took place in December and included a you-buy-one, we-give-one component; Hannaford pledged to donate identical products when customers purchased specific shelf-stable items. The food donated Thursday included 109 cases of pasta, 88 cases of sauce, 146 cases of vegetables and 83 cases of cereal.

”Hannaford’s loyal partnership in the mission of ensuring no one in Vermont goes hungry is invaluable to the Vermont Foodbank and our communities,” said John Sayles, Vermont Foodbank CEO. “For years, Hannaford and their customers have been providing food and funds to make our communities stronger and better fed, and we are so grateful.”

by Elizabeth Hewitt vtdigger.org Even after Vermont lawmakers find a way to mend the 2016 budget, there’s more bad news ahead. Vermont will have to find at least $48.8 million to solve funding gaps in FY 2017 and FY 2018, according to projections from the Joint Fiscal Office. As it stands, Vermont lawmakers are facing down a budget gap of at least $112 million in the current fiscal year.

Lawmakers have yet to determine how to fill the remaining gap between the $94 million that the governor’s budget filled and an additional $18.6 million stemming from a revenue downgrade in January.

Representative Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday she hopes to have a proposal for a balanced budget by the end of the week.