Current News

Vermont Business Magazine In response to ongoing and worsening drought conditions across the state, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM) is launching a 2025 Agriculture Drought Impact Survey to understand its effects on Vermont farms. This year's drought is the third consecutive season farmers have suffered severe weather impacts, including frost and floods, and now drought.  Many Vermont businesses, still not fully recovered from the 2023 and 2024 frosts and flooding, are once again facing uncertainty and impacts. VAAFM is asking Vermont's agricultural producers to participate in the 2025 Agriculture Drought Impact Survey. The purpose of this survey is to capture the scale and location of drought related impacts experienced throughout the state in 2025.  

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Bank Foundation invested nearly $400,000 in its communities through grants to 96 nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont from July to September. “We are committed to supporting the nonprofits in our communities that are doing important work to meet the needs of so many,” said Lori Kiely, managing director of the Berkshire Bank Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Berkshire Bank, a division of Beacon Bank & Trust.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will be pausing its online temporary registration services beginning on November 1 in order to complete necessary IT work on its computer systems. This work is in preparation for the rollout of additional online customer services that will launch in early November as the final phase of the DMV’s process of modernizing its outdated computer systems. Some of the IT work that needs to be done involves making changes to the online temporary plate service to require payment of applicable registration and title fees, and purchase and use tax, in addition to the temporary plate fee. The goal is to remove the pause on the system by January 2026, when all the IT work has been completed. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Education has released the preliminary 2024-2025 Vermont Comprehensive Assessment Program (VTCAP) statewide results. The assessments in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics are administered annually to students in grades 3-9 and assess students’ mastery of the Common Core State Standards. The science assessment is administered to students in grades 5, 8, and 11 and assesses students’ mastery of the Next Generation Science Standards. Overall, statewide proficiency rates across all subjects in 2024-2025 remained largely consistent with VTCAP performance in 2023-2024. Most grade-level proficiency rates either remained identical to 2023-2024 or shifted by a percentage point or less, with the exception of ELA proficiency rates among 4th and 5th graders, which increased by 7 and 5 percentage points, respectively.

Vermont Business Magazine BETA Technologies, Inc., the electric aerospace company based n South Burlington, announced Wednesday that it has launched an initial public offering of 25 million shares of its Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, at an anticipated initial offering price between $27.00 and $33.00 per share pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to CNBC, this would raise as much as $825 million and value BETA at $7.2 billion at the top end of the range.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.14 per gallon, down 1 per gallon from last week, down 7 cents/g from last month and down 4 cents/g from last year, according to AAA. The lowest price in the state this week was $2.83/g while the highest was $4.20/g, a difference of $1.37/g. Prices were lowest in Bennington ($2.94/g) and Rutland ($3.01/g) counties and highest in Essex ($3.23/g), Franklin ($3.23/g) and Grand Isle ($3.26/g). The national average price of gasoline has fallen 6 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.05/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s natural beauty is central to our identity — and clean water is at the heart of it. From rising floods to summer droughts, Vermonters are seeing firsthand how water shapes our communities and way of life. As these challenges grow, so does the need for smart, community-driven investment in clean water. Vermont’s Clean Water Board is seeking public input on the State Fiscal Year 2027 Clean Water Budget by November 16, 2025. Vermonters can weigh in on how they would like to prioritize approximately $45 million in funding for projects to protect and improve our rivers, lakes, ponds, and wetlands, and the services they provide to clean and store our water. 

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Natural Resources Council and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) notified Vorsteveld, LLP, a large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) in Panton, Vermont (Addison County), of their intent to sue for federal Clean Water Act violations.  What VNRC and CLF know is that the farm is violating the Clean Water Act by dumping pollutants into Vermont waterways that feed into Lake Champlain. This pollution is happening via numerous pipes that pour toxic pesticides directly into tributaries without a permit. Testing found multiple harmful pollutants - including atrazine, metolachlor, and clothianidin (a neonicotinoid) - draining from this site.

Vermont Business Magazine While Vermont ranks No. 16 in electric vehicle sales in market share by state, the state has slipped just below the US average in the 2025 second quarter. In Vermont EVs are 8.85% of new light-duty vehicle sales. The US average is 9.5%, as states like California, Colorado and Washington dominate the market. Vermont ranks No. 15 in ratio of EVs to public chargers. Alliance for Automotive Innovation released its exclusive state-by-state analysis of the U.S. electric vehicle market for Q2 2025. The Get Connected Electric Vehicle Report summarizes EV sales, purchasing trends and charging infrastructure across the country.  

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointment of Zach Weight as a Special Prosecutor assigned to work with the Chittenden County State’s Attorney to assist in relieving the backlog of service-resistant repeat offender criminal cases, with an initial focus on individuals who have five or more open dockets and are awaiting trial. Weight has served as Deputy State’s Attorney in Washington County since April 2023. For a decade prior to joining that office, he was a criminal defense attorney who practiced in all 14 of Vermont’s counties. A graduate of Vermont Law School, Zach’s family hails from Proctor and Wallingford. Zach lives in Milton with his husband, Will, and their dog, Brady.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) is pleased to announce an upcoming $8,000,000 in grant funding through the Agricultural Clean Water Initiative Program (AGCWIP) for local and regional partners to provide services for Vermont farms, supporting the improvement of water quality across the state. Local and regional partners play a vital role in supporting implementation of conservation practices that achieve reductions in nutrient runoff from agricultural operations, providing connection between state and federal programs, and farmers. AGCWIP grants provide critical funding opportunities to strengthen organizations that provide education and outreach and technical assistance to Vermont farms.   

Vermont Business Magazine Union Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ - UNB) Wednesday announced results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025 and declared a regular quarterly cash dividend. Consolidated net income was $3.4 million and $8.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025, respectively, compared to $1.3 million and $5.8 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, respectively. Earnings for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024 were reduced by the impact of the strategic balance sheet repositioning whereby the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Union Bank, executed the sale of $38.8 million in book value of its lower-yielding available-for-sale debt securities for a pre-tax realized loss of $1.3 million, which was recorded in the third quarter of 2024.