Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved an amendment to Vermont’s Global Commitment to Health 1115 Demonstration waiver that authorizes the state to receive federal Medicaid funding for treatment services offered at inpatient facilities provided to Medicaid enrollees to treat addictions to opioids and other substances.

“Addiction and the impact it has on communities and families is felt throughout Vermont,” said Governor Phil Scott. “I appreciate the hard work of our Agency of Human Services and our federal partners at CMS in providing this important approval to ensure all Vermonters have access to the care they need when they are seeking treatment for addiction.”

Vermont Business Magazine Late yesterday evening, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation authorizing Army Corps of Engineer dam and water projects around the country.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Gregg L Haskin, 54, President/CEO of Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom, passed away unexpectedly at his home in Berlin on Wednesday, June 6. Arrangements are being made with the Perkins-Parker Funeral Home in Waterbury and a service will be held June 14. Kurt Gruendling, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, told VBM that he received the call early Wednesday morning that Haskin had died in his sleep.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on Thursday steered a funding bill through the US Senate Appropriations Committee that protects vital housing and community development programs important to Vermont from elimination by the Trump administration and maintains new investments achieved in last year’s bipartisan budget deal. Leahy is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The committee-passed bill provides $3.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), $1.36 billion for the Home Investment Partnership Programs (HOME), and $147 million for NeighborWorks. The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to eliminate these vital programs only to be rebuffed by Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday preserves key infrastructure resources for communities across Vermont and the nation. The bill includes $255 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Grants, $300 million for the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair, and $1 billion for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grants.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) outlined his plan to strengthen the United States Postal Service in a letter Thursday to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the chairman of the president’s task force on the Postal Service. Sanders includes several recommendations to help the Postal Service succeed and thrive into the 21st century, without moving toward privatization and endangering the jobs of the 640,000 Americans employed by the Postal Service.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill approved on Thursday by the committee includes several key Vermont initiatives to help veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Notably, the bill protects $40 million in funding for the PTSD Consultation Program, run out of the National Center for PTSD at White River Junction, and created by Leahy in fiscal year 2013.

This funding, targeted for a $20 million cut in the President’s budget, was preserved by a bipartisan group of Senate appropriators led by Leahy. The National Center for PTSD and the PTSD Brain Bank in White River Junction were the first such organizations in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and were created with crucial support from Leahy.

Vermont Business Magazine The Working Lands Enterprise Board awarded over $750,000 in grants to 25 Vermont agriculture and forest sector businesses and service providers at the State House today, in support of businesses and organizations that support Vermont’s working landscape. The Working Lands Enterprise Initiative has distributed over $3.8 million in grants since its inception in 2012, leading to an additional 428 jobs and $18.1 million in sales.

This year, the Working Lands Enterprise Fund received a donation of $16,000 from Ski Vermont. The annual Ski Vermont Grant went to Fairmont Farm from East Montpelier and will be used to fund the dairy farm’s Life on the Farm Camp. Every summer, this camp brings many non-farm families to the dairy farm to enjoy a firsthand farming experience.

US Census Bureau The US Census has released its updated school spending report. The current spending per pupil for all 50 states and the District of Columbia was $11,762 in 2016, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2015. The states spending the most per pupil were New York ($22,366), the District of Columbia ($19,159), Connecticut ($18,958), New Jersey ($18,402) and Vermont ($17,873). Lowest was Utah ($6,953). Vermont's relatively highest spending category per pupil was in school administration ($1,296; US average $651), which was second highest only to DC ($1,447). Vermont ranked sixth in teacher salaries ($6,743, US average $4,603; DC highest $9,547; New York highest state $9,407; Utah lowest, $2,698).

Markets fall as China cuts back and costs rise

by CB Hall Vermont Business Magazine The handling of Vermont's recyclable wastes has long been a more or less straightforward matter, of the out-of-sight, out-of-mind variety, but that's changing. China, which had been receiving about a third of all recyclables exported from the United States, announced last July that it would stop accepting 24 materials that have long been among those exports – including key components of the global trade in recyclables.

by Michele Morris, the Director of Outreach and Communications at Chittenden Solid Waste District Single-stream recycling has been known by many names: “all in one,” “commingled,” “No Sort” and “Zero Sort,” but all of them mean the same thing: You don’t have to sort your cardboard, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and other recyclables into separate bins. Just put them all in the same bin or cart, and the single-stream system will sort them for you.

by Jeff Wakefield, University of Vermont It’s been a whirlwind few months for Packetized Energy, the energy sector start-up spun off from a large Department of Energy project in 2016 by three UVM electrical engineering faculty, Paul Hines, Jeff Frolik and Mads Almassalkhi. After completing a pilot with Burlington Electric Department at the end of 2017, the company launched ambitious demonstration projects in January with Green Mountain Power and the Vermont Electric Cooperative that put its innovative technology to the test under real market conditions.