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Public Assets Institute Vermont personal income grew by 5.5 percent in 2023—to $43 billion total—the fastest growth in New England and slightly faster than the U.S. as a whole. The major components—earnings, dividends, interest, rent, and transfer payments—all increased, with transfer payments seeing the strongest growth. Transfers include Social Security, unemployment, medical (including Medicaid and Medicare), and other income from government sources. Personal income does not include capital gains. Vermont saw the second-highest percentage jump in transfers, while it trailed most states in the growth of earnings, dividends, interest, and rental income. In 2020 and 2021, individual pandemic aid drove transfer payments up across the country before they came back down in 2022. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation are pleased to announce the 2024 Barn Preservation Grant awardees. This year, the program will award $350,235 to fund 20 preservation projects in eleven Vermont counties. These grants will leverage $1 million in restoration and rehabilitation efforts. The program received 28 applications this year requesting a total of $483,424 in grant funding. Historic Preservation Barn Grants awarded this year will support projects from Brattleboro to Island Pond. The iconic East Monitor Barn in Richmond will receive funding for a new slate roof, while unusual slate siding will be repaired on two agricultural structures at the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Bar Association joins the American Bar Association in condemning the continued attacks on judges and other members of our judicial system. The VBA is a non-profit and non-partisan organization that is committed to robust civil discourse and the exercise of First Amendment rights – but we will not, and cannot, tolerate personal attacks on judges, court staff, and their families. Threats against, and false statements about, members of our judiciary have no place in our legal system and ultimately undermine the public’s respect for the rule of law. 

Vermont Business Magazine Today, as the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Vermont Department of Public Service has been selected to receive $62,450,000 through the Solar for All grant competition to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar. This award is part of the historic $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to lower energy costs for families, create good-quality jobs in communities that have been left behind, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis. Solar for All Vermont’s (SAV) mission is to lower the cost of electricity for low-income and disadvantaged Vermonters through the ownership of solar arrays—maximizing greenhouse gas emission reductions and solar market development in the process. 

Vermont Business Magazine In celebration of Earth Day, Attorney General Charity Clark today announced the conclusion of the fourth annual Earth Day Essay Challenge for Vermont’s fifth and sixth graders. The annual event began in 2021 with the Attorney General’s Office inviting students to submit essays on the environment and Earth Day. This year’s essay challenge began in February and ran through mid-April. The Attorney General’s Office received 21 essays from students in different parts of Vermont, from Townshend in the southern part of the state, all the way to Charleston in the Northeast Kingdom.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Saturday welcomed more than 130 students from across Vermont to his second-annual Youth Chess Day. Held at Vermont State University in Randolph, the event featured a learn-to-play session for students playing chess for the first time, as well as a recreational tournament for experienced players.

Vermont Business Magazine On Earth Day, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Chair of the Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, and US Representative Annie Kuster (D-N.H.-02) unveiled the Energizing Our Communities Act, legislation to support local communities that host Department of Energy (DOE)-supported transmission projects. The program will help build trust between local governments and transmission developers so the nation can sustainably increase transmission capacity, which is crucial to a national clean energy transition. The Energizing Our Communities Act invests revenue from certain federal Department of Energy loan programs back into communities, including tribal governments, who host transmission infrastructure. This bill aims to support national transmission grid build-out by ensuring communities see the benefits of transmission at the ground level.  

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Businesses have been committed to customer experience (CX) as a primary differentiator for years. And in the CX arena, our eyes have been trained on the “big wow” moments—memorable experiences designed to spur excitement and create lasting brand memories. And those moments are still vital for brand awareness and affinity. But the calculus is changing. As the business landscape evolves, so too does our understanding of what truly drives customer loyalty and growth. And it’s not just the “big wows” that matter. The “little wows” do, too. 

Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets The Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation’s Forest Health Program has unveiled a new tool to empower residents in the fight against invasive forest pests. The newly launched Vermont Forest Invasive Pest Status Map offers an interactive platform to track the spread of invasive species such as beech leaf disease, elm zigzag sawfly, elongate hemlock scale, emerald ash borer, and hemlock woolly adelgid across the state. The map provides users with a comprehensive overview of town infestations and detection years for each invasive pest. One of the key features of the map is its user-friendly interface. Users can select a pest to learn where it has been identified, basic information about it, and how to report sightings. 

Vermont Business Magazine RunVermont, the non-profit organization dedicated to producing premier running events across the state, announces that M&T Bank has renewed its title sponsorship agreement for the Vermont City Marathon & Relay. The new contract, signed on Thursday, April 18th, extends the partnership for an additional five years, ensuring that M&T Bank will continue to support the event through May 2029. M&T Bank's support extends far beyond just financial backing. The bank contributes anywhere from 50 to 100 volunteers annually and sponsors 30 to 50 runners, depending on the year, making a significant impact on the success of the event.

by Joyce Marcel, Vermont Business Magazine Whenever an institution happily gets a new president, the glowing reports make it sound like the old one was something of a liability. But in the case of the University of Vermont, each president has brought a unique contribution to the university — something that the university needed at that special, specific time. Each new president’s strengths build upon those of his or her predecessor. So it appears with the fascinating and accomplished Suresh Garimella, a mechanical engineer and scientific researcher who took over as UVM’s president in 2019 and has rapidly brought great changes to Vermont’s flagship land grant university. Garimella, 60, is the 27th president of the university.  Since taking office, he has gracefully led UVM through the pandemic lockdown; successfully streamlined, in spite of great criticism, the liberal arts curriculum; recruited at a high level; frozen tuition for five years; coaxed more support from the Vermont Legislature; doubled the endowment; oversaw a 47% growth in admissions applications; and greatly strengthened the research arm of the university.

Vermont Business Magazine On Friday, Representative Becca Balint (D-Vermont) released the following statement on the upcoming vote on H.R. 8034: “To give the Netanyahu government more offensive weapons at this stage is to condone the utter destruction of Gaza we’ve seen over the last seven months and risks fueling a deadly regional war. The United States cannot continue to support the extreme offensive that has caused unimaginable suffering to the Palestinian people. I will vote “no” on sending more offensive weapons and dollars to Israel."