Current News

Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets Join Red Wagon Plants for a day of learning about getting started in the garden! Gardening is a lifelong hobby, and can be full of both bounty and challenges, especially in the early years. Red Wagon Plants is creating a whole day of workshops and activities geared towards the newer gardener. Come with all your questions, hopes, and dreams, and leave inspired for this year's planting season! Red Wagon Plants will also have cold hardy plant starts for sale, as well as seeds, soil, tools, pots, and more. The event is free. Workshops are $25 each.

by Emily Bradbury By the time Donovan Arnold was a junior at Richford High School, he had completed most of the available higher-level classes. “He only had a few graduation requirements to complete senior year,” said his school counselor, Allison Witherspoon. “Together, we discussed Early College as a good next step.” Vermont’s Early College program allows high school seniors to enroll full-time in college courses at no cost to them, earning college credit and a high school diploma at the same time. This spring, he will graduate from Richford High School with one year of college and a certificate in bookkeeping under his belt. The experience has been so positive for him that he plans to continue at CCV for a second year through the Free Degree Promise, currently funded by the McClure Foundation for the Vermont high school classes of 2023-2026. 

by Ellen Friedrich, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets The Best Management Practices (BMP) Program provides technical and financial assistance to farmers for the implementation of engineered, structural improvements on farmsteads which are designed to protect and improve water quality. The BMP program provides up to 90% cost share on eligible practices. The following are some examples of BMP eligible practices: Manure storage structures; Composting stack pads; Barnyard runoff collection systems; Gutter & ditches to divert clean water; Laneway development and stream crossings for livestock; Milk house waste collection and treatment systems. Since 2020, the BMP program has provided nearly 40 million dollars in cost share supporting water quality improvements on about 130 different farms across the state. The Severy Farm, owned and operated by Nate and Karianne Severy, is one of the many farms which has received technical and financial assistance through the BMP program.  

Vermont Business Magazine On Sunday afternoon, March 24, over 120 CVMC nurses and technical staff, community members, and legislators rallied in Barre. Seven months after winning their union election, techs and nurses are pushing the CVMC administration to agree to terms that would create livable wages for all staff, reduce consistent staffing challenges and improve patient care as a result. 

by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine Good. Solid. These are the two words used by many in Windsor County to describe the economy in 2024. Not the most exciting descriptors, to be sure. Yet, after the one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s summer floods, residents are all too willing to settle for “good” and “solid” nowadays. Jason Rasmussen, executive director of the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, laughed when asked how he would characterize the county’s economy. “In the middle of the summer, I may have had a little different answer, but mostly good,” he said. “I mean ... you know ... interesting times, right?”Still, Windsor faces many of the same challenges plaguing other Vermont counties: the high cost of living; a lack of affordable housing and child care services; workforce shortages; and difficulty accessing public transportation.

by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine “Springfield’s economy has evolved — and is evolving,” said Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., which serves 10 towns in southern Windsor County. The community had moved on from the machine tool industry by the time Goldman Industrial Group went bankrupt in 2002. He said the bulk of the layoffs happened in the late 1980s and 1990s. In his opinion, the Springfield region is similar to other Vermont communities.

by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine Win Brown, interim CEO of Mount Ascutney Hospital and Health Center watches the MicroMOO from his office window. All day, the cow-print van ferries patients to and from the hospital. “I can look out at the front drive, and it drops and drops and drops all day,” he said. “It’s really a great thing.” The all-wheel van, decorated with a cow-print pattern, is part of a three-year pilot testing an on-demand public transportation service. Like a private car service, riders within the town limits can schedule a pick-up through a phone call or app, and within 30 minutes, the MicroMOO arrives.

Vermont Business Magazine What could a town do with 139 acres? Chester’s new Housing Commission seeks to answer that question. Surprise! Like many Vermont communities, Chester has a housing shortage and the municipality needs to act to attract more young families and middle-income workers. “I’m biased,” said Town Manager Julie Hance. “Chester is fabulous.” The Selectboard hired Hance as town manager in 2020. She has devoted more than 15 years to the town in various jobs, including assistant town manager, assistant town clerk, assistant town treasurer, and zoning administrator.

by Jules Older, Vermont Business Magazine Apple is being sued by the United States Justice Department along with 16 American states, including Vermont, and the District of Columbia. They charge that Apple has violated American antitrust laws by illegally keeping customers reliant on their iPhones and are thus, less likely to switch to a competing phone. The suit argues that Apple’s practices hurt both consumers and the smaller companies that compete with it. These are serious charges brought by serious entities. I take them seriously. But.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont House of Representatives achieved a historic milestone by unanimously passing H.121, an act relating to enhancing consumer privacy, with a resounding vote of 139-0. In a time where our every move, word, and heartbeat are incessantly documented by a myriad of devices, the urgency for comprehensive consumer data privacy laws has never been more critical. Vermont has a long history of prioritizing consumer privacy protections, and in the absence of federal legislation, we have a duty to protect our own. Consumer data privacy bills are incredibly complex and interconnected - definitions, consumer rights, business obligations, and exceptions exist in a delicate balance and even seemingly small changes in language can have cascading effects. 

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) voted early this morning to keep the government open and advance nearly $13 million of Congressionally Directed Spending for eight Vermont-based projects nominated by the Senator. This is in addition to nearly $30 million in federal funds passed in early March as part of the first tranche of government funding, which will support 19 Vermont projects nominated by Sen. Welch. The Congressionally Directed Spending was included in a bipartisan agreement that included appropriations for Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Legislative Branch; and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. 

Leonine Public Affairs As the House Appropriations Committee works to wrap up the FY2025 budget, all eyes are on the House Ways and Means Committee as they churn out new tax proposals. As a reminder, some new taxes that have been on the table for years - sugar-sweetened beverages, candy, and software - are still on the table. But this week, the House Ways and Means Committee brought out three new tax increases. The committee approved proposals to double the property transfer tax on homes over $600,000 ($17.5 million), increase the top marginal income tax rate to 11.75 percent (a three percent increase that would raise $74.9 million), and increase corporate taxes from 8.5 to 10 percent and add back currently deductible Subpart F corporate income ($33 million). If approved, Vermont would have the highest corporate tax rate in the country.