Current News

By Don Vickers Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) spent many years providing education loans to Vermont students and parents through the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). We stopped making federal loans in July 2010 when the government switched to a system of ‘direct lending’ to families through the colleges students attend.
One of the questions we received the most during our final years in FFELP was why federal loan interest rates had risen so high. Even though we no longer issue new federal loans, we still get that question. Many Vermonters assumed that direct lending would result in lower rates, but that was never part of the plan. Nor are there any rate relief proposals on the horizon.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin today announced a plan to assist communities recovering from Tropical Storm Irene. Dubbed the Community Recovery Partnership, this initiative will target affected towns and regions with facilitated community conversations and cross-agency State support, as well as collaboration in long-term planning and implementation of recovery efforts.
‘We know that all recovery is local and the best role for the State is to support the towns. The first step is to talk with communities about both their current needs and their future plans, in order to better gauge the additional assistance they will need going forward,’ said the Governor. ‘We need to harness the incredible community energy of the past two months and direct it toward rebuilding Vermont into a stronger, smarter and safer state.’

David Reynolds, Senior Policy Advisor for Health to United States Senator Bernie Sanders, will join BISHCA as Deputy Commissioner of Health Care Administration. The Health Care Administration oversees hospital budget review and the certificate of need process, maintains health care data bases, oversees quality reporting by hospitals and health insurers and supervises external claim reviews. HCA is also responsible for liaison between BISHCA and the Green Mountain Care Board. Reynolds will begin work at BISHCA in early December.
‘David Reynolds brings a rare combination of policy knowledge and on the ground experience in the delivery of health care to our work implementing health care reform in Vermont,’ said BISHCA Commissioner Steve Kimbell. ‘I am very glad to have him join our team at BISHCA,’ he continued.

Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE: CV) reported consolidated earnings of $0.5 million, or 2 cents per diluted share of common stock, for the first nine months of 2011 compared to $15.6 million, or $1.27 per diluted share of common stock, for the same period in 2010. The third-quarter results were a loss of $8.6 million or 65 cents per common share, $1.44 lower than in 2010.
The reduced earnings of $15.1 million for the nine months of 2011, compared to 2010 were primarily due to costs associated with the company's pending sale to a subsidiary of Gaz Métro Limited Partnership, Northern New England Energy Corporation, which included a $19.5 million termination payment to Fortis Inc. Other factors were increases in operating expenses, including service restoration costs, partially offset by related deferrals as allowed by our alternative regulation plan.

On Veterans Day, Friday November 11, members of the University of Vermont community will commemorate the more than 6,200 veterans who sacrificed their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by participating in Remembrance Day National Roll Call, joining more than 170 campuses across the country.
UVM’s Veterans Collaborative Organization and the Student Government Association are sponsoring the event. UVM is the only Vermont school participating.
Beginning at 7 am, 25 UVM students, faculty and staff will read the names of all of the veterans in chronological order, beginning with the first fallen soldier. Each reader will speak for 15 minutes from a podium in front of the Bailey Howe library. The reading of the names will take about eight hours to complete.

Less than two years after the old Champlain Bridge was imploded on a snowy day just after Christmas 2009, the new Lake Champlain Bridge was opened to traffic about 3:30 this afternoon.

Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) introduced a voluntary renewable pricing program today which provides a convenient way for VEC members to support green energy projects in its northern Vermont service territory. VEC’s Green Team program gives VEC members a way to promote small scale energy development including solar, wind, and hydropower projects by making voluntary, fixed monthly contributions when paying their electric bills.
Both residential and commercial members of the Co-op are eligible to join the VEC Green Team. When signing up, members may choose from one of three fixed monthly contribution levels. The highest level reflects the incremental cost that an average consumer would pay on their electric bill if their entire supply of electricity was generated by renewable power sources.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will hold three public meetings, from November 14th to 17th, regarding the Vermont Public Transit Policy Plan.
Last completed in 2007, the Public Transit Policy Plan outlines the State’s transit policies and goals and develops strategies to meet current and emerging public transit challenges. VTrans is updating this plan, and seeks public input in this second round of meetings to review the draft of the final report and receive input and comments.
The public meeting times and locations are:
November 14, 2011
7:00 p.m. Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, 110 West Canal Street, Suite 202, Winooski, VT 05404; Telephone: (802) 846-4490
November 16, 2011
4:00 p.m. Vermont Interactive Television ‘ 13 sites (Randolph Ctr. and Waterbury not available) across the state, see www.vitlink.org for info. and directions to the sites.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)) and Representative Peter Welch (D-VT) today welcomed a ‘special review’ by the State Department inspector general of the department’s handling of a controversial Tar Sands oil pipeline.
Sanders and Welch led members of Congress who last Oct. 26 asked Deputy Inspector General Harold W. Geisel to investigate whether conflicts of interest tainted the process for reviewing a proposed crude oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Vermont home prices fell six-tenths of one percent over the last year as distressed sales pushed down what otherwise was an increase of 3.1 percent in the price of an average home whentroubled properties were removed from the equation. Both numbers, however, remain considerably better than most other states and the nation as a whole. CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its September Home Price Index, which shows that home prices in the US decreased 1.1 percent on a month-over-month basis, the second consecutive monthly decline.

More than 300 people jammed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ town meeting at Montpelier High School Sunday on how to save the US Postal Service.
Sanders (I-Vt.) said he will introduce legislation this week to address the Postal Service’s financial woes without resorting to drastic cutbacks in service and massive layoffs. He blamed the Postal Service’s money troubles largely on accounting issues, including a law requiring it to set aside retiree health and retirement benefits far in advance.
Sanders criticized Postal Service management for not focusing on smarter ways to solve their financial problems. ‘Our goal must be to make the post office smarter and more competitive. We should not be engaged in a series of actions which could eventually lead to the destruction of the Postal Service,’ he said.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) today opened Route 131 through Cavendish, which had been closed since Tropical Storm Irene struck more than two months ago.
Irene severely damaged several miles of Route 131 between Weathersfield and Cavendish, and completely obliterated about 250 feet of the roadway just east of Cavendish Village. Dubbed the ‘Cavendish Canyon’ because floodwaters created a creator 54 feet high and almost a football field long, the roadway had to be completely rebuilt from the edge of the river up.
‘Rebuilding Route 131 through Cavendish clearly was one of our most significant challenges,’ said VTrans Secretary Brian Searles. ‘Raging floodwater did not just damage the road, it basically eliminated it. But with significant help from the National Guard, a couple of our neighboring state transportation departments and others, we rebuilt the road in just two short months, which is quite remarkable.’