Current News

Newly-named Vermont Lake Monsters General Manager Nate Cloutier has completed the reorganizing of the team’s front office staff, which now consists completely of “home grown” talent from the state of Vermont. Joining the Lake Monsters front office are Kate Echo as Merchandise and Accounting Manager and Shelby Sorrentino as Director of Marketing and Promotions, while Steve Hennessey will continue as Director of Ticket Operations along with taking on more responsibility within the front office.
Echo, who resides in Shelburne and is a 2005 graduate of CVU, recently graduated from the University of Vermont in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She has worked the past five summers as a bookkeeper for Lake Champlain Cruises and began working for the Lake Monsters during the 2009 season.

Some states are making dramatic improvements in their Recovery Act websites but others are still failing to make effective use of online technology to educate taxpayers about the impact of the stimulus. Vermont was cited as fifth worst in the nation. So finds Good Jobs First in Show Us the Stimulus (Again), a report released today which updates GJF's July findings; text plus state appendices at: www.goodjobsfirst.org/stimulusweb.cfm.
"Some states are striving to deliver on President Obama's promise that the Recovery Act would bring unprecedented transparency and accountability," said Good Jobs First executive director Greg LeRoy. "Led by Maryland, which again receives our highest score, these states' Recovery Act websites help taxpayers understand and evaluate how the Recovery Act benefits their state."

Vermont families earning less than $48,000 a year may qualify for federal and state tax credits under the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program that could mean thousands of dollars in their pockets. The Vermont State Treasurer’s Office is joining with other state and federal organizations to remind Vermonters about this credit. January 29 is EITC Awareness Day nationwide.
“Surprisingly, the IRS estimates as many as 25 percent of all eligible taxpayers don’t file for the EITC because they are unaware of it,” said State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding. “This special tax benefit for working people of low or moderate incomes has been available on the federal level since 1975 and at the state level since 1987. As Vermonters prepare their 2009 tax forms, I urge them to check their eligibility for this benefit.”

Congressman Peter Welch and 21 members of Congress introduced legislation late last week to close a loophole that allowed Verizon to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes when it sold its northern New England landline operations to FairPoint Communications. The legislation, HR 4486, would eliminate the Reverse Morris Trust (RMT) provision of the federal tax code, which is increasingly used by regulated utility companies to avoid paying taxes while divesting of public infrastructure.
“This loophole is bad for taxpayers, bad for consumers and bad for workers,” Welch said. “It’s hard to understand what public good is achieved by subsidizing a corporation’s efforts to unload public resources on a debt-saddled company.”

In a December 30, 2009, article titled “America’s Best And Worst Banks,” Forbes.com ranked NBT Bancorp as the ninth-best bank in the nation. NBT recently opened a branch in Burlington.
Forbes ranked the 100 largest banks, thrifts and holding companies on “eight financial measures that gauge asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability.” These financial institutions each have $5 billion or more in assets. The website ranked the institutions on each measure and added up the individual rankings.
Forbes noted that NBT Bancorp’s reserves as a percentage of nonperforming loans was 165 percent, the “fifth-highest among big banks.” NBT Bancorp was one of only two institutions from the East Coast to make the top 10. More information on the rankings can be found at www.forbes.com/bank-ratings.

Speaker Shap Smith and Senate President Pro Tem Shumlin, today called on the Douglas Administration to institute a transparent, independent process by which Vermonters receive information about the leak at Vermont Yankee. The leaders also called on the Department of Public Service (DPS) to reinstate their opposition to the proposed Enexus spin off due to the discovery of the radioactive isotopes tritium and cobalt 60 at the plant, which could potentially double the costs of decommissioning.

The federal stimulus plan has helped push Vermont's construction industry for 2009 above levels in 2008, despite reductions in both commercial and residential development. McGraw-Hill Construction today reported on December and year-end contracts for future construction in the state of Vermont. For year-end, overall construction was just over a billion dollars, up 39 percent over 2008. This was led by $593.2 million in road and bridge construction. Meanwhile, year-end results for residential construction was down 27 percent and commercial building was down 17 percent.

Source: Research and Analytics unit of McGraw-Hill Construction. 1.25.2010. The firm produces Dodge Reports and Sweets Catalog Files.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Business Magazine are pleased to announce the 2010 winners of the Best Places to Work in Vermont Awards. The rankings will be announced at the Best Places to Work in Vermont event March 29.
This year s award recipients are (alphabetical):
Small/Medium Companies
Edward Jones
King Arthur Flour Company
Mascoma Savings Bank
MBF Bioscience
NRG Systems, Inc.
Resource Systems Group, Inc.
Seventh Generation
The Bank of Bennington
TPW Management LLC
Wells River Savings Bank
Large Companies
Dealer.com
Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee
Green Mountain Power
Merchants Bank
Vermont Electric Power Company, Inc.

Industrial employment in Vermont has fallen 5.6 percent since the beginning of the recession, according to Manufacturers' News, Inc. MNI reports Vermont lost 2,894 manufacturing jobs since December 2007, with 1,197 jobs lost between December 2007and December 2008 and 1,697 industrial jobs from 2008 to December of 2009. Over the same period of time, Vermont lost 154 manufacturers, or nearly ten percent of its industrial companies. Looking back even further, over an eight-year period Vermont lost 9,921 industrial jobs or 17% of its industrial employment.
Manufacturers' News reports Vermont is now home to 1,516 manufacturers employing 48,360 workers. Vermont's losses are smaller compared to those seen in other New England states with Maine's industrial sector down 7.7 percent, New Hampshire's down 7.5 percent and Massachusetts' down 6.4 percent, according to earlier MNI reports.

Stratton Mountain Resort, best known for its world class skiing and riding during the winter months is gearing up for a summer dedicated to higher learning. This summer, Stratton's Golf University is proud to welcome the David Leadbetter Golf Academy for five day “Junior Summer Swing” camps and two and three day mini-schools for adults.
“We are extremely excited to work with such a well respected golf institution in the name of bringing the best possible programming and value to our guests here at the resort” said Stratton Vice President of Clubs, Rob Aubin. Stratton’s 27-hole championship course has played host to six LPGA tournaments and will open in May.
Delivering a philosophy that is flexible to golfers of every possible level, from complete beginner to tour professional, the David Leadbetter Golf Academy offers first-rate golf instruction and first class service to every standard of golfer.
Junior Summer Swing

Average retail gasoline prices in Vermont moved just 2.0 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.80/g today. This compares with the national average that has fallen 2.9 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.70/g, according to gasoline price website VermontGasPrices.com.
Including the rise in gas prices in Vermont during the past week, prices today are 94.7 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 10.6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago. The national average has increased 10.4 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 87.7 cents per gallon higher than this day a year ago.
About VermontGasPrices.com
GasBuddy.com operates over 200 live gasoline price-tracking websites, including VermontGasPrices.com. GasBuddy.com was named one of Time magazine's 50 best websites and to PC World's 100 most useful websites of 2008.
Source: Vermont, VT, January 25, 2010-

The Vermont Unemployment rate rose a half-point in December to a seasonally adjusted 6.9 percent, according to figures released today by the US Department of Labor. This is the highest rate since last spring, when the rate peaked at 7.4 percent last May. The December 2009 rate is exactly one-point higher than the December 2008 rate of 5.9 percent.
“All our labor market indicators were down in December, resulting in a fairly large increase in Vermont’s unemployment rate” said Patricia Moulton Powden, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor. “For example, there were a number of previously announced layoff events that took affect in late November and early December. December typically has the highest number of payroll jobs of any month. While we saw an unadjusted increase in jobs this month, it was below typical levels. Since job levels and unemployment rates have been stable for several months now, we will have to wait and see if December was an anomaly.”