Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced that he allowed the school employee health care bill, passed by the General Assembly, to become law without his signature. This typically happens when the governor disagrees with some aspects of a bill but chooses not to veto it. In this case Scott objected to an arbiter's decision for which there was a lack of transparency and which will result in higher school costs and therefore what he estimates will be higher taxes, on the order of $ million to $30 million.

Vermont Business Magazine Starting Monday, April 12 at 8:15 am, Vermonters age 30 and older will be able to make an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 240,000 Vermonters have already received at least one dose of vaccine.

Vermont Business Magazine Christina E Nolan, former United States Attorney and longtime federal and state prosecutor, will join Vermont law firm Sheehey Furlong & Behm PC, as a shareholder and director. Nolan starts at the firm on April 15th and will focus on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, False Claims Act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal corporate investigations. Nolan has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Business Roundtable (Roundtable) Board of Directors announced that Seth Bowden, Executive Vice President at Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation (GBIC), will become the next president of the organization. Bowden will assume the role from Lisa Ventriss who retires this year after 19 years leading the Roundtable.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont could see a critical reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and gas usage if it electrifies all of its buildings during the next 30 years. The study, Electric Buildings: Repowering Homes and Businesses for Our Health and Environment, found that completely repowering Vermont’s homes and businesses with electricity by 2050 is expected to result in emissions reductions of 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide -- equal to taking over 230,000 cars off the road.

Vermont Business Magazine Alpine Summit Capital Partners (ASCP), a Vermont-based private equity firm launched in 2018 to leverage brands’ value into new categories, is investing in a new company, Vermont Cheese Products, Inc (VCPI). The first license by VCPI covers a line of specially branded consumer snack products under the Cabot brand, held by Agri-Mark, the Northeast’s premier dairy cooperative with more than 800 farm family members.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public Radio and Vermont PBS have announced the appointment of Fran Tobin as Vice President of People & Culture. Tobin brings to this newly created position more than two decades of experience in human resource management in the private, public and education sectors, including executive level management, strategic program management, training and employee development, and organizational development.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation Thursday announced that Amtrak passenger rail service and inter-city bus service in Vermont will resume effective July 19, 2021. Governor Scott indicated at a recent press conference that he expected service to resume this summer. It was suspended in Vermont at the beginning of the pandemic last year. The Vermont Amtrak routes are among the last to restart.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Small Business Administration will officially open the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) application portal today, April 8, 2021 at 12 pm EDT for operators of live venues, live performing arts organizations, museums and movie theaters, as well as live venue promoters, theatrical producers and talent representatives to apply for critical economic relief, as those eligible entities are some of the first that had to shutter their doors a year ago in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Thursday announced that Vermont has received an additional $32 million from the federal government to aid the state’s efforts to vaccinate against COVID-19. Leahy announced the federal funding during a visit to the Morrisville vaccination site hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and to Copley Hospital.

Vermont Business Magazine The ninth annual Vermont’s Greenest Building Awards, hosted by the Vermont Green Building Network (VGBN), recognized seven projects and design/build teams. The projects received awards for achieving the highest standard of demonstrated building energy performance for commercial and residential buildings and documentation of green building strategies including health, transportation, water and affordability.

by Joe Fusco Vermont must advance creative economic solutions to climate change. We are now living and working under accelerated change and disruption. While much of it has been driven by a global pandemic, we are also feeling the impact of political and social shifts. And, still, we face the issue of climate disruption.