Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott has announced a new cybersecurity training partnership between the State and the SANS Institute. GirlsGoCyberStart, a free online game of discovery, provides Vermont high school girls interested in a cybersecurity career, with a tool to learn basic cybersecurity skills and test their cyber aptitude. Students from Vermont who excel in the CyberStart program will have the opportunity to share in $150,000 in scholarships for further cyber education, and ultimately an additional $500,000 in scholarships for college and graduate-level training and preparation for highly sought-after industry certifications.

Vermont Business Magazine Grants from the J Warren & Lois McClure Foundation will support Northern Vermont University programs that increase NVU student retention and completion rates, promote career education among eighth graders and aid workforce development in rural Vermont. The McClure Foundation, a supporting organization of the Middlebury-based philanthropic Vermont Community Foundation, awarded a $15,000 grant over three years to both the NVU-Lyndon and NVU-Johnson Summer Bridge programs. Summer Bridge is a five-day program of academic preparation and team-building activities to build skills and heighten motivation in first-generation and low-income students in their first year.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Vermont Health Access announced today that enrollment in Vermont’s individual health plans increased to 34,396 in January, up nearly one percent from the prior year. The number of subsidized members and unsubsidized members both increased relative to the prior year. Due to increased federal subsidies for those who qualify, the average subsidized member is paying $131 per month in 2019, compared to $163 in 2018.

The number of subsidized enrollees under age 45 grew by three percent. Notably, enrollment grew most among young adults age 26-34 – the age group that the 2018 Vermont Household Health Insurance Survey found most likely to be uninsured. This increase in young adult enrollment more than made up for a slight decrease in enrollees over age 45, mainly attributed to baby boomers turning 65 and moving from commercial coverage to Medicare.

by David Coates, KPMG Managing Partner (Retired) Just recently the State’s financial statements were published for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. For perhaps the first time in history, the state’s Balance Sheet shows a negative net worth of $200 million. In other words, our liabilities exceed our assets. By contrast, the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, showed our net worth was a positive $1.3 billion, so the logical question would be, what happened to give us a variance to the tune of $1.5 billion?

Vermont Business Magazine On the eve of a congressional hearing about the growing public health threat of measles outbreaks, Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD, called for “a concerted effort to return measles to the ranks of obscure diseases.” In a letter to the members of Congress convening the hearing, Dr Levine said that recent outbreaks show that measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that just 20 years ago was declared eliminated from the U.S., is again becoming a grave concern. Dr. Levine attributes this, in part, to the spread of misinformation that has resulted in not enough people getting vaccinated to prevent its spread.

“Several of the outbreaks around the country started among communities with low rates of vaccinations,” said Dr. Levine. “The growing incidence we are seeing is often the result of the spread of inaccurate or misleading information about these safe and effective vaccines.”

Vermont Business Magazine A group of teacher leaders and founding partner, Vermont-based National Life Group, announced on Monday the launch of a new coalition to address and prevent school shootings and other acts of violence by providing teachers and all school employees with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to proactively keep schools safe.

Vermont Business Magazine The Flexible Capital Fund (Flex Fund) of Vermont, Coastal Enterprises (CEI) of Maine and New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (Community Loan Fund) today announced a joint investment of $1 million in Encore Renewable Energy, a Vermont-based clean energy company with a proven track record of reclaiming undervalued real estate for community-scale solar PV systems.

Vermont Business Magazine Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is launching a new 3-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program on its Colchester Campus; applications are now being accepted for Summer 2019 enrollment. The program, which was recently approved by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, is scheduled to begin on June 3 following a four day orientation (May 28-31).

With students increasingly looking to fast-track their careers in order to begin earning income sooner and start gaining professional experience, the 3-year program helps address a growing need.

Of the more than 150 Pharm.D. programs in the country, there are only 21 who offer 3-year programs and just four in the Northeast (including ACPHS-Vermont).

Vermont Business Magazine If you want lose weight, research shows, the single best predictor of success is monitoring and recording your calorie and fat intake throughout the day – to “write it when you bite it.” But dietary self-monitoring is commonly viewed as so unpleasant and time-consuming, many would-be weight-losers can’t muster the will power to do it. New research to be published in the March issue of Obesity suggests that the reality of dietary self-monitoring may be far less disagreeable than the perception.

by John McClaughry Kudos to the Vermont Senate for passing a bill requiring that Senate districts “shall have a maximum of three members.” Interestingly, two of the three sponsors of S.11 (Sens. Ashe and Sirotkin) are elected from the Chittenden District, the only district with more than three members. The main reason Vermont has one 6-member Senate district, three 3-member districts, six 2-member districts, and 3-single member districts is historical. Because of dissatisfaction with the performance of the one-town, one-vote House, and growing population disparities between Burlington and tiny towns like Baltimore and Stannard, the voters in 1836 adopted a constitutional amendment creating a Senate.

Vermont Business Magazine Stone Valley Community Market, a natural- and organic-foods cooperative in Poultney, has decided to dissolve in view of operating losses and a heavy debt load, according to a press release dated February 22. At a meeting last Thursday evening, members of the cooperative voted to approve the co-op board's recommendation to dissolve and liquidate the co-op's remaining assets.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a victory following a two-year long dispute with the Trump administration, on Monday announced that approximately $2.3 million in Department of Justice grants to fund public safety needs and combat the opioid epidemic in Vermont will finally be released. 

In 2017, the Vermont State Police was awarded a $1.3 million COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF) grant that, in addition to two-years’ worth of Byrne Justice Assistance formula grants totaling roughly $1 million, were withheld by the Department of Justice due to the Trump administration’s controversial and ill-founded immigration policies regarding so-called “sanctuary cities.” 

Leahy and the Vermont Department of Public Safety (VDPS) repeatedly pushed back against the administration and successfully argued that VDPS was in compliance with federal law.