Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Gas today filed its rate proposal asking to decrease customer rates by 2.7%. This is the second rate decrease request in as many years. The request is subject to the Public Utility Commission’s thorough review and approval. If approved by regulators, this rate reduction will mean customers will pay about 30% less or about $530 less per year - than in 2008. Vermont Gas customers reduce their carbon footprint by 28% when they choose Vermont Gas service instead of fuel oil, and they can reduce their energy bills by 20-30% more through Vermont Gas energy efficiency programs. Additionally, the Company’s Low-Income Assistance Program offers a 20% cost reduction to income-eligible customers.

Vermont Business Magazine Preliminary data for 2018 currently shows that nearly all opioid-related fatalities among Vermont residents were of accidental or undetermined intent and that the overall state increase was very small (108 to 110), according to a recent report from the Vermont Department of Health. But the number of fatalities has skewed sharply toward southern Vermont. Opioid-related deaths in Chittenden County were cut in half from 2017 (28) to 2018 (14), but the four southern counties increased 56 percent and more than made up (+22) for the decline in Chittenden (-18). 

Vermont Business Magazine Chittenden County experienced a 50 percent reduction in opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018, from 35 deaths in 2017 to 17 in 2018. This reduction marks a reversal of what has previously been a steady upward trend in overdose deaths since 2014, and the total was lower than in any year since the State began publishing county-by-county results in 2013.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy: There is no national emergency. No one who subscribes to reality can claim otherwise. Crossings are historically down, billions are being spent on border security, and Congress yesterday appropriated still more. President Trump simply failed to get a deal to build his wasteful vanity wall. He failed to get a deal with Mexico, despite promising his supporters more than 200 times that Mexico would pay for it. He failed to get a deal with his own party, even during the two years when Republicans controlled all levers of government. And he failed to get a deal now. The President’s inartful failure to get a deal does not justify him manufacturing a false national emergency.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The state released good economic news Friday morning. Secretary of Administration Susanne Young reported Vermont’s tax revenue results for January 2019. With the vital Personal Income tax leading the way, receipts activity in the General Fund and Transportation Fund were above their monthly targets, while revenue collection in the Education Fund fell short of the target by $2.85 million.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell sharply last week after a one-week increase in claims. For the week of February 9, 2019, there were 500 claims, 192 fewer than they were the previous week, but 25 more than they were a year ago. The holiday season usually sees wild swings in claims, as retailers in particular hire and layoff workers in spikes in November and December and then claims quiet down in January. But they jumped the first full week in February, which represents the only increase so far early in the new year.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Secretary of Administration, Susanne Young, announced today that a lease has been signed between the State of Vermont and DEW Construction for Barre City Place on North Main Street in Barre, which will facilitate the move of Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) staff to Barre.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Leahy: This week, Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate came together, ignoring the distractions and tweetstorms coming from the White House, and reached an agreement (the Senate today passed the measure 83-16) to fund our government and make responsible investments in the American people. This is not the agreement I would have reached on my own. There are things in this bill that I support, and things that I disagree with, but that is the nature of a negotiation. Everyone had to give something to reach a bipartisan compromise. We had to deal in facts based in reality, not rhetoric based in political fantasy.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) issued the following statement after voting for the agreement to fund the federal government: "While I have concerns about aspects of this bill, I will vote for it because I cannot turn my back on the two million federal employees and private contract workers who would be forced, again, to work without pay..."

Vermont Business Magazine Forbes magazine recently ranked Community Bank N.A. third in the nation for financial performance in a study analyzing 10-key metrics related to growth, asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability for the nation’s 100 largest banks and thrifts. This is the eighth year running that Community Bank NA has ranked among the top 15 banks on the list. In addition, this is the second consecutive year that Community Bank NA is the only bank in Vermont to make the list’s top 10.

Vermont Business Magazine When Keith Gallant of East Braintree heard shots one night and discovered his mailbox had been struck by shotgun slugs, he feared that he and his family had been targeted. Gallant learned otherwise, however, when he met with the teenager who had fired the shots. The meeting was part of the teen’s participation in his local Court Diversion program, a restorative justice alternative to the standard court process for youth and adults charged with a crime. As part of the process, Gallant sat with the teen and community volunteers to discuss how the teen would make amends. Gallant told the outcome of this story last night as part of the 40^th Anniversary celebration of Court Diversion at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier.

Vermont Business Magazine This week, MITRE and the University of Vermont (UVM) released two papers that analyze US financial market dynamics and found more than $2 billion in inefficiencies in 2016, the most recent data available for analysis when the research started. The researchers studied market behavior using Thesys StarMap, the most comprehensive source of publicly available stock market data and the same data used by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its Market Information Data Analytics System (MIDAS).