Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the state’s plans to enter an alliance with Microsoft to improve access to digital skills programing and computer science education and to promote rural broadband access, with the organizational support of Microsoft technology experts and partners.

Vermont Business Magazine The Addison County Chamber of Commerce welcomes eighteen new members in less than three months. The Addison County Chamber has been a flurry of activity with a surge of new members at the end of 2018 (see full list below). This surge is due in part to the ability to offer special health insurance plans to its members through VACEplus.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that emergency rules have been filed to resolve any ambiguity in Vermont state law as to whether or not government employees working indefinitely without pay are unemployed for the purposes of Vermont’s unemployment insurance eligibility. “This emergency rule clarifies and codifies our interpretation of existing law, and the Department of Labor’s ability to extend unemployment insurance eligibility to all government employees who are being required to work, but who are not being paid during a federal shutdown,” said Department of Labor Commissioner Lindsay Kurrle.

Vermont Business Magazine Sterling College in Craftsbury Common announced today that it will participate in a teach-out arrangement for students at Green Mountain College after the Poultney-based campus confirmed that it will close at the end of this spring semester. Sterling is one of three Vermont colleges participating in the teach-out program. The others include Marlboro College and Castleton University. GMC is also partnering with Prescott College in Arizona.

Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) In his January 24, 2019 Budget Address, Vermont Governor Phil Scott proposed using a portion of the Estate Tax to fund water projects. We applaud the Governor’s commitment to long-term clean water funding, but we are concerned with the proposal he advanced because the tax is variable and moves around existing funds in the state budget. 

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Bank is proud to announce a continued partnership with CRA Partners to help vulnerable seniors by funding the Senior Crimestoppers program. Berkshire Bank has partnered with CRA Partners since August, 2016. CRA Partners, powered by the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation, is a national organization that guarantees banks federally mandated CRA credit through the operation of the turn-key Senior Crimestoppers program, providing safe and secure living environments for the nation’s low to moderate income seniors.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today delivered his third budget address, presenting a balanced budget emphasizing investments and policy reforms to expand the economy and state revenue, by reversing Vermont’s demographic trends, increasing the number of Vermonters in the labor force and transforming the State’s education system to the very best in the nation. The $6.1 billion budget includes $18 million in new taxes. He also said he would not support a carbon tax.

​Vermont Business Magazine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) and GraniteOne Health (GOH) today announced that they have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to combine their two organizations to better serve the health care needs of New Hampshire residents and communities.  The combined non-profit health care system, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health GraniteOne, will build on years of successful community engagement and clinical collaboration in order to meet the growing demand for seamlessly integrated primary, specialty, ambulatory and inpatient care, offering patients a high-quality, lower-cost, New Hampshire-based alternative choice to out-of-state providers.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington Electric Department (BED), joined by Mayor Miro Weinberger, Vermont Department of Public Service Commissioner June Tierney, and customers Bert Johnson and Betsy Nesbitt, announced on Tuesday a new, discounted residential electric vehicle (EV) charging rate that will allow customers to charge their vehicles for the equivalent of $0.60 per gallon of gasoline. BED also launched a new, residential charging station incentive that will provide customers who purchase all-electric vehicles (AEVs) an additional $400 rebate on the purchase of eligible Level 2 home charging stations. Further, BED increased its incentives on the purchase and lease of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) to $1,000, with an enhanced rebate increase to $1,500 for low- and moderate-income (LMI) customers.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department General Manager Darren Springer today announced that Mary Peterson, a private practice attorney focusing on complex tax and regulatory issues and former Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Taxes, will join the leadership team at Burlington Electric as Manager of Strategy and Innovation in February. Peterson, a Burlington resident, serves on the Board of the Energy Action Network and on the Climate Economy Action Team of the Council on Rural Development and served for six years in the Vermont House of Representatives, where she was a member of the Ways and Means Committee, working on a variety of energy taxation bills.

Summary Prepared by Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy’s Senate Appropriations Committee Staff President Trump and Leader McConnell have held the government of the American people and hundreds of thousands of public servants and their families hostage for 34 days, demanding American taxpayers fund the President’s ineffective wall and advance his extreme, anti-immigrant policies. The President cannot bargain with what he broke, and Republicans cannot make a deal among themselves and call it a “compromise.”

The Wall:  The bill would provide $5.7 billion for President Trump’s border wall.  The proposal is the latest in a string of arbitrary and ever increasing demands from the President to fund an ineffective border wall that most experts agree would do little to address the real problems on our Southern border.

Vermont Business Magazine Decisions farmers make over the spring and summer can dramatically increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions later in the winter. That's a key takeaway from a new University of Vermont study that shows, for the first time, that the impacts of farmers' manure use decisions extend beyond the growing season to influence emissions on warm winter days.