Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Thursday morning in State House Room 10, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a public hearing on the status of the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy. Migrant Justice and the ACLU of Vermont will be testifying about problems with the implementation of the law and continuing concerns that the Attorney General and other Vermont leaders are not doing enough to protect the civil rights of Vermont’s immigrant communities.

Will Lambek of Migrant Justice: “Vermont police continue to unnecessarily facilitate Trump’s policy of mass deportation. Police departments are failing to implement, train to, and enforce adequate Fair and Impartial Policing policies. The Attorney General’s office and the Vermont legislature must hold departments accountable to our values.”

Vermont Business Magazine Today Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan issued recommendations to the Vermont legislature to enable law enforcement agencies to better protect immigrant communities. Attorney General Donovan also called for robust trainings for law enforcement in hate crime and bias incident investigation and implementation of the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy (FIP).

“My mission as Attorney General is to increase public safety and access to justice,” Attorney General Donovan said. “Vermonters need to be able to trust that state and local law enforcement will work hard to protect them, regardless of where they are from. We are all Vermonters.”

To achieve this goal, the Attorney General said law enforcement cannot be effectively deputized as federal civil immigration agents.

Vermont Business Magazine Sugarbush Resort is offering federal employees affected by the government shutdown free skiing and riding while the government remains shut down. Any federal employee furloughed or working without pay may show their federal ID and an official letter stating that they are not getting paid in exchange for a free Adult All Mountain lift ticket (does not include $5 RFID). The deal extends to a federal employee’s immediate family.

“Not receiving a pay check for nearly four weeks is a huge burden for families,” said Win Smith, President of Sugarbush Resort. “We certainly hope that our representatives in Washington can reach a compromise soon and get everyone back to work. In the meantime, we wanted to offer those on furlough and their families an opportunity to enjoy the camaraderie of skiing and riding especially when conditions are so nice.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) approved $8.3 million in financing to support manufacturing, agricultural and small business projects totaling $26 million throughout the state. Firms included: Flex-A-Seal, Williston ($1.5 million); Long Falls Paperboard, Brattleboro ($1.5 million); Branon Farm, Fairfield ($1.4 million); and Small Business Loan Program ($1.8 million).

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ:CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company based in Rutland, announced after markets closed Tuesday that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 3,100,000 shares of its Class A common stock. Casella also intends to grant the underwriters of the offering an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to an additional 465,000 shares of Class A common stock. All of the shares in the offering are to be sold by Casella.

by Katie Keszey, CCV Cathy Solsaa is a talented, busy person. She’s a longarm quilter, a wife, and a mother of four. She has a degree in economics, she’s a massage therapist, and she helps run her husband’s contracting business. “I’m sort of a seeker, a learner,” she says. She recently added another qualification to her list. Last year, Solsaa took CCV’s Certified Public Bookkeeping (CPB) class. “110%, it was a good investment of my time.”

Solsaa had spent years doing the books for her husband’s steadily growing business, but never without the fear that she was doing something wrong, without the stress of somehow finding herself in trouble with the IRS, or without the sense that she was wasting some of her valuable time and energy. Despite being comfortable with numbers, she always felt like she was “winging it.”

by Rob Roper As a result of the November 2018 elections, Vermont Democrats and Progressives achieved veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the legislature. Their first priority flexing this new muscle is to pass a mandatory, government-run Paid Family Leave program that will require a new payroll tax. This proposal demonstrates exactly why Vermont is an unaffordable, unfriendly place to live and do business.

Vermont Business Magazine A delegation of staff and Board members from the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development traveled to the Statehouse on January 16th to hear the official reading of HR 3, a House concurrent resolution congratulating the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development on its 50th anniversary. The resolution was offered by Representatives Mollie Burke, Tristian Toleno, and Emilie Kornheiser of Brattleboro, and Windham County Senators Becca Balint and Jeannette White.

The resolution reviewed The Prouty Center’s History and accomplishments from its founding in 1969 as one of the first preschool programs in the country for children with special needs, to its purchase in 2016 of the campus of the former Austine School for the Deaf to its broad range of programs that support the success of young children, families and early educators.

Vermont Business Magazine Stowe Area Realty announces the launch of its new website at Vermont.RealEstate. Vermont.RealEstate is a county-by-county Network of dedicated real estate agents hand-selected and presented by Stowe Area Realty. The site provides statewide real estate services for those looking to move to Vermont, helping connect prospective buyers and sellers with these preferred affiliates who are active in their communities, build quality relationships with customers and demonstrate professionalism and attentiveness during every sale.

Stowe Area Realty owner/broker Ken Libby said that what sets Vermont.RealEstate apart from other real estate sites is its connectivity to the entire Vermont property marketplace, with comprehensive information about each town from the agents who live and work there. 

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan announced today that he and 45 other attorneys general reached a $120 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson and DePuy to resolve allegations that DePuy unlawfully promoted its metal-on-metal hip implant devices, the ASR XL and the Pinnacle Ultamet. Vermont will receive over $1.2 million pursuant to the settlement.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott (R) and US Senator Patrick Leahy (D) on Tuesday encouraged Vermont communities struggling to overcome the decline in the forestry industry to consider utilizing a new $7 million grant program to spur new economic opportunities. The NBRC (Northern Border Regional Commission) is seeking grant proposals through its newly launched Regional Forest Economy Partnership from governmental units and non-profit organizations across the four-state region from New York to Maine, including Vermont.

The grant program aims to address the economic shift produced by the consistent decline of the forest products industry that has contributed to the displacement of workers and outmigration in the region. Through his work as Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy directed the NBRC to support initiatives related to the forest-based economies and set aside a collective $7 million for this work.   

Vermont Business Magazine VSECU, a credit union for everyone who lives or works in Vermont, is increasing the amount of assistance available for members impacted by the partial government shutdown. Members on federal furlough, or are working without pay, can now take out a low-rate loan of up to $3,000 through the Member Emergency Loan (MEL). VSECU began offering this loan in December 2018 at an amount of $1,500, with the intention of helping to replace the lost wages of furloughed federal employees, including military personnel.

Since the announcement of the MEL, members have utilized the offering and VSECU responded to requests for the Credit Union to provide more assistance.