Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Co-op has unveiled a new round of bill credits this year for members who purchase a range of devices for their homes or businesses. Specifically, VEC is offering a $300 credit for cold climate heat pumps purchased this year (up from $150 for those purchased in 2018) as well as new credits this year for Zero Energy Modular (ZEM) homes ($500) and electric-powered forklifts ($1,000).

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) has announced the results of its December 4, 2018 annual election of VMEC Advisory Board members. Jeff Couture, Executive Director of the VT Technology Alliance (Burlington) and Ken McAvey, Senior Director of Central Engineering at GlobalFoundries (Essex Junction), were newly elected to the VMEC Advisory Board, each for a two-year term. Their election filled two seats voluntarily vacated due to retirements by John Burton, President, Network Performance Inc. (South Burlington) and Steve Wildermuth, V.P. North America Post Fab Operations, GlobalFoundries (Essex Junction).

Vermont Business Magazine Jonathan L. Walton, an acclaimed Harvard University author, social ethicist and religious scholar, will be keynote speaker on Monday, January 21, during Saint Michael’s College’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation Week. Walton will spend the day at Saint Michael’s on Monday, speaking first during a faculty and staff convocation luncheon in the Dion Student Center at 11:45 a.m., and again at 4:30 p.m. as keynote speaker during the main MLK Convocation in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, which is free and open to the public. His keynote address will be titled "No One is Free Until We Are All Free: The Centrality of Collective liberation for an Inclusive Vision of the World."

Vermont Business Magazine Bar Harbor Bank & Trust is grateful for all of the toys donated to the Bank’s first annual Holiday Toy Drive which concluded on December 21. So many customers and community members dropped off new children’s toys at their local Bar Harbor Bank & Trust branch. All Bar Harbor Bank & Trust branches in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont participated, collecting more than 1,260 toys in total. Bar Harbor Bank has branches in central Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) wrapped up its year-long campaign of strong community support with two donations to important Burlington-area organizations. $10,000 was given to the Community Health Centers of Burlington (CHCB). Since 1971, CHCB’s mission has been to provide exceptional primary and preventative health care to people of all ages, backgrounds, and life circumstances. The YMCA of Greater Burlington (YMCAGB) received $5,000. The organization seeks to strengthen the community through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

Vermont Business Magazine On Thursday, January 3, 2019, US Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will be sworn in to the 116th United States Congress in a ceremony on the floor of the US House of Representatives. The ceremony will begin at noon. Congressman Welch has represented Vermonters in Congress since 2007.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont's minimum wage rate increased to $10.78 per hour from the 2018 rate of $10.50 per hour, effective on January 1, 2019. Twenty-nine states have a minimum wage higher than the US minimum of $7.25 an hour. Most of those states are raising their minimum wage again this year. New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are the only states in the Northeast to retain the federal rate.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont topped the list of Top Moving Destinations of 2018 according to the 2018 National Movers Study by United Van Lines, the nation’s largest household goods mover. In 2018, more residents moved into Vermont than out of the state, with 72.6 percent of moves being inbound. This marks the second straight year that Vermont is the top inbound moving destination in the US. This year’s study reflects continuing trends of Americans moving to the Mountain West (55.5 percent inbound moves) and the South (53.1 percent inbound moves). Overall, the Northeast region continues to see more residents leaving than moving in, with 57 percent of all moves within the Northeast US being OUTBOUND moves. Vermont, however, was an outlier in this trend. Vermont also ranked highest in the Northeast for the U-Haul survey, ranking 7th best in the nation.

Vermont Business Magazine Everything continued to be bigger in Texas last year, including the number of U-Haul trucks pulling into the state versus the volume leaving. Texas registered as the U-Haul No. 1 Growth State in America for the third consecutive year, according to U-Haul data analyzing US migration trends for 2018. Vermont also did well among do-it-yourself movers, finishing 7th overall, up three spots from 2017. Vermont over the last few years has been a destination state, with United Van Lines survey ranking Vermont number 1 for its professional movers. On both lists, Vermont is the top state in the Northeast.

by John McClaughry The carbon tax warriors are promoting yet another version of “carbon pricing”. This new version is the “Transportation and Climate Initiative” (TCI), promoted in nine Northeastern states by the Georgetown (University Law School) Climate Center.

A December 19 report by Mark Johnson in Vermont Digger described the TCI as a “pricing mechanism” that “caps the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are allowable in particular industries or across the economy, and then creates a carbon market that allows entities to trade pollution allowances, benefiting those who cut pollution faster and imposing an increasing financial burden on heavy polluters.” Got that?

Let me make it easier to understand.

According to carbon tax backers, the planet is imperiled by the Menace of Climate Change caused by humans recklessly burning fossil fuels to get to work and school, earn their paychecks, and heat their homes and businesses.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine With the end of the year at hand, a threat by Amtrak to suspend all passenger rail service in Vermont appears to have evaporated, at least for the time being. Fears of a service suspension grew out of a announcement last February by the company's chief, who said that Amtrak would probably stop serving routes that, like those in Vermont, lack a safety technology known as positive train control, or PTC.

Senator Patrick Leahy December 31, 2018: There is one reason and one reason only that much of our federal government is shut down through the holidays and countless Americans are living with uncertainty – and that reason is President Trump. For 10 days he has held the federal government hostage in an attempt to force us to pay for an ineffective and expensive wall on the southern border, a wall he promised that Mexico would pay for. It will not work. He does not have the votes.

Today, House Democrats introduced a commonsense path forward to end the Trump Shutdown: six bipartisan appropriations bills and a continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security. Following this path, we can finish six of the seven appropriations bills this week and get the government back open and working for the American people.