Current News

Vermont Business MagazineValt Increceived the grand prize in the FreshTracks Capital Vermont Road Pitch Finals held on October 19th at Champlain College in Burlington. After earning the highest score from the judges, (a group of more than 30 “business bikers” comprised of investors, entrepreneurs and business advisors), Brent Heeringa, CEO of Valt, took home the $5,000 grand prize, a large Vermont Teddy Bear, and one years’ worth of mentoring from the Road Pitch motorcycle rider group.

Brent Heeringa, CEO of Valt.Photo Credit: Bob LoCicero

Vermont Business Magazine VEDA approved 344 financings in FY2017 totaling nearly $199 million. For the second year running, the Authority also surpassed any prior year’s agricultural loan approvals. These and other measures of the Authority’s contributions to Vermont’s economy will be presented today at VEDA’s 43rd Annual Meeting in South Burlington.

“VEDA’s two biggest areas of growth in FY2017 were tax-exempt conduit bonds and agricultural loans,” said VEDA Chief Executive Officer Jo Bradley. “Tax-exempt bonds are an important financing tool for larger businesses, and VEDA is the conduit that allows these companies to access the tax-exempt market.” In FY2017, VEDA issued $128.4 million in tax-exempt bonds.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont State Treasurer Beth Pearce announced today that members of the State (VSERS), Teachers’ (VSTRS), and Municipal (VMERS) retirement systems will soon be able to save more money for retirement under an agreement with a new third-party administrator, Prudential Retirement. The Treasurer’s Office was able to negotiate a 51% reduction in administrative fees plan participants pay for supplemental retirement, saving members an estimated $3.2 million over 5 years.

“As the fiduciary of retirement plans, we work every day to ensure that plan participants can achieve retirement security,” said Treasurer Pearce. “After reviewing multiple proposals, we determined Prudential Retirement would provide excellent value and service to plan participants. Every dollar saved in administering the plans will accrue to the benefit of participating members and to Vermont taxpayers.”

Vermont Business MagazineAttorney General TJ Donovan announced Vermont’s participation in a $120 million multistatesettlementwith General Motors Company. As part of the settlement, Vermont will receive over $1 million. The settlement is between GM and attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia.The settlement concludes a multistate investigation into the auto manufacturer’s failure to disclose known safety defects. The defects are associated with unintended key-rotation-related and/or ignition-switch-related issues in several models and model years of GM vehicles.

Vermont Business Magazine Award-winning journalist Taylor Dobbs is joining the news team at Vermont’s independent newsweekly, Seven Days. Since September 2013, he’s been a digital reporter at Vermont Public Radio, where he has distinguished himself online and on-air. Dobbs, 27, has won regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for his coverage of the opiate crisis, a quadruple homicide and Green Mountain Power’s failure to document expenses. Earlier this month, he won a national Murrow Award for a video illustrating how the Iowa Democratic caucus works — using Legos.

At Seven Days, Dobbs will serve as an investigative reporter and will cover Vermont state government and politics. He’ll start December 6.

Vermont Business Magazine Community Capital of Vermont, located in Barre, is receiving $1 million from the Small Business Administration for its Microloan Program. This is the largest commitment Community Capital of Vermont has received from the SBA to date. When it was selected to be a microloan intermediary in April 2013, the SBA initially provided Community Capital of Vermont $300,000. Since then Community Capital of Vermont has made more than 150 microloans worth more than $2.1 million. Microloans went toward funding a brewery, an automobile service shop, a clothing retail store, an excavation company and many others.

Of the 24 microloan intermediaries throughout New England, Community Capital of Vermont annually ranks at the top of the list in microloan volume and monetary amount.

Vermont Business Magazine Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) is pleased to announce its competitively-priced, highest-ranking Medicare Part D prescription drug plan options for 2018. BCBSVT also reminds Vermonters of the open enrollment period, which runs from October 15 toDecember 7, 2017with enrollment effective on January 1, 2018. This is the time when those eligible may join a Part D plan or switch plans or insurance carriers. Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D) is available to anyone who is entitled to Medicare Part A and/or enrolled in Part B. Part D adds drug coverage to original Medicare and helps to lower prescription drug costs and protect from higher costs in the future.

Vermont Business Magazine ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain's newest exhibit, "Innovation Playground" celebrates lifelong play and its role in sparking technological, social, and artistic innovation in the community. Through January, visitors of all ages will be able to unleash their imaginations, build life-size worlds out of giant blue blocks, explore virtual galaxies in a cardboard spaceship, and bring inventions to life in the Burlington Waterfront science center's fully-equipped makerspace.

'Innovation Playground' is ECHO's first in-house exhibit, and it was developed through partnerships with Champlain College's Emergent Media Center (EMC), Generator and its maker members, and the creators of the graphic novel 'Will & Whit'," said Nina Ridhibhinyo, ECHO's Director of Programs and Exhibits.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Peter Welch (D-VT), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representatives Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) on Wednesday introduced legislation to require the federal government to leverage its bulk purchasing power to negotiate lower Medicare drug prices for seniors. Current law prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower Medicare drug prices.As a result, Medicare pays, on average, 73 percent more than Medicaid and 80 percent more than the Veterans Administration (VA) for brand-name drugs. If Medicare paid the same price for drugs as Medicaid and the VA, the federal government could save between $15.2 billion and $16 billion a year.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University officials announced that the university has renewed a five-year agreement to donate funds to its hometown of Northfield to support public services beginning in 2018. This is the third such arrangement between the university and the town. On Friday, June 23, 2017, Norwich University President Richard W. Schneider presented a check for $78,286 to Northfield Police Chief Bill Jennings, Northfield Fire Chief Peter DeMasi and Chief of Ambulance Services Lawton Rutter. The funds were a gift to support public services and includes annual payments as well as university support for procuring certain critical equipment for first responders. The gift was the final installment of a five-year, voluntary arrangement between the university and the town designed to promote excellent “town-gown” relations.

Vermont Business Magazine Hunger Free Vermont has been awarded a $30,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman. Newman’s Own Foundation made the award for the second year in a row to Hunger Free Vermont as part of a broader commitment to support programs that increase access to fresh food and nutrition education in underserved communities. This funding will help Hunger Free Vermont to offer nutrition education in communities across Vermont—teaching Vermont youth and adults how to shop for and prepare nutritious meals on small budgets, as well as training child care providers so that our youngest children get the crucial nutrition they need for their early childhood development.

​Vermont Business MagazineGovernor Phil Scott, Ag Secretary Anson Tebbetts and other farm to school partners joined students from Fairfield Center School to celebrate Vermont’s robust presence in farm to school at the Sweet Farm in Fletcher.Vermont was the first state in the nation to implement a Farm to School Grant Program and the USDA has modeled their program after it.