Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Following is the comment of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Attorney General Sessions’ scheduled testimony next week, on Tuesday, before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. Leahy is the Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and a leading member of the Judiciary Committee.

Vermont Business Magazine The law firm Dunkiel Saunders of Burlington announced Thursday that Elizabeth Miller has joined the firm as a partner. Miller served as Chief of Staff to former Governor Peter Shumlin and as Commissioner of the Vermont Public Service Department, where she led the state’s energy and telecommunications policy. More recently, she has maintained her own practice as a strategic consultant and lawyer to a variety of companies, nonprofits, and educational institutions.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) issued the following statement Thursday after James Comey, the former FBI director, told the Senate Intelligence Committee he was fired by President Donald Trump over an investigation into Russian interference in last year’s presidential election.

Vermont Business Magazine Joined by legislative leaders at the Downtown and Historic Preservation Conference, Governor Phil Scott signed S135 into law Thursday to expedite state permitting for housing and increase public investment in buildings and infrastructure in state-designated centers, among other pro-growth initiatives. Elements of the law includeincreasing downtown tax credits by $200,000 to $2.4 million annually, exempting housing projects in state-designated centers from a redundant Act 250 review; and enabling six new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts.

Vermont Business MagazineIn order to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment at the Fair Market Rent in Vermont, renters need to earn$21.90 an hour, or$45,545. This is Vermont’s 2017Housing Wage,revealed in the annualOut of Reachreportreleased today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization, and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition. At Vermont’s current minimum wage, individuals would need to work 88 hours per week, or 2.2 full-time jobs, to afford a two-bedroom rental home. Vermont has the 5thlargest affordability gap for rentersof any state in the nation. Vermont has nearly 75,000 renter households. Kentucky is the most affordable ($13.95/hour or 77 h/w) and Hawaii is least ($35.20 or 152 h/w).Overall, Vermont is the 13th highest rental market.It ranks 20th for median household income($56,990).

Vermont Business Magazine ALEC-Laffer “Rich States' Poor States” was released earlier this spring with Vermont ranked in its usual spot: Next to dead last. In the 10 years of the ranking, Vermont has finished in the penultimately worst position every year but one and New York has finished last in every year but one, 2013, when the two states briefly switched positions.

The “Rich States” report in authored by Reagan-era economist Arthur B Laffer. The report is not a report of each state’s wealth, but of its economic competitiveness based mostly on its tax policy. The American Legislative Exchange Council itself attempts to influence legislative policy on taxes, workers compensation and union laws, etc, on behalf of economic opportunity.

The report judges economic performance by state GDP, migration and employment growth. It does not factor in other outcome measures, such aseducational attainment, unemployment rate or median household income.

Vermont Business MagazineThe newUVM Health Network/Porter Express Careclinic will open on Tuesday, June 13, in the Collins Building on the main Porter campus in Middlebury. “This location offers easy access to a variety of hospital support services including lab and radiology, while providing convenient, high-quality healthcare services to our community, said UVMHN-PMC President Dr Fred Kniffin. “We have been working diligently for months to design and build a comfortable 5-bed clinic with all of the resources to streamline care for our community, and it is an exciting new service for Porter and our community.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor is taking swift action to address an error that impacts Vermont employers who hold past due balances for unemployment insurance and health care assessments. The Department is undertaking an effort to modernize and innovate its legacy unemployment insurance system, and this month that process revealed – and the Department promptly verified – a rounding error was coded improperly into the 30-year old system. This rounding error affected only the interest rate calculations on past due unemployment insurance and health care fund assessment contributions. As of June 1, 2017, the rate is being calculated correctly.

“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that anyone impacted by this error is made whole, and I have directed my team to begin proactively working to identify impacted entities and make refunds for verified overpayments as quickly as possible.” Lindsay Kurrle, Commissioner of Labor.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources today filed a new rule for aboveground storage tanks that will require inspectors to affix red tags on heating oil tanks that are at imminent risk of a fuel spill. Fuel distributors are not allowed to deliver fuel to a red-tagged tank until the tank has been repaired or replaced. Homeowners will have until July 31, 2020 to schedule their first inspection and after the first inspection must have their tanks inspected once every three years.

The red-tag rule will help prevent costly spills of heating oil from aboveground storage tanks. Last year, Vermont’s Petroleum Cleanup Fund spent over $1 million providing assistance to tank owners for tank upgrades and repairs and paying for cleanups associated with roughly 80 aboveground storage tank releases. The Petroleum Cleanup Fund’s heating oil account is financed through a one-cent fee on each gallon of heating oil fuel.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont has long been recognized as a leader in the Farm to School movement, which connects our students to local farmers through hands-on learning and healthy meals. Wednesday, Governor Phil Scott signed S33, the Rozo McLaughlin Farm to School bill, which will further enhance Vermont’s Farm to School programming by expanding the program and setting new, ambitious goals for growth.

Vermont Business Magazine Following President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, 19 Attorneys General have joined forces with governors, mayors, business leaders and universities across the country pledging to maintain their commitment to fighting climate change and abiding by the principles of the global agreement.

The 19 state attorneys general joining the coalition include: