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Vermont Business Magazine House Speaker Mitzi Johnson on Wednesday afternoon joined House Majority Leader Representative Jill Krowinski, Appropriations Committee chair Representative Kitty Toll, and the Ways & Means Committee chair, Representative Janet Ancel, to remind Governor Phil Scott that Vermonters expect him to present responsible budget proposals. Governor Scott replied that he proposed a balanced budget that does not cut key programs no matter what the legislative leaders suggest.

Vermont Business Magazine National Life Group once again set records for earnings and sales in 2016, a year that also saw the company’s culture receive national attention. Mehran Assadi, the president and chief executive officer, said National Life set a number of historic milestones in 2016. “Across the board, top line and bottom line, we had yet another record-setting year,” said Assadi. “Our extraordinary performance reflected our long history of financial strength and our deep roots on Main Street, America.”

Asked to single out key metrics from 2016, Assadi focused on two:

Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets Winter is back, and Vermonters are ready to play in the snow once more! It’s no secret that Vermonters love snowmobiling, but did you know that more than 2400 miles of VAST (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) Trails cross Vermont farmland? That’s more than half of all the VAST trails, statewide.

Vermont Business Magazine Average retail gasoline prices in Burlington have fallen 1.7 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.28/g as of Sunday, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 100 gas outlets in Burlington. This compares with the national average that has fallen 1.3 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.29/g, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com. Vermont prices stood at $2.28 average today, two-tenths lower than last week and 4 cents lower than a month ago, and lower in the southern part of the state, but 33 cents higher than a year ago at this time.

Vermont Business MagazineAs part of City Market's 2016 Co-op Patronage Seedling Grant recipients, it offered over $56,000 in grant funding to local food projects at a recent Grant Celebration, whichalso launched the 2017 Co-op Patronage Seedling Grant process. City Market sent over $656,000 in Patronage Refunds to more than 11,450 Members in November 2016. As part of the Patronage Refund process, the Co-op offers Members the opportunity to donate their checks to strengthen Vermont’s food system. Members who receive Patronage Refunds support these donations by choosing not to cash their checks within the required 90 day time period. This year, uncashed Patronage Refund checks from Members are funding 8 local food projects from community organizations doing amazing work in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine US Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year 2018 cap on April 3, 2017. All cap-subject H-1B petitions filed before April 3, 2017, for the FY 2018 cap will be rejected. The H-1B program allows companies in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent. H-1B specialty occupations may include fields such as science, engineering and information technology.

Vermont Business Magazine Moody’s Investors Service revised the City of Burlington’s outlook to positive and affirmed the City’s A3 credit rating on Monday (see Burlington ratings table below). In itsCredit Report released March 13, Moody’s stated “The city remains committed to improving its financial position and has generated four consecutive surpluses (audited 2013-2016). Management adheres to the fund balance policy adopted by the Council in 2015 and has been budgeting $1 million annually for reserve replenishment. The policy targets an unassigned fund balance of 10-15 percent, and the city achieved that in fiscal 2016, well ahead of schedule.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Website 24/7 Wall St (247wallst.com) has recently released its ranking of The Safest States in America, with Vermont comingin first. New England did well in the study, which leaned heavily on crime statistics. Maine was number 2, New Hampshire was number 4 and Connecticut was number 6. There is warning sign, however, as crime in Vermont went up noticeably last year, which we can surmise to be caused by the growing opiate problem and a staggering increase in robbery.

Public Assets Institute The year is off to a good start: Vermont added 1,300 jobs in January, all in the private sector. Since January 2016 the private sector has netted 2,700 new jobs, many of them in accommodation and food service and health care and social assistance services. With nearly 260,000 private sector jobs, Vermont hit an all-time peak in January.

Vermont Business MagazineLandWorks recently received an Honor Award for their work in the development of South Burlington’s planned Dumont Park, which will provide a publicly accessible passive recreation space that will serve South Burlington’s envisioned City Center downtown and surrounding areas. Other members of the multi-disciplinary team led by LandWorks include Engineering Ventures, North Woods Ecological Consulting, and Ecological Artist/Designer Jackie Brookner.

Vermont Business Magazine It’s no secret that personal credit scores are a barometer of financial strength. The better your score, the easier (and cheaper) it is to get things like a mortgage or car loan. But, did you know small business owners have a separate business credit score for their company? The two scores share commonalities, both impact a business owner’s ability to get financing, but they also have surprising differences. In either case, Vermont is a leader in both. Vermont finished first on the business credit score and second in personal.

Vermont Business Magazine FirstLight Fiber, a leading fiber-optic bandwidth infrastructure services provider operating in the Northeast, announced today that Oak Hill Capital Partners has completed its acquisition of Sovernet Communications and has combined the operations of Sovernet with FirstLight. Oak Hill has acquired several telecom providers over the last year with an emphasis on fiber optic networks and combined them under the FirstLight brand.