Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Gas issued the following statement Friday reaffirming permit compliance for the Addison Natural Gas Project: “Vermont Gas is committed to bringing a clean, affordable and reliable energy option to thousands more Vermont businesses and families. Vermont Gas is constructing the Addison Natural Gas Project in full compliance with all of its permits. 

“The recent determination that a wetland in Geprags Park (Hinesburg) should be re-delineated since its first evaluation in 2012 is not uncommon. In fact, we have amended project permits in other instances without impact to construction. We are working closely with our environmental experts to amend our Vermont Wetlands Permit to reflect this new delineation. This work in no way voids or revokes our existing permits or our ability to construct the project outside Geprags Park while amendments are being filed.

Vermont Business Magazine By purchasing $125,000 in Vermont Housing Tax Credits last Friday, Union Bank supplied the equity needed to help approximately 125 households buy their first homes in Vermont this coming year. These households will receive up to $5,000 to help cover their down payment and closing costs through a statewide program when they qualify for a Vermont Housing Finance Agency mortgage. Since its enactment by the Vermont Legislature in 2015, the popular program has helped 108 Vermont households with incomes averaging $65,000 become home owners. Vermonters using the program tend to be young, with an average age of 29.

by Mike Smith It was 1963 in Dallas, Texas, when an assassin, positioned on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depositary, shot and killed President John F. Kennedy as his open-roofed limousine rolled by. It stunned a nation, but the violence didn’t end there. For the next decade, there were more assassinations. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968. Robert F Kennedy in June of the same year. Four college students were killed by Ohio National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University for protesting the Vietnam War in 1970. And these were only the highest-profile killings.

In 1968 there were also race riots in our major cities. Curfews were imposed and the National Guard assisted police in keeping the peace. And there were massive protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where protestors were beaten and bloodied in battles with police. It appeared, and many believed, the country was tearing itself apart.

Vermont Business Magazine Matt Dunne, Democratic candidate for governor, has submitted his latest campaign finance report with the Secretary of State’s office. Dunne said he is the only candidate to voluntarily release a campaign finance disclosure on a monthly basis -- more frequently than is currently required by law -- because he believes that with early voting underway, the public should have information about how his campaign is funded.

“I am proud to be running an aggressively transparent campaign, and that’s also the kind of governor I will be,” said Matt Dunne, Democratic candidate for governor. “With voting already well underway, I’ve made a point to disclose information about how our campaign is funded, because Vermonters deserve to know whether a candidate is running a people-powered campaign, like I am, or whether they’re self-funding or accepting corporate money.”

Vermont Business Magazine Democratic Candidate Sue Minter, announced that her campaign raised $405,452 for the July filing period stretching from March 13^th through July 12^th. Minter entered the final four weeks of the campaign with $278,447 on hand. Entering the final few weeks of the campaign, Minter has 4,300 contributions, 64% of which are from Vermonters. In addition, Minter’s field operation has made over 40,000 calls to Vermont voters. 

By Tera Dacek The name “Lawson” may make you think of Lawson’s Finest Liquids, one of Vermont’s most sought-after breweries. But when owner Sean Lawson returned to Vermont after living out West, it was to work in environmental science and forestry, not open up a brewery. We talked to Lawson, a UVM alumnus, about changing his career path to start a successful craft brewery.

Vermont Business Magazine Before leaving for the summer recess, the US Senate Thursday night approved legislation championed by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D) to make needed and long overdue reforms to several federal housing programs.  The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

Vermont Business Magazine SouthFace Village at Okemo, an EB-5 project in Vermont, has been working closely with the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) to secure the agency’s re-approval of its EB-5 offering. After a rigorous review process, DFR approved the EB-5 project’s updated Private Placement Memo (PPM). The $200 million project is the first year-round development at Okemo Mountain in a decade.  DFR requested that the SouthFace project undergo a regulatory review of its EB-5 offering documentation in May.  Such a review is a routine event when a PPM and other documents are updated.

“DFR does not have concerns about the economics of the EB-5 arrangement,” said Ted Rossi, CEO of the Rossi Group and a partner in the SouthFace project.  “They told us that they did not have any issues on that front.”

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont 2016 fiscal year ended June 30 and the final tax revenue report finished with a small shortfall, as expected. Personal Income taxes, the most important single revenue source, has been lagging all year, but finished the month ahead of its target. For the month overall, preliminary results show that General Fund revenue finished FY2016 1.13 percent below the revenue targets adopted by the Emergency Board in January 2016 (which had been lowered from the original targets last July). The numbers for the year would have been worse if an electronic tax filing glitch had not been rectified. In all, the total shortfall was not as bad as anticipated.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell deeply last week but remain slightly above typical summer levels. Claims in 2016 generally have been running above 2015 claims. For the week of July 9, 2016, there were 540 claims, down 199 from the previous week's total and 44 more than they were a year ago. By industry, claims edged down across the board; Service, as is typical, carried the most claims. 

Altogether 4,694 new and continuing claims were filed, an decrease of 131 from a week ago, and 104 more than a year ago.

The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08).

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University signed a new agreement with Korea University and the Republic of Korea’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Cadet Command, for the semester long exchange of cadets between the two universities. This is the first agreement of its kind between the ROTC programs of the Republic of Korea and a foreign nation; until a recent change, the law in Korea did not permit cadets to study abroad for an entire semester. Norwich University will welcome the first two cadets from Korea University, a top university in the country, in the fall of 2016.

by Guy Page, Vermont Energy Partnership The asking price for the 13 TransCanada hydro dams on the Connecticut and Deerfield Rivers has passed $1 billion, Vermont Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson said Tuesday, July 12. The dams, totaling about 560 megawatts of power, were bought by TransCanada in 2005 for about $500 million. The State of Vermont considered making an offer in 2005, but eventually declined. TransCanada, a leading natural gas transmission company, said this spring it will sell its only hydro generation assets and a Maine wind turbine project to raise cash to buy 15,000 miles of natural gas transmission from a Texas firm.

Hydro facility on the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls. VBM file photo