Current News

Vermont Business Magazine - The Clean Water Fund Board is holding a 30-day public comment period on staff's proposed budget for next year's Clean Water Fund using an online survey. The Board will accept comments from June 30th until 4:30 pm on July 30th. Please see below for a link to the questionnaire and supporting documents.

Vermont Business Magazine - Tax payers affected by vendor software issue receive reimbursement. Intuit is contributing $2.375 million, and H & R Block is contributing $44,000 in efforts to amend the inconvenience. 

The Vermont Department of Taxes announced on Tuesday that taxpayers whose 2015 returns were impacted by certain commercial vendor software issues (related to itemized deductions) will not be required to amend or pay any additional tax. The department stopped processing any such amendments that it received after June 29, and any payments received related to such amendments prior to that date will be refunded. A good faith contribution by two of the tax preparation software companies, Intuit and H&R Block, has allowed the department to take this extraordinary action.

Vermont Business Magazine - Daniel P. Jantzen, Executive Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer for Dartmouth-Hitchcock, has been named Chief Financial Officer for the health system, Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Dr. James N. Weinstein announced today.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin has appointed Michael Pieciak as the Commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), replacing Susan Donegan whose last day on the job was June 30. Pieciak previously served as Deputy Commissioner of DFR’s Securities Division. In that position he played a lead role in the investigation into the Jay Peak EB-5 projects, which culminated in the State, in coordination with the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), filing charges against those projects. Pieciak has been called as an expert witness as the federal case unfolds in federal court in Miami.

Michael Pieciak

They claim the Public Service Board chooses utilities over customers

Vermont Business Magazine Some of Vermont's leading environmental organizations issued a blistering response today to the Public Service Board's draft rule for the state's net metering program, most of which is solar. The groups feel that the rules will stifle future renewable energy projects in the state, which will hurt farmers, towns, residential customers and, ultimately, efforts to reduce climate change. They also objected to the "bait and switch" nature of the rules for existing "grandfathered" projects, which eventually will lose their net metering benefit. They said the proposed rules, which if accepted would go into effect next January, threaten "to crater this important Vermont-grown sector of our clean energy economy." Their statement, the PSB Letter and PSB Proposed Rule issued June 30, are below.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health has confirmed the year's first case of human illness due to West Nile virus. The Windsor County resident became ill in mid-June, and was diagnosed with West Nile neuroinvasive disease, a more serious form of the illness that affects the nervous system. West Nile virus is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitos that carry West Nile virus can be found throughout the state. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets began conducting mosquito surveillance throughout the state in June. So far this season no mosquito pools have tested positive for West Nile virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

by Mike Faher/The Commons The state has lost a long-running battle over emergency planning at Vermont Yankee in Vernon. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 23 denied Vermont’s appeals of federal rulings that had allowed the shut-down plant’s emergency operations to shrink dramatically as of mid-April. Regardless of federal action, state officials may have found their own way to continue enhanced emergency operations in the towns around the Vernon plant, having announced last month their intention to bill Entergy for such activities.

But the NRC’s rulings again show that federal regulators won’t force plant owner Entergy to reinstate more-rigorous emergency standards at Vermont Yankee. NRC commissioners also reiterated that federal scrutiny of the plant continues.

Vermont Business Magazine Overall, long term care costs across all care settings in Vermont, including home care, adult day services, assisted living and nursing facilities, are up from 2015. The current monthly average for a private nursing home room, for instance, is $8,897 ($106,764 per year), up 1.56 percent. But assisted living care in Vermont is up 20.9 percent from last year to $4,860 per month ($58,320), or $1,200 more a month than the national average.

Vermont Business Magazine In a startling report released in late June, National Safety Council research shows 28 states are failing their residents by lacking a comprehensive, proven plan to eliminate prescription opioid overdoses. Prescription Nation, a definitive ranking of how states are tackling the worst drug crisis in recorded US history, assigned a "Making Progress" rating to only four states – Kentucky, New Mexico, Tennessee and Vermont. Of the 28 failing states, three – Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska – do not have a single strategy in place to save lives. The report comes during National Safety Month and on the heels of the Council's analysis showing preventable deaths are at an all-time high, and the increase is being driven by opioid overdoses.

by Priyanka Prakash FitSmallBusiness.com Fit Small Business recently published a list a the best and worst states to get an SBA loan based on data we acquired directly from the Small Business Administration freedom of information act. Through its research it discovered that Vermont is the best overall place to receive an SBA loan. "It was difficult for us to rank the best state to get and repay SBA loans because there was no state that wowed us across all three measures: access to sba loans, average loan size, and repayment rate. However, Vermont performed the best out of all the states on these three counts," Fit SMall Business wrote in its analysis.

Vermont Business Magazine Gifford Health Care in Randolph is partnering with Vermont Blueprint for Health, the Vermont Department for Health, and the Greater Burlington YMCA to offer an evening session of the YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program. Offered free of charge, this program offers education and support to help adults at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes adopt healthier eating and exercise habits that can lead to weight loss and reduced risk. You have a greater risk of getting diabetes if you are overweight or obese; don’t get enough exercise; have high blood pressure; have abnormal cholesterol; or have a parent, brother, or sister with diabetes.

Vermont Business Magazine An Open House and Community Celebration to commemorate the renovation of the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Northshire Campus is scheduled for 12 - 2 p.m. Sunday, July 24 at the practice, 5957 Main Street—Route 7A in Manchester. The event will include a healthy barbecue and family fun, including kids’ activities, games and prizes. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet providers and tour the building. The event is free and open to the public.

The renovated building includes a comfortable new waiting room, the addition of consultation rooms on the second floor, a new telemedicine-enabled room, and five new exam rooms, which allowed the addition of another provider. The renovation is part of broader, SVHC strategy to boost access to primary care in the areas it serves.