Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont's small businesses are the best credit risks in the nation, according to a new report that looked at analytics such as bankruptcies and foreclosures. Because of the profound, far-reaching impact of small business on the US economy, Experian, the leading global information services company, teamed with Moody's Analytics to develop the Experian/Moody's Analytics Main Street Report. The new quarterly report benchmarks the overall financial health of small businesses, identifies emerging trends and provides insight into what these trends mean for small businesses and the economy as a whole. The states with the highest average business credit scores were Vermont (62.6), North Dakota (61.8) and South Dakota (61.7)

by Mike Faher/The Commons Brattleboro Several days after the end of the 2016 legislative session, Windham County Senator Jeanette White still sounded tired. That’s no doubt due to the normal wear and tear of the session’s frantic final debates and deliberations. But the Putney Democrat also acknowledged deep disappointment about the failure of one of her key causes — marijuana legalization.

Vermont Business Magazine At its 2016 annual dinner on May 12th, the Lake Champlain Islands Economic Development Corporation awarded the Bullis Family Farm the Business of the Year award and David C. Carter the 2016 Community Service award.  The event was held at Shore Acres Inn & Restaurant in North Hero.The Bullis Family Farm is a 4^th generation dairy farm in Grand Isle also known as Savage View Farm. The farm operation began in 1927 and has grown to be one of the Champlain Islands’ largest businesses.

L to R: Travis, Tyler, Dwight, Monica and Ryan Bullis, Bullis Family Farm - Business of the Year. photos: Connie Boutin

Vermont Business Magazine On May 11, 2016, Google announced that it will ban advertising for high-interest personal loans, sometimes referred to as “payday loans.” In 2014, as part of a statewide crackdown on high-interest lending, the Vermont Attorney General Office’s collaborated with Google. “I am pleased that Vermont led the states in working with Google to stop online advertising by predatory lenders,” said Attorney General Sorrell. Over the past two years, Vermont identified for Google hundreds of online lenders who violated Vermont or other state law by: (1) charging excessive interest, often 300% APR or more; or (2) failing to obtain a license as required by Vermont and other states that regulate personal loans. Consequently, Google disabled advertising for the identified illegal lenders.

Vermont Business Magazine - The Working Lands Enterprise Board announced its fourth year of grants, totaling $634,000 in investments that impact every county in Vermont. The 44 grantees (including 24 trade show assistance grants) will leverage an additional $2.5 million in matching funds to create jobs, increase income, and keep working lands acreage in production. Grant recipients were announced at a ceremony and networking event held at Vermont Tree Goods in Bristol earlier this morning. 

Vermont Business Magazine - Vermont law entitles Vermont homeowners faced with foreclosure to request foreclosure mediation and requires the mediators to submit mediation reports to the Vermont Attorney General. The Attorney General’s Office has reviewed the reports received in 2015, and concluded that the program continues to be successful at helping homeowners and banks resolve their problems in ways that are advantageous to all parties.

In 2015, foreclosure mediators reported 108 cases to the Attorney General’s Office. Of mediations reported to our office, nearly two-thirds of all cases in which both parties participated resulted in the parties coming to an agreement that resolved the foreclosure matter. The vast majority of those agreements allowed homeowners to stay in their homes, either through a loan modification, a repayment plan, or some other agreement. 

Vermont Business Magazine - Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) seeks nominations for the 2016 SVHC Vision Awards. These awards recognize one physician and one community member whose ideas and hard work improve health in Southwestern Vermont and the surrounding area. The Vision Awards were first presented in September 2010.

“The Vision Awards are an important tradition, because they acknowledge the commitment and contributions of our local leaders and provide the role models we need to realize our vision of a healthy, vibrant community,” said Thomas A. Dee, FACHE, SVHC’s president and CEO.

Vermont Business Magazine Intuit Inc (Nasdaq: INTU) is contacting some Vermont taxpayers who may have inadvertently underpaid their state income tax. The outreach effort, being done in conjunction with the state’s Department of Taxes, follows the discovery of an error in the company’s TurboTax® and ProSeries® software that caused some taxpayers and tax professionals to file an incorrect state tax return and underpay taxes owed. The state has said that about $2 million overall is due.

“Our customers rely on us to deliver an accurate return and nothing is more important to us than making this right and building customer trust and confidence in Intuit,” said Bob Meighan, CPA and Intuit vice president. “We’re committed to reaching out to our customers and guiding them through the process and assisting the state in processing amended returns.”

Vermont Business Magazine Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS), Vermont’s second largest community mental-health agency, announced today that it has elected SallyAnn Silfies to its Board of Directors. The agency will look to Silfies for unique perspectives based on her decade of service as an HCRS employee. Silfies worked for 10 years in the agency’s Children, Youth, and Families program, from which she retired in 2013. She currently serves as Pastor of the Greater Hartford United Church of Christ in Hartford, Vermont.

“We are delighted to welcome home a valued member of our HCRS family as she begins her important role as our newest board member,” said George Karabakakis, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, HCRS.  “Given her years of outstanding contributions to our intensive family-based services, we look forward to the fresh and discerning viewpoints that SallyAnn will bring to the table.”

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont College of Medicine Dean Frederick C Morin III, MD, and University of Vermont Medical Group President and CEO Claude Deschamps, MD, have announced the appointment of Mazen A Maktabi, MBBCh, as chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and health care service chief of anesthesiology at the UVM Medical Center, effective August 1, 2016.

Mazen A Maktabi, courtesy UVM.

Vermont Business Magazine When Dorothy and George Cook became active Emergency Medical Service providers, the EMS system that Vermonters now routinely depend on had only been developed less than 10 years earlier. Now, more than 40 years later, the two founding members of the Morristown EMS - who still volunteer for night shifts - will be honored by their peers with the first-ever Vermont Emergency Medical Services Lifetime Award.

The Cooks will be among a number of other awardees and EMS providers at a public celebration on May 17 at the State House to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Emergency Medical Services in the United States. Governor Peter Shumlin has proclaimed May 15-21, 2016 as Emergency Medical Services Week to highlight the vital mission and dedication of the state's EMS volunteers and professionals.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health has added three more PFOA blood draw clinics for people in Bennington and North Bennington affected by PFOA contamination of drinking water. Two clinics are scheduled for June, and one will be held in late May for students who are returning home from college. The blood draw clinics are being conducted with support from Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. Private drinking water wells in the area around the former Chemfab/Saint-Gobain site have had detections of PFOA ranging from non-detect to nearly 3,000 parts per trillion, significantly above Vermont's advisory level of 20 parts per trillion for drinking water.

The blood tests will measure the level of PFOA in an individual's blood, and this can be compared to levels measured by CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for adults and older children in the U.S. Most adults have low levels of PFOA in their blood.