Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Friday joined Vermont and Canadian officials and business leaders in Essex Junction, to mark progress on facilitating travel and commerce between Vermont and Canada.  Leahy, long an advocate for the return of the “Montrealer” rail line and easing air travel to Vermont from airports like Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, said legislation he introduced earlier this year would make important strides toward making these a reality.

Vermont Business Magazine Each of the three key metrics showed improvement as the March unemployment rate fell one-tenth to 3.3 percent. The Labor Market and Employed increased, while the number of Unemployed decreased. The Vermont Department of Labor announced the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate today. The national rate in March was 5.0 percent. As of the prior month’s initial data, the Burlington-South Burlington Metropolitan NECTA, at 2.6 percent, had the lowest unemployment rate in the country for all metropolitan areas. Overall, Vermont’s unemployment rate was tied for seventh lowest in the country. Northern New England rates were among the lowest in the nation. New Hampshire was second at 2.6 percent and Maine was eighth at 3.4 percent. South Dakota was overall lowest at 2.5 percent and Alaska was highest at 6.6 percent. March is the eighth consecutive month reporting a decline to the number of unemployed persons in Vermont (seasonally-adjusted).

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims rose again last week and are well ahead of numbers from the same time last year. For the week of April 9, 2016, there were 959 claims, up 221 from the previous week's total and 192 more than they were a year ago. By industry, claims fell steeply for manufacturing, in contrast to Services, which was up, likely due to the end of the disappointing winter hospitality season. 

Altogether 7,025 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 167 from a week ago, and 77 more than a year ago.

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

Gender barriers in work and politics need policy action 

Vermont Business Magazine Women are closing the education gap with men, but a University of Vermont global study of gender equality shows these advances are failing to bring equal access to quality jobs and government representation. The study, which explored decades of data from more than 150 countries, finds that women have reached 91 percent of the education that men have — but only 70 percent of their rate of employment, and just 25 percent of political representation.

Vermont Business Magazine A moving violation ticket brings many hassles, but none is more severe than the effect it can have on your auto insurance premium. A national research firm has released its annual analysis of the impact on insurance rates because of a driving ticket. Vermont made the top 10 in two categories: DUI and reckless driving. However, even relatively minor violations, like failing to signal and drving too closely, can drive up insurance rates. For Vermont residents, failure to signal can increase rates by 14 percent. For the third year in a row, insuranceQuotes commissioned a Quadrant Information Services study that found auto insurance rates can climb by as much as 94 percent on average after a single moving violation.

Senator Patrick Leahy "I’m shocked and saddened by what state and federal investigators have found. I’m especially heartbroken for the people of the Northeast Kingdom, whose high hopes for these projects have been dealt a harsh blow.  My thoughts are with the many families impacted by this.  It is a good sign that both the federally appointed receiver and the state are doing what they can to keep these businesses open and to keep these Vermonters employed."

Vermont Business Magazine Calling it a "Ponzi-like" scheme, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in a filing in US District Court, Southern District of Florida unsealed a blistering civil suit against the owners Jay Peak Resort and Q Burke Resort about noon today. The case was filed April 12. In part it says (see document below) that, "This is an emergency action the Commission is bringing to stop an ongoing, massive eighht-year fraudulent scheme in which the Miami owner and the chief executive of a Vermont ski resort have systematically looted more then $50 million of the more than $350 million that has been raised from hundreds of foreign investors throught the US Citizenship and Immigration Service's EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine State and federal officials revealed Thursday that a massive fraudulent scheme was undertaken at Jay Peak Resort and Q Burke Resort that involved hundreds of millions of dollars and which goes back to 2008. The Securities & Exchange complaint alleges that the developers, Ariel Quiros and Bill Stenger, engaged in a "Ponzi-like" scheme that "looted" foreign investors in the EB-5 program. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell in an analogy likened it to a "bank robbery." But so far only civil complaints have been filed on both the state and federal level. Criminal charges could come eventually. About $400 million in 10 developments, along with hundreds of jobs, are at stake.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine State government officials are holding a press conference today to explain why the locks had been changed, documents seized and the executive staff was displaced at Q Burke Resort Wednesday afternoon. Governor Peter Shumlin's spokesperson Scott Coriell told WCAX, which first reported the action, that: "We're aware of the situation in the Northeast Kingdom. This is a coordinated effort. We are unable to comment until relevant information is made public."

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s tech sector makes up a quarter of the state’s workers and 40 percent of its wages, and generates higher pay and faster job growth compared to the state’s overall economy. These are some of the key conclusions from a new report released Wednesday by the Vermont Technology Alliance, a non-profit business association that represents Vermont’s technology sector. 

by Patrick Leahy Vermonters, like millions of Americans across the country, are preparing for another tax deadline.  Middle class families work hard all year and, come Tax Day, many of us question whether our tax system is fair.  And no wonder.  Billion-dollar corporations routinely write off their most egregious misconduct as nothing more than the cost of doing business, saving millions of dollars.  And, in some cases, padding the wallets of wealthy CEOs.  This is not only unfair to hardworking families who struggle to pay their monthly bills, it simply wrong as a matter of a fair tax policy.  We must close this tax loophole, and that’s why I authored the No Tax-Write Offs for Corporate Wrongdoers Act.

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, April 11th the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with CAT-TV, launched the first of a series of episodes for a show called “Bennington Made.”  The Bennington Made show will focus on locally made Bennington products and the owner, operators and staff that make these quality products.