Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Andrew M Cuomo of New York, Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont, and Governor Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire officially requested in a letter dated Thursday that the US Environmental Protection Agency conduct a review of the best available science regarding perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in order to assess and ensure the safety of drinking water exposed to the contaminant. Additionally, the Governors called for full federal funding of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Clean Water Revolving Fund, which are critical tools for supporting state efforts to upgrade drinking water infrastructure.

Vermont Business Magazine Rymes Heating Oils, Inc, a New Hampshire company, has agreed to pay $31,949 to 387 Vermont consumers and $15,000 in civil penalties to the State of Vermont to settle claims that the company violated Vermont consumer protection laws. The Attorney General found that Rymes was not disclosing all fees in aFee Disclosure Form as required by Vermont law and had collected higher finance charges than allowed under Vermont law.

“Vermont law protects propane customers from hidden fees or unfair charges. This should be a warning to all propane companies: disclose your fees in the required forms and be sure your propane service agreements comply with Vermont law,” said Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont is listed among the top 40 institutions in the U.S. for its pass rate on the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) exam in the latest rankings from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. The university's 75 percent pass rate, based on the scores of 37 graduates of UVM's Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program in the Grossman School of Business, is among the top 4.9 percent nationwide and well above the U.S. and international pass rate of 49.8 percent. UVM's overall pass rate of was better than all but 39 of more than 1,000 institutions with 10 or more candidates included in the rankings. 

Vermont Business Magazine Lyndon State's Electronic Journalism Arts Program has been ranked by industry professionals and alums as one of the top 25 journalism education programs in the United States. This is the third year in a row Lyndon has received this distinction, with top ten rankings in the past two years. The 2015 survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and Crain's TVNewsPro magazine puts Lyndon’s program in the same caliber as Kent State, Penn State, and Boston University. Lyndon State remains the smallest and one of the most affordable schools on the list. The 107-year old program at the University of Missouri at Columbia, the first journalism school in America, once again leads the list while the graduate schools at Northwestern and Columbia follow in the second and third slots.

Non-profit tech association CompTIA released its Cyberstates 2016 report Thursday, which provides a state-by-state analysis of the US technology job market, and found that Vermont’s tech industry employment ranked 46th in the country and employed 13,863 workers in 2015. These workers had an annual average salary of $78,878, which was 86% more than the average private sector wage in the entire state. 

So, why is the tech industry so important to Vermont? It means:

•304 net jobs added between 2014 and 2015 – a number that’s expected to continue to rise in 2016
•A tech payroll of $1.1 billion in 2015, ranked 34th nationwide, accounting for 5.4% of all private sector payroll in Vermont
•6.5% of the state economy is from the tech industry

Vermont Business Magazine Susan L Donegan, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation announced today that Travelers Insurance Company and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company have paid Vermont $154,000 in fines and repaid consumers another $54,500. The two insurance companies this week paid DFR fines totaling $154,000 for violating Vermont laws regarding the timing of policy cancellation and renewal notices, faulty practices when investigating auto liability claims and in one case, wrongly calculating auto accident deductibles.

Liberty Mutual Insurance paid an administrative penalty of $38,000 for inappropriately notifying consumers of the cancellation or non-renewal of homeowners’ policies in 2013-14. An administrative penalty of $20,000 was assessed for incorrectly calculating auto accident claims. The company voluntarily repaid policyholders more than $18,000 in addition to the administrative penalty.

Vermont Business Magazine BTV Ignite Executive Director Michael Schirling, along with local government and business leaders, on Wednesday announced that the City of Burlington has been named a White House TechHire community, part of a multi-sector White House initiative to link area employers with Burlingtonians, growing the local tech workforce and empowering community members with the skills they would need for well-paying jobs in innovation and technology. The City of Burlington and BTV Ignite will partner with local educational institutions and employers to train and employ 75 tech workers in 2016 and 400 tech workers through 2020. On Friday, an application will be submitted for the TechHire Department of Labor Grant — separate from the White House designation. That application is for $4 million.

by Jeffrey R. Wakefield UVM Vermont's maple industry contributed between $317 and $330 million in total sales to the state's economy in 2013, according to a recently completed economic contribution study conducted for the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association (VMSMA) by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont. The industry added between $140 and $144 million to Vermont in profits and wages, the study said, and supported between 2,735 and 3,169 full-time equivalent jobs. The study's conclusions are based on a survey of Vermont maple producers and telephone interviews with maple-related businesses in the state, including maple packers/processors, equipment manufacturers, and sales and installation operations.

Vermont Business Magazine Continuing efforts to protect Vermont maple sugar producers and consumers’ right to know what is in their food, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont), joined by 28 members of Congress, Thursday urged US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf to exercise his legal authority to investigate and take action against products that falsely claim to contain maple syrup. The letter comes on the heels of Leahy, Welch and a representative from Sanders’ office joining maple sugar makers in Vermont to call for an end to the misleading labeling commonly found on products ranging from breakfast cereals to evening desserts.  Such labeling can cut into Vermont’s value-added agriculture economy while damaging the reputation of genuine maple syrup by flooding the market with inferior imitations. 

by Mike Faher/The Commons Entergy has filed official notice of the next round of layoffs at Vermont Yankee, telling state and local officials that 97 positions will be cut at the Vernon nuclear plant on May 5. That’s a smaller number than the 150 layoffs that initially had been estimated. But a spokesman said that’s only because employees have been leaving the plant, so overall staffing levels are lower than had been anticipated. After the May layoffs, administrators expect there to be roughly 150 staffers remaining at Vermont Yankee, which stopped producing power at the end of 2014.

Vermont Business Magazine In true Olympic spirit, Lenny’s customers went for the gold and raised $5,000 for local athletes with intellectual disabilities. Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel held their 5^th annual Olympic donation event, and the store and its customers collectively raised $4,325 for Special Olympics Vermont and $675 for Special Olympics New York. Lenny’s co-owner Mark McCarthy presented that donation to Lisa DeNatale, President & CEO of Special Olympics Vermont. Over the past five years, Lenny’s has donated over $32,000 to the Special Olympics.

by Mike Faher/The Commons Since Vermont Yankee’s 2014 shutdown, it’s become clear that state officials have a long list of complaints about the nuclear-decommissioning process. So it should come as no surprise that they have an equally long wish list as the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers ways to improve that process. The state’s requests range from the straightforward — for instance, enhanced public input and emergency planning — to the arcane, such as a deeper analysis of zirconium fire risks.