Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington has been named one of three finalists in the Earth Hour City Challenge by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), based on Burlington Electric Department’s 100 percent renewably-sourced generation accomplishment, and will compete for the title of US Earth Hour City Capital this spring. Evanston, IL and Boulder, CO also were named as finalists.  The Challenge, which spans one year and encourages cities to promote renewable energy and prepare for climate change, grew out of Earth Hour, the WWF’s global lights-out display to raise awareness around protecting our planet. Earth Hour will take place this year on Saturday, March 19 from 8:30-9:30pm, and Burlingtonians are encouraged to turn off their lights to symbolize their commitment toward addressing climate change.

by Matthew Durkee Since entering Vermont in 2009, NBT Bank’s loan volume in New England has steadily grown and will cross the $1 billion dollar threshold this year. This includes retail and commercial lending to individual consumers and to area businesses. In Vermont alone, the bank has provided $250 million in loans to businesses, with more than $400 million in total loans throughout the state. NBT Bank’s growth in the region has come at a time when economies throughout New England have been working to recover from a sluggish pace when compared to the rest of the nation. 

The bank has seen significant growth in the small to medium business and non-profit sectors. This success has been driven by the high quality employees who were attracted by NBT’s community banking philosophy that allows for decision making by banking professional who know the people and businesses in the markets they serve.  

Vermont Business Magazine Sodexo, which serves the food at many of Vermont's colleges and universities, spent $3.22 million purchasing locally-grown food in 2015. That constitutes 15.4 percent of the food purchased at Sodexo's 15 Vermont accounts. The figures are contained in a new analysis by Sodexo under its Vermont First commitment, a program the company launched last year with the governor and state officials to increase the amount of local food purchased by Sodexo in the state of Vermont.  

Vermont Business Magazine General Fund (GF) revenues for the month of February finished $16.34 million above target largely resulting from a slow down in Personal Income Tax refunding due to concerns over taxpayer fraud. Personal Income refunds were $23.6 million lower than projected. The General Fund would have been –$7.26 below its monthly target despite positive performance in Sales and Use and Rooms and Meals. Consumption taxes rebounded after a historically warm early winter kept skiers away. February is the eighth month of FY 2016. The fiscal year revenue targets were adopted by the Vermont Emergency Board on January 19, 2016. Also, the frenzy over the record Powerball national lottery helped push up state Education revenues by $3 million.

by C.B. Hall Vermont Business Magazine A federal court hearing in Burlington Monday, March 7, on the Vermont Railway's (VTR) controversial plan to build a road-salt shed alongside its tracks just north of Shelburne village, left both sides in the suit an opportunity to claim some measure of victory. The Vermont Railway and the town of Shelburne have been battling since January over the railway's right to build the facility, to be located on a 33-acre tract purchased by the railroad in late December.

Vermont Business Magazine ECRI Institute has announced the winners of its fifth annual Healthcare Supply Chain Achievement Award. The prestigious award honors healthcare organizations that demonstrate excellence in overall spend management and in adopting best practice solutions in their supply chain processes.

by Tom Pelham In Campaign for Vermont’s first in a series of "Don’t Agonize, Advocate (link is external)" opportunities, we point to a way to reduce property taxes by at least $88 million and redirect millions in general fund dollars to enhance the seriously depleted teachers retirement pension fund, now only 58 percent funded. Folks may agree with some of these opportunities while disagreeing with others, but the conversation about the state’s fiscal woes should be broader than just raising more taxes and fees on cash strapped Vermonters. In this, our second “Don’t Agonize, Advocate” opportunity, we point to $143 million in health care reductions including tens of millions of dollars in state budget savings at the Agency of Human Services.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont House passed H.458 Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) with a strong tri-partisan and unanimous vote. This allows eligible Vermonters who receive their Driver’s Licenses to be automatically registered to vote. This proposal will streamline the federally mandated voter registration at the DMV with a new process in which the state identifies and automatically adds eligible Vermonters to the voter checklist electronically and without any action needed by the voter.

Vermont Business Magazine Three new members of the University of Vermont Board of Trustees started their terms on March 1 bringing with them a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship, investing, technology, molecular chemistry, business and medicine. Briar Alpert, president and CEO of BioTek Instruments, and David Aronoff, general partner at Flybridge Capital, were named by the UVM Board to six-year terms as self-perpetuating members.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College ranks 16th nationally and is the only Vermont college on the list of top healthcare administration programs. Master's Programs Guide, an online guide for master's programs, has published a ranking of the 50 Best Online Master's in Healthcare Administration Programs for 2016. Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh, PA, leads the ranking, which evaluated and ranked schools based on publicly available information on accreditation, reputation, flexibility, affordability, and return on investment. Valparaiso University's Graduate School in Valparaiso, IN, and Indiana Wesleyan University's Graduate School in Marion, IN, came in second and third respectively.

by Debby Haskins, Executive Director, Smart Approaches to Marijuana in Vermont When recreational marijuana was made legal in Colorado, the governor and other proponents promised that they would keep it out of the hands of youth. It's the same promise Governor Shumlin and other legalization proponents are now making here. Can they succeed? The answer from Colorado is a resounding No. The newly-released National Survey of Drug Use and Health –– with 70,000 respondents, the largest of any other study of its kind –- shows that in 2013 and 2014 the marijuana use rate for Colorado's 12-17-year-olds climbed by 20% over the 2012 rate. In that same two-year period, the use rate for the college-age, 18-25-year-old group increased 17%. Colorado is now #1 in the nation for teenage marijuana use. In fact, Colorado is now #1 in all age groups. 

Vermont Business Magazine Modern Healthcare magazine has ranked the Brattleboro Retreat as 12^th on its 2016 list of the 15 largest private behavioral health providers in the United States. The rankings are reflective of patient revenue in 2014 based on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital data. The Brattleboro Retreat is a not-for-profit organization that had a $62.4 million budget in 2014. In 2014, the year the Retreat first appeared in the Modern Healthcare rankings, the Retreat came in at 14^th (based on 2012 CMS hospital data), and in 2015 the Retreat was 13^th based on CMS numbers for 2013.