Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Two weeks to the day that the Senate initially passed the paid sick leave bill (Healthy Workplaces bill H187) and a week after an unusual re-visit of it by the Senate, the House passed the bill today (81-64) and will send it on to the governor for his signature into law. The bill was amended slightly by the Senate to reduce the impact of the act on very small businesses. Small businesses with five or fewer employees will not be required to offer paid sick days until 2018. An amendment to exempt small businesses entirely failed. H187 passed the House last year on a vote of 72-63. The House fought off several amendments to help very small businesses or expand who is covered. 

Governor Peter Shumlin, Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, and House Speaker Shap Smith issued the following statement after the House passed paid sick days legislation. 

Vermont Business Magazine USA Today has teamed up with members of the US Snowboarding team on their search for the North America’s best terrain parks for the annual Reader’s Choice 10Best. A multi-week voting battle ensued for resorts East and West – from 670 acre Stratton Mountain Resort to 7,165 foot Whistler-Blackcomb. Stratton Mountain Resort pulled ahead of West coast powerhouse resorts, claiming the number 5 spot and second best terrain park in the East. The award coming just before Stratton’s Annual Vermont Open – the only open snowboarding competition in the East and recently recognized as a Vermont Chamber of Commerce Top 10 Event, which invites snowboarders of all ages to compete in a variety of terrain park courses.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine As part of the effort to reduce pollution in the state's waterways, and in particular Lake Champlain, agricultural and environmental leaders want to better manage agricultural water management with respect to what is commonly known as "tile drains." On Tuesday, they issued an interim report on the agricultural practice. Ceramic pipes are no longer installed to capture surface or subsurface water on fields, but the system of now corrugated, perforated plastic pipes is still referred to as tile drains (According to the 2012 agricultural census, 4.8 percent of Vermont's total acres used for cropland is drained using either random/target or pattern/systematic systems.) Tile drains can help make planted fields more productive and even help manage runoff, but they can also send excessive water and nutrients into waterways.

Vermont Business Magazine In a filing with the Public Service Board today, Vermont Gas has submitted a rate decrease for its customers of 3.3 percent, set to take effect later this year. Vermont Gas has already lowered rates by more than 20 percent since January 1, 2012, saving the average family almost $300 per year.  Today’s rate decrease filing is subject to Public Service Board approval.  The company will make the case for lower rates before the Board later this year.

“Lower energy costs is great news for our existing customers in Chittenden and Franklin Counties and for our new customers in Addison County,” said Don Rendall, President and CEO of Vermont Gas. “We made a commitment to keep rates low and stable for customers and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, in partnership with the Vermont Farm to School Network, announced the recipients of the 2016 Vermont Farm to School grant awards at a special ceremony in the Statehouse cafeteria last Wednesday. The Vermont Farm to School Grant Program, now in its tenth year, works to improve nutrition among Vermont’s children by connecting food producers to their local schools, as well as providing enriched educational experiences and curricula.  The grant program was established through the 2006 Rozo McLaughlin Act. Farm to School grant funding, allocated by the Vermont legislature, enables Vermont schools to engage students in their local food system by incorporating local food and farm education into their cafeterias, classrooms and communities.  As of January 2016, the Vermont Farm to School Program has reached 120 schools, impacting more than 30,000 Vermont students.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced Tuesday that UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) received $15.8 million in funding for health usage monitoring systems (HUMS) for Department of the Navy helicopters built in Vermont. The HUMS are part of the US military’s ongoing effort to provide more accurate diagnostics of aircraft component conditions, which improves overall readiness while lowering costs. The two contracts are split between the US Navy’s fleet of MH-60 Seahawk, and the US Marine Corps UH-1Y Super Huey and AH-1Z Viper.

Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board has approved Copley Hospital’s Certificate of Need (CON) application to build a new surgical suite to replace its existing surgical suite which was built in 1979. The $12.5 million project in Morrisville integrates all aspects of Copley’s surgical program into one suite, making every patient’s path toward optimum healing as easy and supportive as the experience can be and includes a dedicated waiting area for families. The project involves new construction to build the integrated Surgical Suite, renovation to the Outpatient Services Center’s Infusion Suite, and modifications to repurpose the current Operating Room (OR) space.

Site work will begin this spring, with construction of the new Surgical Suite expected to be completed in December 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont, as might be expected, has a relatively low rate of kicking children out of school, but while nationally racial divides exist, it is not consistent from state to state. A new KIDS COUNT data report shows that black and American Indian kids are more likely to be suspended — and much more likely to be expelled — from school than their white, Latino or Asian classmates. Black and American Indian kids are more likely — and in some instances much more likely — to be suspended and expelled from public school compared to their white, Latino and Asian classmates. 

by Tom Pelham Taxes – the Beatles didn’t like them either - TAXMAN.  But fees, they can bite just as much. Below (2017 Fee Menu) is a spread sheet of the current fee increases and proposed new fees now under consideration by the House Ways and Means Committee.  There are almost 300 of them totaling near $26 million in increases. From farmers to car drivers to folks getting married, you’re on the list. The biggest is a 100% increase in the mutual fund filing fee. The Governor’s recommendation is an increase from $600 to $1,200, raising $13.2 million.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont and Keene Medical Products, Inc. have reached an agreement settling a multi-year investigation by the Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit of the Attorney General’s Office and the Program Integrity Unit of the Department of Vermont Health Access regarding whether Keene submitted false claims or received overpayments from the Vermont Medicaid Program. Keene will pay in excess of $460,000 to settle potential claims, under the Vermont False Claims Act and Vermont Medicaid Fraud Statute, that Keene received improper payments from the Vermont Medicaid Program.

by John McClaughry The most pressing education policy issue of 2016 is protecting parental choice in education against extermination by Act 46. For years the prevailing view in Vermont’s majority party – the Democratic Party – has been to increase state control of local public education, create larger administrative units more closely under the thumb of the State Board and Agency of Education, mandate universal pre-K (to counter the loss of K-12 pupils), increase pay and benefits for teachers and staff, shift as much school financing as possible to the income tax, require private early education operators to unionize, and reduce the opportunities for parents to choose what education is best for their children.

These policies are aggressively promoted by the Vermont-NEA teachers union which, on matters of interest to it, can fairly be said to own the majority party.

Vermont Business Magazine Delivering the highest level of care requires investments in the latest technology. Through its partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center (SVRCC) will receive a new linear accelerator, known as a linac, for improved cancer care. The device—which delivers external beam radiation treatments for patients with cancer—is used to treat all parts and organs of the body. The replacement of the current linac with this state-of-the-art unit will allow SVRCC to treat a broader range of cancers more comfortably.

“Radiation patients typically undergo 5-7 weeks of daily treatments. This technology allows us to improve every aspect of that challenging time; treatments will be faster and more targeted,” said Matthew Vernon, MD, radiation oncologist. “The benefit to local patients will be tremendous.”

Each of technologies available on the new linac relates directly to a benefit to patients: