Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office and Department of Public Service provided official guidance to solar companies doing business in Vermont to avoid making deceptive claims for certain solar projects. “The recent proliferation of new solar projects also brings the potential for a new kind of deception,” said Attorney General Sorrell. In certain solar project agreements, including most community solar or net metering credit purchase arrangements, the solar company owns the solar panels, instead of the consumer. Within some of these projects, the solar company also sells the renewable energy certificates/credits (“RECs”) attributed to the electricity generated by those solar panels in a regional market in order to help finance the project.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine The Personal Income Tax, the state's most vital revenue source, lagged last month, as it often did last fiscal year. General Fund (GF) revenues totaled $83.94 million for November versus the monthly target of $87.02 million, -$3.08 million or -3.53 percent short. The shortfall was due primarily to the Personal Income Tax category. Personal Income Taxes of $37.74 million fell below target by -$3.96 million or -9.50 percent, while Corporate Income Taxes of $1.90 exceeded target by +$2.90 million. The November results caused a back slide in cumulative year-to-date General Fund receipts. However, cumulative total of $538.89 million remains slightly above the Y-T-D target by +$1.11 million, or +0.21 percent. Y-T-D November revenue receipts for FY 2016 exceed the prior year (FY 2015) results by +$27.45 million, or +5.36 percent.

Vermont Business Magazine Cathedral Square was recently awarded a $100,000 affordable housing grant through the TD Charitable Foundation’s Housing for Everyone grant competition. The grant will be used to help fund the construction of Elm Place, a new affordable housing community in Milton, Vermont. Cathedral Square’s Elm Place will be a service-enriched senior housing community located on a smart growth site in the heart of Milton’s downtown. This thoughtfully positioned property will sit adjacent to UVM Medical Center’s Milton Family Practice and near the senior center, pharmacy, grocery store, churches, and library, with sidewalks providing walking access to all of these services. Features will include a community room with kitchen, lounge, elevators, laundry facilities, storage, underbuilding parking, and an outdoor courtyard for social gatherings.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance with Aspen Marketing Services, LLC after the attorney general’s investigation revealed that over 81,000 letters Aspen sent on behalf of five GM motor vehicle dealers misrepresented that the consumers had been specially selected to participate in an exclusive motor vehicle buyback program. The letters sent to consumers misrepresented that certain car dealers had been selected as a “host location” for a “unique Buyback Event,” and that the dealers were in “desperate need” of their particular vehicles to “fulfill special used vehicle requests.” Consumers were told that “due to the nature of the event,” they must bring the letter to be admitted because the Buyback event would “not be advertised to the general public.”

Vermont Business Magazine With the 2015/2016 ski and snowboard season officially underway, Okemo Mountain Resort continues to receive media accolades from some of the nation’s top publications: SKI, TransWorld SNOWboarding, Outside and others. Okemo was ranked among the East’s Top Ten in SKI Magazine’s highly anticipated Resort Guide issue. Okemo made the list with an overall ranking of ninth place. Most noteworthy was Okemo’s first-place ranking in lifts. Once again, Okemo scored high marks in other categories as well: third for snow, fourth for grooming, fourth for on-mountain food, fourth for being kid friendly, seventh for dining and access, eighth for service, lodging and terrain parks.

Vermont Business Magazine A new report released today from the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) finds that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, is highly effective at reducing food insecurity—the government’s measure for whether households lack the resources for consistent and dependable access to food. In Vermont, nearly a quarter of SNAP recipients have income that is less than half the poverty level. The report highlights a growing body of research that finds that children who receive food assistance see improvements in health and academic performance and that these benefits are mirrored by long-run improvements in health, educational attainment, and economic self-sufficiency.

Tobacco Companies Spend $5 to Market Products for Every $1 Vermont Spends on Prevention

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont ranks 10th in the country in funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a national report released today by a coalition of public health organizations. Vermont is spending $3.7 million this year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 44 percent of the $8.4 million recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today announced the completion of a 500 kilowatt solar net metering project at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, the fifth of seven state correctional facilities to be powered by solar. The project is part of an initiative the governor announced in September of 2013 to deploy 5 megawatts of solar power that will increase the state’s use of renewable energy while saving taxpayers on state energy costs.

“This is a perfect example of how we do renewable energy in Vermont,” Shumlin said. “Local solar that powers our public buildings all while creating and supporting local jobs. I’m so proud of the state for leading by example.”

Vermont Business Magazine David Rees Evans, PhD, was formally inaugurated as the ninth president of Southern Vermont College on Friday, December 4. The ceremony began at 3:30 pm at the Bennington Center for the Arts (BCA) in Bennington and was followed by a reception at the BCA. President Evans came to SVC earlier this year from Buena Vista University in Iowa where he was Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty. He was selected from a field of over 100 applicants for the position of president at the private, liberal arts College, according to SVC Board of Trustee Chair and alumnus Ira Wagner, class of 1983.

by Carolyn Shapiro Veena Graff, MD, loves music; it relaxes her and can boost her mood. The University of Vermont Health Network anesthesiologist – who’s classically trained in piano and violin and is also a DJ – recognized that music could do the same for patients undergoing surgery. Graff first dug up studies and data that supported her theory that music can reduce anxiety pre-operatively and can reduce medication consumption throughout the surgical period. Therefore, she decided to launch a project that allows patients to listen to music during their surgical period.

“It improves the patient’s experience considerably,” she says.

Veena Graff, M.D., Pain Medicine Fellow, UVM Department of Anesthesiology (Photo: COM Design & Photography)

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public Radio is teaming with 105.9FM The Radiator to bring full versions of the VPR-produced concert series ‘Live From The Fort’ to Chittenden County airwaves. The “Live From The Fort” music video series hosts Vermont-based bands in VPR’s Colchester studios. Performances are featured online at VPR.net and on VPR’s daily public affairs program Vermont Edition. VPR will provide full-length Live From The Fort performance recordings to 105.9FM The Radiator for broadcastto its Chittenden County audience.

“VPR has always been supported by listeners who care deeply about the world around them and the arts that make Vermont a vibrant home,” said Robin Turnau, VPR President and CEO. “Live From The Fort gives listeners the opportunity to see and hear the great musical talent that we have throughout the region.”

by John McClaughry On November 19 Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-described “socialist” for fifty years, delivered his long-awaited address on the subject of his political ideology, “democratic socialism.” To put this in some context, there have been hundreds of interpretations of “socialism” by its advocates, not including those who used the word as an epithet. A crucial date in “socialism” was the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 1848 “year of revolution.”