Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to procure consulting services to develop a strategic and tactical economic development marketing plan to promote the state of Vermont as a great place to live, work and do business. The RFP has been posted on the Vermont Bid Board (vermontbidsystem.com). Responses are due by October 1, 2015.

Act 51, signed into law in June 2015, directed the ACCD to build on the work of the Department of Tourism and Marketing in establishing Vermont as a worldwide leader in the global tourism market, and to foster Vermont’s growing reputation as a place where entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses of all sizes can start, grow and succeed.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF), a nonprofit, mission-driven lender, has been awarded a $786,840 grant from the US Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. The CDFI Fund awards grants to build capacity of loan funds and other financial institutions serving communities that lack access to financial resources. The grant will support VCLF’s community-focused loan programs, providing permanent lending capital to Vermont’s small businesses, early education and child care programs, community facilities and developers of affordable housing. VCLF’s lending programs focus on creating opportunities leading to healthy communities and financial stability for all Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Davis and Hodgdon Associates CPAs conducted its semi-annual economic survey in July regarding the outlook of Vermont-based businesses, which revealed that 51 percent of those surveyed would leave or make plans to leave Vermont. Small- to medium-sized business owners were asked about their consideration of relocation outside of Vermont (as a result of overall tax burden) of both their business and residency. A significant portion of respondents (20%) have put plans in motion during the past 12 months to move their residency outside Vermont. Nearly half (45%) of respondents have considered (but not seriously) moving, while 34% have not considered relocating. Several of those that would move their residence are in the professional/technical industry (27%). Many of those with plans in motion are small business owners with 1-10 employees (43%) or owners of larger businesses with 75+ employees (29%).

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Auditor Doug Hoffer has taken the Vermont Training Program to task for lack of internal controls and how wage improvements are reported, while questioning why a handful of some of the largest corporations in the state received the majority of direct business training funds. Hoffer said that the report, released today, September 15, is “not an audit per se; rather, a special investigation (technically, a non-audit inquiry).”

The annotated report says that workforce education and training are vital to the economy. Strategic investments in human capital increase productivity, which should result in higher wages and profits.1 The State of Vermont has supported workforce education and training for many years using taxpayer funds to help businesses and employees meet their training needs. The largest such state-funded effort is the VTP.

Vermont Business Magazine The Velan Valve plant in Williston will lose about five workers as the steep fall in oil prices has caused its Montreal-based parent company to cut back. VBM estimates that there 160 employees in Vermont. Velan reports that it did $150 million in revenues in 2014. In the context of the downturn affecting the oil and gas industry, Velan Inc (TSX: VLN), a world-leading manufacturer of industrial valves, is reducing its number of employees by about 110 through a combination of temporary layoffs and elimination of certain positions in its North American facilities.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont nearly swept the first annual Loving Support Award of Excellence, winning four of the nation’s five top honors (Gold Premiere), which recognizes state programs that champion peer counseling support for new breastfeeding mothers.

A total of 55 awards were given nationally, but only five WIC agencies in the nation received the top award. California was the only other state to win the Gold Premiere award from the US Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition.

Jessica LaClair, the senior breastfeeding peer counselor in the Burlington District Office, received the award on behalf of her district on August 25 at the Health Department central office.

Vermont Business Magazine The Mt Ascutney Prevention Partnership (MAPP), a prevention coalition based at Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, was recently awarded a $45,000 grant from The Fanny Holt Ames and Edna Louise Holt Fund. The Fund was created to provide support to not-for-profit organizations serving the health and medical needs of individuals living in communities surrounding Grafton, Vermont.

The Holt Fund grant will be used primarily to help support the Prevention Partnership’s mentorship collaboration with the Springfield Prevention Coalition (SPC). In its grant application, MAPP noted the critical need for prevention efforts in the Springfield, VT community, where, according to a 2013 Springfield School District Report on high school youth risk behavior, 30% of students drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, 26% used marijuana and 3% used a prescription drug not prescribed to them.

Vermont Business Magazine As Vermont WIC is moving from a home delivery system to a retail eWIC card system, the Health Department is leading learning sessions throughout October in Brattleboro, Wilmington, Westminster and Townshend. Starting in November, new Brattleboro WIC participants will have one card they can use to choose all their WIC foods at the grocery store.

"It is like a food package on a card," said Prudence MacKinney, Brattleboro district director. "WIC participants will have greater flexibility and convenience with the new system."

At the 20 minute learning sessions families can find out what to buy, where to shop, and how to keep track of purchases. Families will have new options for foods available through WIC including yogurt, whole wheat pasta, and tortillas and an expanded variety of brands for current WIC foods such as eggs, dairy, cereal, whole grains, and peanut butter.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vermont) announced today that three Vermont organizations received more than $3.1 million in federal grants from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The CDFI Fund awarded $202 million in grants and loans to 195 community credit unions and loan funds across the country that provide affordable financial products and services in economically distressed areas.

Three Vermont programs received funds through these awards.

· Community Capital of Vermont Inc. in Barre received $700,000

· Opportunities Credit Union in Winooski received $1,653,000

· Vermont Community Loan Fund Inc. in Montpelier received $786,840

by John McClaughry The founding fathers of Vermont inserted into our 1786 Constitution the prescription that “The Legislative, Executive and Judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to the others.”This reflected the writings of the French Baron Montesquieu, whose 1748 book The Spirit of the Laws profoundly influenced American republican thinking.

Although not so clearly stated, the same premise underlies the Constitution of the United States (1787). James Madison, a Montesquieu admirer and the principal figure of the Constitutional Convention, argued that the Congress, the President and the Supreme Court were separate, with distinctly different powers, but necessarily interrelated. He argued that the constant tension among the three departments would work to prevent any one of them from overriding the others and creating a despotism.

Vermont Business Magazine As the director of public works for the Village of Enosburg Falls, Garry Atherton knows every street, every intersection and every sidewalk. What he wants to see is more sidewalks, and many more walkable connectors to recreation fields, boat launches, existing trails, and parks.

As public works director since 1998, Atherton said he is proud of the way the village has come together to support how Enosburg addresses recreation and biking and walking paths.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s clean energy economy continues to grow and create good jobs for Vermonters, according to a report released by Governor Peter Shumlin and the Department of Public Service (DPS) today in Williston. At Building Energy, the governor was joined by Vermonters employed by the clean energy sector to outline results of the 2015 Vermont Clean Energy Industry Report, which shows that the sector grew by 6.2 percent last year and now supports 16,231 jobs.

“This report shows what we know to be true: moving to a new energy future is not just the right thing to do for our planet, it’s the right thing to do for our economy,” Shumlin said. “Over 16,200 Vermont jobs are now supported by this thriving sector of our economy. Its continued growth will help pave the way for economic opportunities for Vermonters and a planet that is livable for future generations.”