Current News

by Olga Peters/The Commons As he opened a small ceremony to mark the awarding of federal brownfield funds to Vermont communities, Brattleboro Town Manager Peter Elwell stood on a lush green lawn bordering the Connecticut River. The green space under Elwell’s feet was once a brownfield, a contaminated area that can be expensive to clean and to rehabilitate for productive reuse. Remnants of the town’s industrial history still cling to its buildings, seen but not always noticed, such as the outlines of old loading bays in Main Street’s sidewalks or the shape of side doors large enough to swallow vehicles.

Vermont Business Magazine In the most recent episode of AM BestTV, which wrapped up the first day of the annual Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) conference on Tuesday, a captive insurance panel discussed the current state of captive insurance companies, including developments in regulation and tax considerations. The annual VCIA conference is being held through Thursday at the Sheraton Burlington. Vermont is the largest domicile in the US for captive insurance firms, with overall gross written premium for all of Vermont’s captives exceeding $25.5 billion, or over 60% of all RRG gross premiums. Vermont is now more than eight times larger than its next closest competitor.

In 2014, there were 14 new captive formations, and so far this year in Vermont, there have been 16, evidence of the growing interest in captives, which is coming from a lot of different areas.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont has again been awarded the top US Domicile for “an innovative and competitive environment for captives to flourish.” This is the third year that the State of Vermont, by far the largest domicile, has been honored with this award, which was presented by Captive Review Magazine during the US Captive Services Awards on August 10. The award describes Vermont as having a “depth of knowledge and expertise among Vermont’s vast team of regulators,” and stating “despite being an established jurisdiction, Vermont continues to review its statute on an annual basis to ensure it continues delivering efficiency and value.”

The annual Vermont Captive Insurance Association Conference concludes Thursday at the Sheraton in South Burlington.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Vermont are holding a series of public meetings in August to discuss new pollution reduction targets -- often referred to as a TMDL -- to prevent pollution from flowing into Lake Champlain and its tributaries. The meetings will be moderated by the Lake Champlain Basin Program. All interested persons are encouraged to participate.

Lake Champlain Basin Phosphorus Clean Water Act TMDL Public Meetings

St. Albans: August 26, 2015, 6:00 to 8:00 PM, Bliss Room, St. Albans Historical Society, 9 Church Street, St Albans

South Burlington: August 27, 2015, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Burlington Doubletree, 1117 Williston Road, South Burlington

Rutland: August 27, 2015, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Fox Room, Rutland Free Library, 10 Court Street, Rutland

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine In a sweeping report released today on the EB-5 immigrant investor program, the US General Accounting Office found that the outcomes of the program were “valid and reliable” and the foreign investors were not always fully vetted, all of which could lead to fraud in the popular economic development program. The EB-5 program most notably has been used in Vermont at Jay Peak Resort and related developments in Newport and Burke Mountain, at Trapp Family Lodge, Sugarbush and Mount Snow. The Securities & Exchange Commission is also looking into the Jay Peak developments (which include a hotel and the AnC Bio projects in Newport). Neither the Vermont regional office nor any of the projects located here was named in the GAO report.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees approved at its meeting in July its support for a focused and ongoing effort that will allow the Vermont State Colleges to become a more “comprehensive, cohesive, and interconnected” system, with multiple distinct institutions within it. The goal is to provide students access not only to the resources of their particular college or university, but to the resources of the system as a whole, and enabling the most cost effective operation of the individual institutions and system.

The Board also approved the name change of Castleton State College to Castleton University.

by Amy Ash Nixon vtdigger.org Student retention and graduation rates, the cost of instruction, financial aid, student debt load, and job placement rates after graduation are measurements used in many states to link higher education dollars to performance-based funding. A higher education subcommittee put in place by the Legislature last session is beginning work on a performance-based funding proposal for Vermont which could affect funding for both the University of Vermont (UVM) and the Vermont State Colleges (VSC) system.

The committee is looking at how many students served are from Vermont, from low-income backgrounds, are the first in their families to attend college, and come from minority groups.

A proposal is due to the General Assembly and the governor by Dec. 15.

by Scott A Giles, VSAC Nobody likes to take tests, myself included. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I accepted to Secretary Holcombe’s invitation to take the new Smarter Balanced Assessments in April. My anxiety increased when I entered Montpelier High to discover we would be taking the 11th grade math assessments. Three of us had accepted the challenge and each suppressed visions of impending public humiliation like that reserved for adult contestants on “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” So why did we agree to do this?

Vermont, like many states, is raising its educational standards to ensure that our children have the knowledge and skills to be active citizens and compete in the 21st century global economy. Our goal is to ensure that every child graduates from high school with the tools they need to successfully pursue education, training and career.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brewers Association of Denver, CO has calculated the Vermont has more breweries per capita than any state in the United States, and since the beginning of the year the Vermont Brewers Association has seen four new members: Hermit Thrush Brewery in Brattleboro, Frost Beer Works in Hinesburg, Bent Hill Brewing in Braintree, and J’ville Craft Brewery in Jacksonville. Expansions have occurred at Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro Bend, Zero Gravity Craft Brewery in Burlington, Von Trapp Brewing Co. in Stowe, and Stone Corral Brewery in Richmond. There are also a number of breweries in planning, and even if only a few of them were to open by the end of the year, this could make 2015 a year of unprecedented growth for artisanal beer in Vermont.

by Cyrus Patten, Campaign for Vermont There’s been much discussion this summer about the need for an ethics panel – an independent oversight body to address concerns about the ethical behavior of public officials. Although the idea was proposed by Campaign for Vermont back in 2013, it’s just now become a popular position. This is mostly likely due to a series of questions raised about potential conflicts of interest with the governor, lieutenant governor, and lawmakers. The increase in support may also be a result of an upcoming election when relationships become at least as important as money.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) today announced that the federal government designated the Mountain Valley Medical Clinic in Londonderry, Vermont as a new community health center site. The clinic will be part of the Springfield Medical Care Systems community health center network.

The $262,500 award will allow Mountain Valley Medical Clinic to provide primary care services to almost 3,800 new patients in ten rural communities, none of which are currently served by a Federally Qualified Heath Center. In all, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced funding for 266 new health center sites around the country today to serve more than 1.2 million patients. The federal funds were authorized by a Sanders provision in the Affordable Care Act that made available $11 billion for community health centers.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin and officials at Vermont Health Connect (VHC) today announced that the change of circumstance functionality deployed at the end of May has allowed staff to reduce by more than half the backlog of customers waiting for changes to their health plans to be processed. The backlog currently stands below 4,500, down from over 10,200 at the end of May when the new functionality was deployed to allow VHC staff to process more quickly changes to customer accounts, such as a change in address, name, or income.