Current News

by Wendy Wilton It is good news that Auditor Doug Hoffer has scheduled a performance audit of Vermont Health Connect this Spring. The Auditor’s work will be vitally important information for the legislature to consider as it determines the fate of the state’s health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect. Hopefully Hoffer will release his report before the end of the current legislative session.

Much has been said and written about the problems with development and roll-out of Vermont Health Connect and the expected $200 million cost of this poorly managed effort. However, there could be more financial costs lurking on the horizon that the Auditor needs to tell us about.

Basketball tournaments, spring break vacations and holiday festivities make this time of March an especially busy season for drinking establishments. Some cities and regions, however, are better equipped to handle long lines of thirsty patrons. Vermont ranked 7th with 2.9 bartenders per 1,000 residents. Tourism-heavy Lamoille County, with Stowe Mountain Resort and Smugglers' Notch, had the highest rate in the state at 5.6 per thousand.

According to a new analysis by CareerBuilder, there are nearly 580,000 bartenders in the US, equaling 1.8 per 1,000 residents; 381 cities and metropolitan areas have ratios that exceed the national average.

The analysis is based on data from Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), CareerBuilder's labor market analysis arm that pulls from more than 90 government and private sector resources.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) says years of work on the goal of restoring passenger rail service between Vermont and Montreal took a major step forward Monday as the United States and Canada signed a long-awaited agreement designed to improve cross border travel and security between the two countries.

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Canadian Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney signed a new pre-clearance agreement in Washington that was negotiated under the Beyond the Border Action Plan approved earlier by President Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Today the leadership of two major statewide business organizations released a joint statement in opposition to the Shumlin Administration’s proposed payroll tax on businesses. The proposed 0.7 percent tax is intended to help pay for Medicaid, reduce the cost shift to individuals with company-sponsored health insurance, and thus reduce costs to those businesses which offer health insurance to their employees.

Davis and Hodgdon Associates CPAs conducted its semi-annual economic survey in January regarding the outlook of Vermont-based businesses. Business owners are primarily concerned about what they will face in 2015 which include health insurance costs, tax law changes, and finding qualified employees. These concerns are consistent with last year’s answers to the survey. Across the board, business owners are reporting that high taxes and rising costs of health care are making it difficult to stay competitive with neighboring states.

These businesses also believe that the US economy is doing well, while a plurality see the Vermont economy as declining. SEE TABLES OF RESULTS BELOW

Senator Bill Doyle (R-Washington) has released partial results of his Town Meeting Day survey. Because of interest in the tax-related questions, which the Legislature will be gearing up for as they make the long, hard drive toward adjournment in May, Doyle tabulated those four of the 14 questions. He said that the results were not surprising among the 5,300 ballots he has counted so far (he expects to have the full results from all 7,500 returned ballots for all the questions in about two weeks). Town Meeting goers decisively opposed the payroll tax to reduce the cost of Medicaid; weren't too sure over the carbon tax; had a strong, but-split, opinion on the sugary drink tax, and supported a one-day sales tax holiday.

Senator Doyle began conducting his poll of Town Meeting participants in 1969. See tax-related results below.

by John McClaughry The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are struggling valiantly to report a balanced General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2016. The presently estimated shortfall is about $130 million, 8 percent of the proposed General Fund budget. This is a result of the chronic tendency of Legislatures to find ever more things to spend money on, and state revenues currently coming in well under the projections of funds available.

Raise taxes? It was eight years ago that the present governor declared, repeatedly, that “Vermont has no remaining tax capacity”. This year Governor Shumlin’s proposal for a 0.7 percent payroll tax is getting a “less than lukewarm” reception in House Ways and Means. Even some of the Legislature’s most liberal members are gun shy about levying any significant tax increases.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, Library Director Rubi Simon, and community partners have announced that the City of Burlington’s Fletcher Free Library (FFL) has been selected through a nationwide competitive process as one of 19 US public libraries to host “Exploring Human Origins: What Does It Mean to Be Human?,” a traveling exhibition developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the American Library Association (ALA). The exhibition will be hosted at FFL from February 18, 2017 – March 17, 2017. Through panels, interactive kiosks, hands-on displays and videos, the exhibition invites audiences to explore milestones in the evolutionary journey of becoming human — from walking upright, creating technology and eating new foods, to brain enlargement and the development of symbolic language and complex societies — advancements that define the unique position of humans in the history of life.

FairPoint Communications, Inc, Vermont's largest telecom provider, today announced it has added a senior leadership position designed to work with economic and community development leaders across northern New England. Karen A Mead, a 30-year telecom industry veteran, will assume the newly created role of Senior Vice President, External Relations and Community High-Speed Internet Development.

In this role, Mead will serve as FairPoint’s community high-speed Internet development liaison and work closely with community and economic development organizations to define and develop solutions to meet the growing infrastructure needs through creative and collaborative solutions using Ethernet and fiber-based solutions.

The Vermont Public Service Department (PSD) is developing its 2nd annual edition of the Vermont Clean Energy Industry Report. As part of the Report, the Department, through its Clean Energy Development Fund, wishes to again SURVEY the state's clean energy businesses. VMEC has been asked to assist in reaching out and spreading the word about this clean energy business sector opportunity. The Public Service Department has engaged BW Research Partnership, an independent research firm, to conduct this time sensitive survey.

The detailed information from this State-led initiative will be used to "better expand and support this growing industry." The Vermont PSD assures responders that individual responses will remain Strictly Confidential. The survey responses go directly to BW Research, who will analyze the data and present information to the PSD in a summarized format only.

Sterling College has earned a STARS Gold Rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education. This is Sterling College’s first time participating in STARS. The College’s STARS report is publicly available on the STARS website:

https://stars.aashe.org/institutions/sterling-college-vt/report/2015-02-17/

The Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) has recently approved financing that will allow 3 businesses to expand and create at least 23 new jobs in Addison County. Middlebury-based Full Sun Company and Good Point Recycling as well as Bristol-based VT Farm Table have all received loans through ACEDC’s revolving loan funds.

Robin Scheu, Executive Director of ACEDC, noted that ACEDC will lend approximately $15,000 to Full Sun Company a specialty oil-seed processor. As a result of this investment in new equipment, Full Sun expects to create 3 new full-time jobs over the next three years. Beginning in early 2014, Full Sun began processing sunflower & non-gmo canola oil crops into edible oil and high-protein meal. These oils are distributed through local CSAs & farm stores, specialty food shops, health & wellness centers, and direct to chefs in the Northeast.