Current News
by tim
Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation are hosting the "Southern Vermont Economy Pitch" today, March 9, 2015. Windham and Bennington County legislators have been invited to attend the Economy Pitch at Vernon Elementary School to hear representatives from the region’s business community make short, five-minute pitches about the economy from their perspective. This is the fourth "Economy Pitch" held this year, following events in Montpelier, Rutland and St Albans.
DATE: Monday, March 9
TIME: 4:00 – 6:00 PM
PLACE: Vernon Elementary School cafeteria, 381 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon
Participants
Attendees will hear from representatives of the following organizations:
Storm Petrel LLC, Halifax
Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center
Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce
Bellows Falls Downtown Development
by tim
by Governor Peter Shumlin As we head into the second half of this year’s Legislation session, it’s a good time to evaluate the progress that has been made in the two months since the session began. In January, I laid out a number of priorities to keep Vermont moving forward that included cleaning up Lake Champlain and other waterways, investing in clean energy to create jobs and save people money, addressing the Medicaid cost shift to save individuals and businesses on rising health care premiums, working to reduce school spending to relieve the property tax burden on hard working Vermonters, passing economic development initiatives to help Vermont businesses continue to grow jobs, and developing a balanced budget that sets the state on a sound fiscal footing going forward. While we still have lots of work ahead, I am encouraged by the progress we have made on these priorities thus far.
by tim
Do you know who owns your beer? After a year of organization, planning, and home-brewing beer, the members of Full Barrel Cooperative Brewery & Taproom are one step closer to making the answer to be, as the founders put it, “you.” On Sunday, March 1, member-owners gathered in Burlington and voted to approve the brewery’s first bylaws, elect a board of directors, and select the brand’s first logo. The milestones come on the heels of the brewery receiving incorporation status from the State of Vermont in early February.
by tim
by Shawn Shouldice The Vermont General Assembly is dealing with a $120 million budget deficit, while the Governor is simultaneously recommending increased spending at many levels including a request for increased Medicaid spending to address a portion of the $135 million cost shift caused by the chronic underfunding of Medicaid. (The cost shift is considered by some to be the cause of higher than necessary private health insurance premiums). Some cuts have been proposed but for many legislators they appear to be too hard for legislators to swallow, as well as new and increased taxes, most, if not all of which, will take additional millions out of the pockets of small business owners.
by tim
Starting the year off strong, two of Maple Landmark Woodcraft’s newly developed products have been selected as winners of the Family Choice Children’s Products and Resource Awards for 2015. The Lift ‘N’ Learn Dinosaur puzzle and the Stack-a-Track proved to be favorites among the judges.
by tim
The online Master of Science in Information Security & Assurance program at Norwich University’s College of Graduate and Continuing Studies ranks seventh in a recent report compiled by TheBestSchools.org on “The 25 Best Online Master of Information Assurance and Security Degree Programs.” The selection was based on several factors, including academic excellence, course offerings, faculty strengths and reputation.
by tim
The new “sharing economy” is changing the landscape of small business in the US and Vermont. Opportunities to rent everything from rides to rooms, golf clubs to cameras, are popping up everywhere and while you may be tempted to take advantage of these money-making innovations, make sure you know what your insurance policy covers. The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation urges consumers to check insurance policies before sharing rides and rooms.
Transportation networking companies (TNCs) such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar and house sharing arrangements like Airbnb are household terms, but entrepreneurs are also lending vehicles, office space, parking spots, boats, bicycles, cameras and more. Although a smaller segment of the “sharing economy,” personal items like power tools, clothing, household items camping equipment, furniture, and even pets are being “shared” with complete strangers.
by tim
by Amy Ash Nixon vtdigger.org A spending cap added to the House Education Committee’s “big bill,” at the eleventh hour last week in an attempt to put the brakes on rising school budgets is drawing intense criticism.
H.361 calls on school districts across Vermont to merge into larger “integrated education systems” of at least 1,100 students — the cornerstone of the bill that will be scrutinized by the House Ways & Means Committee when the Legislature resumes Tuesday.
The bill also calls for a short-term annual spending cap increase of 2 percent on local per pupil expenditures, for school systems to work to increase staff- and teacher-to-student ratios, and more. The cap would expire Dec. 31, 2018.
by tim
Technology pay in the United States saw another year of hikes with technology professionals earning $89,450 on average annually, up 2 percent from 2013, according to Dice’s annual salary survey. More than half (61 percent) of technology professionals earned higher salaries in 2014, most frequently citing a merit raise as the reason for the increase. Another 25 percent say they received higher wages due to changing employers within the year. Vermont stood at $87,484 and has regained all the ground lost during the Great Recession.
by tim
Attorney General William H Sorrell, the Department of Public Service, the Agency of Natural Resources, and the Department of Health filed Comments today with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding Entergy’s proposed plans for decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear power facility. Those concerns include whether Entergy has done enough work to determine what contamination currently exists at the plant, and whether Entergy will have enough money to fund all of the needed work.
by tim
The Orvis Company, Inc ofManchester, VT ( www.orvis.com) has announced the four recipients of its annual Customer Matching Grant program. Targeted to raise $360,000 or more, these grants are the cornerstone of Orvis' annual commitment of 5 percent of its pre-tax profits to protecting nature. In total, Orvis will raise and contribute more than $1 million to conservation initiatives in 2015.
Orvis has awarded cash grants — to match its customers' contributions up to equal amounts — to the following organizations:
by tim
As the incidence of texting and Web use grows, so does the incidence of wireless network problems, with the year-over-year increase driven primarily by issues with data services, including phone and mobile broadband Web, according to the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study — Volume 1 released today.
In the Northeast region, which covers the following states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, Verizon scored higher than every other wireless competitor with an overall PP100 score of 11, while the Northeast average was 13.