Current News

The U.S. Small Business Administration today announced two key partnerships to its “My Brother’s Keeper Initiative” to raise awareness around entrepreneurship among undeserved groups.

“Successful new businesses in underserved communities are a source of hope and economic growth, said Tameka Montgomery, SBA associate administrator for Entrepreneurial Development. “Small business ownership is often a path toward wealth creation. We must promote and encourage entrepreneurship for those who often are not aware of the vast resources available to support their entrepreneurial dreams.”

Gov. Peter Shumlin issued the following statement as the Legislature worked to wrap up early session efforts in advance of Town Meeting week.

March 1-7 is National Weights and Measures Week, a time to recognize the important role of weights and measures inspectors across the country.

The date of this year’s Weights and Measures Week is significant as it marks the signing of the first Weights and Measures law by John Adams on March 2, 1799. Throughout the country, thousands of weights and measures inspectors work diligently to enforce laws designed to not only protect consumers but to also develop a level playing field in commerce wherever a weight or measure is involved.

With continued uncertainty over whether or for how long Congress will approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Vermont public safety officials today outlined impacts of a shutdown for Vermont. If funding is not approved bymidnight tonight most divisions of the federal agency will suspend operations. While Congress is considering a short-term fix, the administration seeks a long-term solution given the importance of the Department.

“What Vermonters expect is for Congress to do its job,” said Gov. Shumlin. Noting that Vermont’s Congressional Delegation has worked hard to urge Congress to pass a longer-term funding bill, the Governor continued, “Homeland security is the last place where Congress should be playing partisan games. This has gone on long enough. It’s time for Congress to pass a long-term bill to fund this important department.”

As the last week of February comes to a close, southern Vermont’s Mount Snow ticks off yet another highlight for its 60^thAnniversary Season: a new snowfall record.

“With 76 inches of snow in February alone, it’s safe to say that this is the year,” said Kelly Pawlak, Mount Snow General Manager. “We’ve had fresh snow almost every day this month. We – and our guests – couldn’t be happier. This is a real Vermont winter.”

Since the beginning of January, Mount Snow has logged ten feet of snow, and more snow days than clear; natural snow has blanketed the slopes more than half the days in February. The storm pacing is not only the most snow recorded in February since 1977, but ranks as one of the highest totals for a single month in the mountain’s history. As the rest of the East Coast continues to dig out, the resort readies for a spring to remember.

Merchandise exports from Vermont hit $3.6 billion in 2014. Vermont’s exports in 2014 helped the US achieve a record high for goods and services exports: $2.35 trillion. Goods exports from Vermont supported an estimated 16,000 US jobs in 2013, contributing to the 11.3 million jobs nationwide that were supported by both goods and services exports that year. On average, jobs in these export-related industries pay up to 18 percent more than non-export related industries.

According to data released by the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Vermont’s goods exports in 2014 were led by a number of sectors, including computer and electronic products ($2.5 billion); food and kindred products ($207 million); and machinery, except electrical ($160 million).

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims reveersed a recent trend and increased at their greatest rate since the post-holiday period. Claims had risen in the late fall and peaked around the holidays and then fallen back in January and most of February. For the week of February 21, 2015, there were 873 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is an increase of 359 from the previous week's total, and 49 more than they were a year ago. In 2014, claims were consistently below 2013 levels on a week-to-week basis.

Graph shows private employment (nonfarm, nongovernment)

by Elizabeth Hewitt vtdigger.org From health care to bottled water for state employees, lawmakers and the Shumlin administration pieced together a list of suggestions Thursday on how the state could scrape up $29 million to fill another budget gap.

The list aims to solve the latest financial hardship facing the state: filling an $18.6 million void illuminated by a revenue downgrade in January.

The downgrade came on the heels of the governor’s budget proposal, which tries to heal a $94 million deficit. According to projections, the state is spending money at a rate 2 percent greater than revenue is growing.

Algae International Group, Inc, based in Bomar, TX, through its operating subsidiary American Seed & Oil Company, Inc, is today primarily in the business of hemp production in Vermont to supply seed to the expanding hemp farming market, hemp-based consumer products market and hemp-based construction material market. The company is also piloting a number of other cannabis related products and services. 2014 marked the first time in 70 years hemp has been grown legally within the United States.

Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont), Ron Wyden (OR), Chuck Schumer (NY), Maria Cantwell (WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Tom Udall (NM), Al Franken (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Ed Markey (MA), and Cory Booker (NJ) issued a joint comment Thursday following a vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on updated open Internet rules. The new rules, which apply to all domestic broadband providers, prevent broadband providers from blocking or throttling lawful online content and ban paid-prioritization agreements through which websites could be charged for priority access. The Democratic Senators who joined to release today’s comment have been outspoken in their support for a free and open Internet for all Americans.

The State of Vermont has appealed the decision last month by an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel denying its petition regarding the preservation of the Emergency Response Data System (ERDS) at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. (The ASLB is a quasi-judicial arm of the NRC that handles hearing requests and petitions and conducts hearings.) The ASLB panel found that ERDS, which provides a direct electronic data link from plants to the NRC and allows the agency to monitor critical plant parameters during an emergency, is only required for plants with operating reactors under existing regulations. The ASLB panel split in its decision and the state uses that information in part of its argument. See the state's brief to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission below.

Mayor Miro Weinberger today announced a mediated settlement agreement among the City, Champlain College, and members of Preservation Burlington, a non-profit neighborhood preservation organization, regarding the Eagles Landing student housing project proposed by the college. The settlement resolves the final legal issues related to the denial of the project by the Development Review Board on April 3, 2014, and its subsequent appeal by Champlain College. The agreement follows unanimous City Council approval of the draft agreement on February 17, 2015 and clears the way for the 104-unit project to move forward.

The denial had been a surprise and a disappoint to the college and the city. The city for many years has encouraged the local colleges to build more dorms to reverse the erosion of housing stock and neighborhoods, as property owners had turned private homes into student apartments.