Current News

The Samara Fund, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, announced awards of $66,700 in grants and scholarships in its third annual competitive grant round at the Foundation. The fund awarded $56,700 to 14 nonprofits, including support for the PRIDE Vermont Festival on Sunday, September 14th, and $10,000 in scholarships to five high school seniors.

This year’s grantmaking was made possible in part by contributions from Vermont Community Foundation fundholders as well as dozens of gifts to the Samara Fund from supporters of Vermont’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.

The awards support a variety of programs that address LGBTQ needs, including the Area Agency on Aging for Northeastern Vermont’s LGBT Elders Advisory Council, Common Ground Center’s Camp Outright, and Vermont CARES and other HIV/AIDS service organizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new state awardees for the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). CDC's $7.5 million in funding will expand NVDRS from 18 to 32 participating states and enable greater collection of critical data on violent deaths. Vermont is one of the 14 new states.

"More than 55,000 Americans died because of homicide or suicide in 2011. That's an average of more than six people dying a violent death every hour," said Daniel M. Sosin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P., acting director of CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. "This is disheartening and we know many of these deaths can be prevented. Participating states will be better able to use state-level data to develop, implement, and evaluate prevention and intervention efforts to stop violent deaths."

Lola Aiken, wife of the former Republican US senator and legendary Vermont governor, died in Montpelier Monday morning. She was 102. She and Aiken married in 1967. He retired from the Senate in 1974 and was succeeded there by Patrick Leahy.

Leahy sent this tribute of Lola Aiken: "Marcelle and I were sorry to learn of the passing of Lola Pierotti Aiken. Her great partnership with her husband, a former Governor and then a US Senator, is an important piece of the fabric of Vermont history. The daughter of a stonecutter, she never forgot her Vermont roots. She was well known for welcoming Vermonters whenever they stopped by his office in Washington to visit Senator Aiken – or, as she called him, “the Governor.” She was a close friend of my mother, Alba Zambon Leahy, and for a time 75 years ago these two Italian-American Vermonters worked together at National Life in Montpelier."

Vermont will collect $81,708 in restitution and other recoveries as its share of a national $16.5 million settlement with Omnicare Inc., the nation’s largest provider of pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services to nursing homes. The civil settlement resolves allegations that Omnicare offered improper financial incentives to skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”), in the form of commercially unreasonable contracts to supply pharmaceutical drugs, in return for the SNFs continued selection of Omnicare to supply drugs to Medicaid recipients.

The whistleblower, a former nursing home owner, and the federal government alleged this incentive arrangement violated the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute and analogous state statutes, which are intended to ensure that the selection of health care providers and suppliers is not compromised by improper financial incentives but is instead based on the best interests of the patient.

Source: Vermont AG. 9.8.2014

SEI/Aaron’s, Inc, a leasing company, has agreed to enter into a consumer protection settlement that will require the payment of $45,000 to the State of Vermont and $2,000 to each of three Vermont consumers whose leased computers were remotely monitored for online activity. Vermont Attorney General Sorrell stated that the settlement “reflects my commitment to protecting the privacy rights of Vermont consumers, and to enforcing our consumer laws to achieve that goal.”

The most recent survey of businesses by a Williston accounting firm has found that businesses seem to have a guarded optimism in expected sales growth, expect a steady increase in capital spending, while also feeling that property tax reform and healthcare costs will continue to be issues vital to the success of the economy. The Certified Public Accounting firm of Davis & Hodgdon Associates CPAs located in Williston, Vermont, conducted its semi-annual economic survey in July regarding the outlook of Vermont-based businesses. The survey, customized by the Firm to evaluate small- to medium-sized business, was completed by nearly 100 businesses located throughout the state, primarily in Chittenden (52%) and Washington (11%) counties, but also in Addison (7%) and Lamoille (6%), among other counties.

The Vermont Department of Taxes will begin issuing lists by end of the year of 100 individual taxpayers and 100 business taxpayers with the highest amounts of unpaid tax debt. A new law, Act 174, enacted in June 2014 grants Vermont’s commissioner of taxes the ability to compile and publish these lists as another way to obtain compliance from taxpayers. The lists will be published on the department website. Such taxpayers will be notified soon that their names will be made public if they don't pay up. More than 28 states publish lists of delinquent taxpayers. Because these states have found this tactic to be an effective tool to compel those with tax debt to finally pay up, Vermont hopes it will achieve similar results.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Vermont Gas intends to use eminent domain to secure four parcels of land along the route of its pipeline from Chittenden County south to Middlebury, according to filings with state regulators. A Vermont Gas attorney on August 19 filed with the Public Service Board its intent to condemn four properties along the pipeline route, three in Williston and one in St. George. Eminent domain is a process through which private property is taken for public use and the landowner is compensated at fair market value.

There are 220 landowners along the proposed pipeline route, according to Vermont Gas. The company has successfully negotiated land agreements with nearly 70 percent of the landowners and another 20 percent are progressing toward an agreement, the company says.

Governor Peter Shumlin today forwarded a formal request for a federal disaster declaration in Windsor and Windham Counties for public infrastructure damage suffered during the storm of July 28. A Public Assistance disaster declaration would allow communities in those counties to receive at least 75 percent reimbursement for repairs to public roads, bridges, and other infrastructure that was damaged in the floods.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department (BED) Interim General Manager Neale Lunderville was joined by Mayor Miro Weinberger today to announce the discovery by BED staff of significant over-billing errors involving two of BED’s large commercial customers, the City of Burlington ($1,779,201) and the University of Vermont ($357,794), as well as an under-billing error involving the ECHO Center. The discovery of these billing issues has led to a complete and thorough review of BED’s metering and billing processes to ensure that the issues are quickly addressed, corrections made, and preventative measures put in place for the future.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont tax revenues under-performed again last month, as the personal income tax, the most important component in the state's tax structure, did not reach expectations. Personal income tax receipts have struggled for several months and resulted in the Shumlin Administration cutting spending in several departments by $31 million. Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding released the preliminary August fiscal year (FY) 2015 revenue results today for the General, Transportation, and Education Funds. August is the second month of FY 2015. General Fund (GF) revenues totaled $88.35 million for August 2014, -$3.59 million or –3.91 percent below the monthly target. Year-to-date, GF receipts were $189.35 million, -$5.41 million or –2.78 percent below the cumulative target. However, GF revenues were $1.69 million or 0.90 percent ahead of the same period for the prior fiscal year (FY 2014).

Joined by business leaders and state officials, Governor Peter Shumlin Thursday visited a 500 kilowatt solar net metering project at the Northeast Regional Correctional Facility, the first of 10 planned solar projects that will power state buildings. The projects are part of an initiative the governor announced in September of 2013 to deploy 5 megawatts of solar power that will increase the state’s use of renewable energy while saving taxpayers on state energy costs. The governor announced at the event that he wants to add another 5 megawatts to state-owned sites and will have his administration work up the details soon to make that happen.