Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Coventry landfill buffer zone will soon be home to the state's largest solar development.

The Commonwealth Fund named Vermont as one of the top ranking states for improving health care access, quality, outcomes and lowering costs in the five years preceding implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s major coverage provisions.

Aiming Higher: Results from a Scorecard on State Health System Performance, 2014 ranks the health systems of every state and the District of Columbia based on 42 health care measures, 34 of which are used to reveal trends between 2007 and 2011–12. Vermont ranked second in the scorecard, the same rank it attained in the previous scorecard.

Anne Galloway vtdigger.org The Senate Finance Committee has approved a 6 cent increase in the statewide property tax for residential homeowners and a 7 cent increase in the tax for nonresidential property owners. The tax rate for residential property owners would be $1 per $100 per assessed property value under the proposal. The rate for non-residential (commercial property and second homes) would rise to $1.51.

The committee, after weeks of negotiations, combined the miscellaneous tax and property tax bills, which also includes a tiered increase in the employer assessment on large companies that do not offer health insurance for workers. It also places an assessment on employers who pay workers so little that they can’t afford to buy into company insurance plans and wind up on state and federally supported Medicaid programs that cost taxpayers as much as $7,000 per year for each beneficiary.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org The school board consolidation bill squeaked through the Vermont House in a 75-62 vote on second reading late Tuesday night, after long-running predictions from State House insiders that the bill would not survive the House and would hit a brick wall in the Senate. Though the legislation has yet to get final approval from the House, education reform advocates have scored a major victory with the first floor vote, as the Senate Education Committee began a review of a version of the legislation on Tuesday.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org In one of the most decisive votes of the session the Vermont House supported the regulation of toxic chemicals found in children’s products. The vote was 114-27. The bill, S239, gives the Vermont Department of Health the authority to require manufacturers to label or remove toxic chemicals from products sold in the state.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The Green Mountain Care Board ruled Tuesday that a New Hampshire urgent care company does not need further review of its plans to operate centers in Vermont. The New London, NH, company ClearChoiceMD had requested that the board make a determination whether its plan to open five centers in Vermont would trigger the certificate of need process.

by Holary Niles vtdigger.org The Senate passed its version of a fiscal year 2015 spending bill Tuesday. The chamber’s final debate produced some amendments, but no substantive changes to the $5.5 billion legislation. The General Fund budget is $1.4 billion; the Education Fund is $1.5 billion and almost $2 billion in federal funds also go into the total. H885 was immediately sent to the House for consideration. Any changes in the chambers’ versions will have to be worked out in a committee of conference.

Read budget overview story.

VERMONT ENTERPRISE INVESTMENT FUND

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org A major telecommunications bill passed the Vermont Senate on Tuesday. It was sent immediately to the House to review the many changes made in recent weeks by the Senate Finance Committee. H.297 would fold the Vermont Telecommunications Authority into the Agency of Administration. The entity was established by the state in 2007 to help provide “last mile” households with broadband Internet service and to improve cellphone service in rural areas.

Read a rundown of the Senate bill.

Sovernet Communications announced today that Fletcher Allen Health Care has chosen Sovernet’s fiber network for its latest data transport needs. Sovernet has built a 300 megabits per second (Mbps) wide area network (WAN) connection between Fletcher Allen and its Berlin affiliate, Central Vermont Medical Center. The link is being used to securely transport medical images and data between the two entities to streamline care and reduce duplication of efforts to care for their shared patients.

Ledyard Financial Group, Inc (ticker symbol LFGP), the holding company for Ledyard National Bank, today reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2014. Net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, was $938,305 or $0.93 per share compared to $759,079 or $0.75 per share for the same period in 2013, an increase of $179,226 or 23.61%.

Total revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, was $5,455,967 compared to $5,067,133 for the same period in 2013, for an increase of $388,835 or 7.7%. Net interest income for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, was $3,148,548 compared to $2,798,985 for the same period in 2013, for an increase of $346,563 or 12.49%. The increase in revenue for the first three months when compared to the prior year is due to an increase in lending activity and an increase in revenue from Ledyard Financial Advisors. The steepening yield curve and increase in lending provides for a more favorable revenue outlook.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc (NYSE: BHLB) reported that core earnings per share increased by 5% to $0.42 in the first quarter of 2014 compared to $0.40 in the previous quarter due to strong balance sheet growth. Core earnings per share decreased from $0.54 in the first quarter of 2013 due primarily to lower income on real estate related loans resulting from interest rate related market shifts in 2013.

Dealer.com, based in Burlington, a Dealertrack Technologies Solution (Nasdaq:TRAK), announced the addition of e-Dealer Solutions and CallSource to its Certified Provider Program. As part of the program, e-Dealer's and CallSource's trusted technologies are seamlessly integrated into the Dealer.com solution, providing dealers and OEMs with advanced analytics and training to help retailers convert more leads into sales. Customers have easy access to these new technologies through the Dealer.com ControlCenter.