Current News

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Key senators Thursday agreed on their own version of the state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The Senate Appropriation’s Committee voted unanimously to move the $1.4 billion General Fund spending plan to a full Senate vote next week. The panel’s proposed amendments to the House-passed budget include, most notably, increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for healthcare providers from 0.75 percent to 2 percent, on par with Gov. Peter Shumlin’s recommended budget increase. (The total cost of the rate increase is roughly $4 million.)

by Tom Brown vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin made it clear Thursday that passage of a bill reducing the number of school boards in the state is one of his major goals for the waning legislative session. The governor told reporters that the administration would fight for H883 down to the final gavel. “We have to take the burden off property taxpayers that are seeing increases that their wallets can’t sustain,” he said at a Statehouse news conference.

The bill would eliminate 270-plus school districts and create 45 to 55 supervisory districts that would have unified management of personnel, coordinated best practices for teachers and district-wide curriculum, was stalled in the House Appropriations Committee this week.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Developers are opposing the Shumlin administration’s proposal to create tight-knit downtown areas surrounded by rural countryside, and have been lobbying against what they say is an anti-development bill. But the administration pushed back Thursday, defending lawmakers’ current proposal, H823, as a “balanced, thoughtful way to move forward with development in this state.”

Governor Peter Shumlin and Deb Markowitz, Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, today announced the 2014 Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence. The recipients will be recognized in May at a ceremony in Burlington. Environmental excellence awards have been given since 1993 to recognize efforts and actions of Vermonters to conserve and protect natural resources, prevent pollution, and promote environmental sustainability. To date, more than 200 efforts have been recognized.

“These projects contribute significantly to Vermont’s environmental quality and encourage others to take similar actions to protect our resources,” said Sec. Markowitz. “They demonstrate the importance of innovation and partnerships in enhancing and sustaining Vermont’s environmental quality.

Award winners will be recognized at the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility Annual Spring Conference on May 14 at the Davis Center on the University of Vermont campus in Burlington.

Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew PC has completed a renewable energy project on the roof of its Burlington headquarters intended to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint. Dinse serves as counsel to clients financing and developing renewable energy projects in Vermont and New York.

Dinse will benefit from the power generated by the 16.5 kW project consisting of 55 300-watt solar panels on the roof of the firm’s building at 209 Battery Street in Burlington, Vermont. The installation was coordinated by Encore Redevelopment of Burlington, Vermont, and designed and installed by Peck Solar of South Burlington, Vermont. The project was commissioned on April 9, 2014.

The solar array creates a clean renewable energy resource for 25 to 30 percent of the electrical demand associated with the office equipment at Dinse, a 30-attorney firm.

Vermont Business Magazine In a report released Friday, for the third year, Designated Downtowns in the Vermont Downtown Program through the Agency of Commerce’s Division of Community Planning and Revitalization, saw increases in businesses and jobs created, rehabilitation projects, and public and private investments in downtown. With a seven percent increase over 2012, Vermont Downtowns realized nearly 600 new jobs and more than $100 million in private investments.

The ACCD report said this growth came despite the disruption of major construction projects in downtowns around Vermont. Barre and St Albans completed major streetscape re-designs which included infrastructure improvements, sidewalk replacement and new lighting while Montpelier completed a district energy project.

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) announces the call for nominations for the 2014 Terry Ehrich Award for Excellence in Socially Responsible Business. Members of the business community are encouraged to nominate an individual whose business practices show a commitment to the environment, the workplace and the community no later thanFriday, May 30.

Named for the late owner of Hemmings Motor News and founder of the First Day Foundation, the Terry Ehrich Award is given annually to a person who exemplifies Terry's dedication to the triple bottom line approach to business. Nominations will be judged on four criteria: Workplace Environment, Political Environment, Social Environment and Natural Environment.

Data from a new government report show that if all the structurally deficient bridges in the United States were placed end-to-end, it would take you 25 hours driving 60 miles per hour to cross them. That's like driving the 1,500 miles between Boston and Miami. And it's a problem that's close to home.

An analysis of the 2013 National Bridge Inventory database released this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) shows cars, trucks and school buses cross Vermont's 251 structurally compromised bridges 344,436 times every day.

The Vermont Technology Alliance in collaboration with the Vermont Technology Council has published the third edition of Tapping Tech, a print and digital publication that highlights the positive impact of Vermont’s growing technology business sector and its importance to Vermont’s economy.

Tapping Tech features Vermont companies in a range of technology business sectors, highlights the technology business ecosystem in the state, and includes a listing of Vermont companies and organizations that make up the state’s tech economy.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and the senior Obama administration official responsible for improving access to health care met here today with representatives from 11 community health centers throughout Vermont.

Mary Wakefield, who heads the Health Resources and Services Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services, joined Sanders at a news conference to discuss what the senator has called a crisis in primary care in the United States.

“We have made some good progress in Vermont and across the nation in the last few years but clearly we still have a long way to go,” Sanders said.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org House lawmakers are considering significant changes to a Senate-passed bill that aims to streamline the judicial process for involuntary medication of psychiatric patients.

Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said the draft language released this week is not a final product.

“This is not a draft of the new bill by the Judiciary Committee, this is some ideas put forward that legislative counsel put in draft form,” he said.

The House Judiciary version of the bill strips out a provision that would allow simultaneous hearings for involuntary treatment and medication.

Vermont Business Magazine The following is a statement from the manufacturer of Zohydro ER, a recently approved opioid pain management medication. Governor Shumlin, in an effort to limit the abuse of prescription opioids because of their relationship to an ongoing opioid abuse problem in Vermont, through prescription medication and heroin, has called on the FDA to reverse its approval of Zohydro. The advocacy groups referenced below suggest that a broader approach needs to be taken than banning just one medication.

Vermont is not alone in its concern. Massachusetts banned the drug, but that ban was shot down in court, so on Tuesday, Governor Deval Patrick’s administration imposed what the Boston Globe called "sweeping restrictions" on prescribing the drug.

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