Current News

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Jay Peak Resort’s multi-million dollar side projects in Newport and Burke are delayed due to a slow-down in investor recruitment. Federal backlogs and increased scrutiny of all projects financed through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program have jammed up the ventures, which are part of the resort owners’ ambitious Northeast Kingdom Economic Development Initiative.

Jay Peak president and partial owner Bill Stenger, and majority owner Ariel Quiros, say they’re confident construction will begin this summer at AnC Bio, their planned biotechnology research park in Newport, and at Q Burke Mountain, Jay Peak’s newly acquired sister ski area in Burke.

Before they access the money they’ve already raised, the developers are waiting for the EB-5 projects’ early investors to receive visa approvals from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the EB-5 program.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Two years ago, Governor Peter Shumlin was riding high on a wave of popularity. The governor’s approval rating was 65.1 percent in the spring of 2012 as the election season began, thanks in no small part to the successes of his first term in office. Vermonters overwhelmingly supported his handling of Tropical Storm Irene, and there was broad support for the passage of Act 48, a plan for single-payer health care that the governor initiated. The WCAX/Castleton poll from 2012 showed that 22.6 percent of voters disapproved of Shumlin after his first two years in office.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College is one of the 332 most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada, according to The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com). The education services company known for its test prep programs and college rankings, ratings, and guidebooks profiles Champlain College in the fifth annual edition of its free downloadable book, "The Princeton Review's Guide to 332 Green Colleges."

Sustain Champlain Eco-Reps tabling at a campus event. Photo courtesy of Champlain College.

Public Assets Institute In what may be an encouraging trend, March data released today show that the number of working Vermonters, including those who are self-employed, increased for the sixth consecutive month. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, a low not seen since 2005. At the same time, Vermont private sector employers reported 800 new non-farm payroll jobs, seasonally adjusted.

The University of Vermont raised nearly $8 million in scholarship support from alumni and other private donors last year, and Thursday night was the moment for grateful students to say “thanks.”

Among the scholarship recipients attending was Kane Tobin, a junior enrolled in the School of Business Administration. Tobin is a 28-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served two deployments in Afghanistan as a helicopter crew chief and door gunner immediately following high school in Hyannis, Mass. College is a personal dream he wanted to pursue after fulfilling what he felt was a debt to his country, he said.

“Scholarship support speaks volumes about the university and the importance that the university places on supporting its student body,” Tobin said.

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org Lawmakers on Thursday resurrected a push to study whether legalizing and taxing marijuana would make money for the state. Some lawmakers were upset last month when House Speaker Shap Smith quashed an amendment calling for the study when members tried to attach it to the miscellaneous tax bill.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org Lawmakers are reviewing at least six approaches to increasing the state’s minimum wage, five weeks after Governor Peter Shumlin embraced President Barack Obama’s plan to move to $10.10 per hour by 2017.

The state minimum wage is $8.73 per hour, compared to the federal rate of $7.25 per hour. Vermont nudges up the minimum hourly wage each year in proportion to changes in the Consumer Price Index.

Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, unveiled his own strategy Thursday morning. The chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs wants to gradually bump it up to $10.47 per hour by 2018, in roughly 45-cent increments. After that, the wage would continue to increase with the cost of living.

Vermont State Police One lane of I-89 in Highgate has been re-opened. Today at approximately 12:12 pm, the Vermont State Police received a 911 call regarding a plane crash on Interstate 89 in the northbound lane, near mile marker 125, north of exit 21 in the town of Highgate. Initial reports indicated the single passenger plane was fully engulfed in flames and someone parachuted out prior to crashing.

According to WCAX-TV: "Northbound traffic on I-89 was stopped at Exit 21 in Swanton all the way to the Canadian border for nearly an hour before one lane reopened. The second lane remained closed until about 3 p.m. as crews work to remove the burned-out wreckage of the single-passenger plane from the highway."

1:22 pm: Emergency responders remain on scene of today's aircraft crash near mile marker 125, just north of Exit 21, Interstate 89.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org Moody’s Investors Service, an investment assessment services company, downgraded Vermont Law School’s $10.3 million in 2011 revenue bonds this week. Moody’s lowered its rating for the school’s bonds from Baa2 to Ba1 this week.

The downgrade drops Vermont Law School by two rating categories. (See chart at end of article.)

TD Bank holds the bonds, which were issued by the Vermont Educational and Health Buildings Finance Agency.

The campus of Vermont Law School in South Royalton. Photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger

Vermont Business Magazine Xanterra Parks & Resorts has agreed to acquire international walking tour operator CW Adventures, expanding further the company’s fast-growing portfolio of active travel offerings. The transaction is expected to be completed in May 2014.

Formerly known as Country Walkers and based in Waterbury, Vermont, 35-year-old CW Adventures provides more than 130 active, immersive travel vacations on five continents. Trips include guided and self-guided walking and biking adventures, safaris, family adventures and private vacations.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s unemployment rate is now second lowest in the nation, behind only North Dakota (2.6 percent). Driven by an increase in jobs and a steep decline in the number of unemployed, Vermont's unemployment rate fell again in March to 3.4 percent, a level not seen since well before the national economy collapsed in 2008. This is the lowest Vermont seasonally adjusted unemployment rate since June 2005. The March rate represents a decrease of three-tenths of a percent from the February rate of 3.7 percent. The comparative national average was 6.7 percent, which was unchanged from February (the US rate has not been as low as 3.4 percent since May 1969). March 2014 data represents the sixth consecutive reported monthly decrease to the statewide unemployment rate in Vermont.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Global technology giant IBM has joined the opposition to a Vermont proposal to regulate chemicals in children’s products that the state’s health department considers harmful.

Big Blue was part of a chorus of major industries against the plan, a list that includes the Toy Industry Association, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Burton Snowboards, Keurig Green Mountain and Wal-Mart.

“If you’re going to be considering potentially taking away somebody’s livelihood, we need to be sure there’s an actual harm, an actual exposure and a risk from those products,” Janet Doyle, a representative for IBM, told the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Committee.