Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and members of his cabinet will be in Lamoille County on Friday, February 28 for its Capital for a Day 14-county tour. Governor Scott first launched this initiative in June 2018, and he and his cabinet visited all 14 counties over the following 10 months. Capital for a Day gives local constituents, municipal government leaders and other partners the opportunity to connect directly with state leadership and staff.

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.15 per gallon, unchanged from last week, up 1 cent/g from last month and down 10 cents/g from last year. The lowest price in the state this week was $2.85/g while the highest was $3.29/g, a difference of 44.0 cents per gallon. Overall, the lowest average prices remain in Rutland ($3.03/g) and Windsor ($3.07/g) counties, with the highest in Grand Isle, Franklin and Lamoille, all at $3.22. The national average price of gasoline has fallen 4 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.12/g today. The national average is unchanged from a month ago and stands 15 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

by Doug Hoffer, Vermont State Auditor Vermont’s Medicaid program cost more than $2 billion last year, providing coverage to nearly 197,000 individuals who were served by thousands of Vermont providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, general practitioners, and specialists. Because of the scale and importance of the program, we decided to conduct two audits of the Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA), the state department that manages Vermont’s Medicaid program. The first audit related to DVHA’s Special Investigative Unit (SIU), which is responsible for trying to prevent Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse. The second audit assessed the performance of the Blueprint for Health, a DVHA program that since 2006 has attempted to improve health outcomes and lower health care costs by working with primary care practices.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont's congressional delegation, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Peter Welch and Congresswoman Becca Balint spoke to over 34,000 Vermonters during a telephone town hall Wednesday evening that lasted for almost an hour and a half. The delegation took questions from constituents and addressed Vermonters’ concerns about the current state of the country, the rising costs of health care and prescription drugs, and America’s commitment to diplomacy and foreign assistance, among other topics.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board is inviting public comment on proposed changes to Vermont’s white-tailed deer, moose and turkey hunting regulations, as well as the rules for transporting wild game meat from out of state. The proposed deer hunting changes, recommended by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s biologists, are the most extensive of the four.  They come five years after state biologists last updated Vermont’s deer regulations.  Deer is Vermont’s most popular game species with about 60,000 resident hunters and 7,500 out-of-state hunters heading into the white-tail woods each fall, and just over a fifth successfully harvesting deer.

Vermont Business Magazine Saint Michael’s College Biology Professor Declan McCabe will host a family-friendly workshop on how to place and use trail cameras for wildlife photography. McCabe, who employs trail cameras for research and learning in the College’s Natural Area, will have a number of examples of photographs he has captured locally to help inform the discussion. Students and faculty, including McCabe, use trail cameras in the Natural Area to document mammal communities, study microhabitat usage, and gain insight into human impacts on mammal distributions in the area. The Natural Area spans more than 365 acres surrounding the academic campus. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Northeast Regional Food Business Center, which covers Vermont, has launched of the first round of Business Builder sub-awards, designed to strengthen local and regional food systems by providing direct funding to small- and mid-sized farm and food businesses. Ten million dollars will be made available in this round, with awards ranging from $15,000 to $100,000 to support businesses in scaling their operations, expanding markets and connecting various segments of the regional food supply chain.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark wants to hear young Vermonters’ thoughts on the environment. For the fifth year in a row, the Attorney General’s Office is holding an Earth Day Essay Challenge for Vermont students to submit essays, and this year, the Office is expanding the challenge to include fourth graders. The Earth Day Essay Challenge is open to any fourth, fifth, or sixth-grade student in Vermont, including home-schooled students. The challenge will run from now until April 16, 2025. Students can submit other types of writing instead of an essay if they would like—for example, a story, poem, or biographical piece about someone.

Vermont Business Magazine In a momentous announcement kicking off its 75th anniversary, the iconic Trapp Family Lodge proudly unveils its new name and brand identity as the von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort. This thoughtful refresh reflects a harmonious blend of honoring the family’s rich legacy while embracing an exciting future of growth. Originally famous as the Trapp Family Singers, the family’s hotel name was derived from their popular musical touring name, which is why the ‘von’ was not present. With a renewed focus on the family legacy, the von has been adapted back into the name. And, since the lodge itself has transformed so much over the years into being a true resort destination, “Lodge & Resort” feels more appropriate for the experience that we provide to our guests. 

Vermont Business Magazine Sally Borden, former KidSafe Collaborative Executive Director, along with current Executive Director Meghan Masterson have announced that the KidSafe Sally Borden Fund has raised over $106,000 for the Burlington based non-profit, whose mission is working collaboratively to keep children safe from abuse and neglect. Borden, who stepped down after 26 years at the helm of KidSafe Collaborative, launched the fund in partnership with founding donors Jay and Susan Fayette. Together they recognized that to keep KidSafe Collaborative strong they needed to make sure the organization could support “the heart” of KidSafe -- its talented and compassionate staff who carry out the organization’s mission every day. 

Vermont Business Magazine This afternoon, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) at its annual conference in Washington, D.C. passed an action item supporting the continued funding for four national Dairy Business Innovation Centers, including in the Northeast region.  The action item encourages Congress to retain the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative as a program in the forthcoming Farm Bill, with base funding of $36 million annually to be distributed among the four existing centers (University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin, California State University - Fresno, and Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets). 

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) this week joined Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in introducing the Postal Processing Protection Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to protect timely mail delivery by mandating a robust review of the consequences of downsizing or closing facilities. The Senators’ bill would ensure that efficient service is not interrupted by the closure or downsizing of a mail processing center, especially as outgoing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s “Delivering for America” plan continues to dismantle the postal service, and as President Trump threatens to put USPS under the control of the executive branch. USPS has operated as an independent entity since 1970.