Current News

On December 15, 2011 the VMBB issued $43.7 million in 2011 Series 5 Bonds to assist 26 municipalities to refinance outstanding debt issued through the US Department of Agriculture-Rural Development. The USDA-RD debt was originally issued to fund principally municipal drinking water and sewer projects. The refinancing bonds will save participating municipalities over $4,109,786 in future debt service payments.
Through the December 15, 2011 issue of $25.9 million in 2011 Series 6 Refinancing Bonds, the Bond Bank was able to refinance its 2003 Series 2 bonds resulting in $1,750,000 in future debt service payment savings for 27 Vermont municipalities and school districts. Loans from the 2003 Series 2 bonds were originally used mainly for ‘bricks and mortar’ construction and renovation projects.
About VMBB

US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded $3,569,374 to renew funding to 22 homeless programs operating in Vermont. The funding announced today will ensure these housing and service programs remain operating in 2012 and are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. View a complete list of all the state and local homeless assistance programs awarded funding.
HUD is renewing funding through its Continuum of Care programs to existing local programs as quickly as possible to prevent any interruption in federal assistance and will award funds to new projects in early 2012.

The Agency of Commerce and Community Development today announced that Dave Hakins has been named Publisher of Vermont Life magazine.
Hakins, who joined the magazine last spring as an advertising contractor, helped boost sales revenues in 2011 and oversaw several initiatives to increase the magazine’s visibility. He launched the new ‘Dine, Shop, Stay & Play’ advertorial sections for local communities, including Waterbury and Addison County, and developed the Vermont Life Emporium, a special section intended to make advertising affordable for Vermont entrepreneurs selling art, crafts, gifts, specialty foods and other Vermont-inspired products. Hakins is also credited with the magazine’s increase in full-page advertising displays from some of Vermont’s largest companies, such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, People’s United Bank, Long Trail Brewing and Hannaford.

Vermont's unemployment rate for November fell three-tenths of a point to 5.3 percent, as both the labor force and total employment grew over both the October levels and over November 2010. This is the lowest rate since April, before the first of two floods hit the state. It's also the fewest number of unemployed since November 2008, just as the national recession was beginning.

Vermont Labor Force Statistics

Seasonally Adjusted

Change to
November 2011 from

November
2011
October
2011
November
2010
October
2011
November
2010

Total Labor Force
363,200
362,800
360,800
400
2,400

Employment
344,100
342,400
339,800
1,700
4,300

IBM announced today it has awarded $525,540 in grants, ranging from $500 to $10,000, to more than 100 Vermont not-for-profit organizations and schools throughout the state. The grants were awarded as part of IBM’s celebration of its 100th anniversary in 2011, and made to organizations where IBM employees are volunteers. The grants fund organizations throughout the state supporting the arts, education, disaster and emergency response, the environment, health and youth services, and libraries.
These grants bring the approximate value of IBM’s corporate and employee community support in Vermont to $2.7 million for 2011. This includes Centennial Celebration of Service grants and other corporate grants, employee pledges to the company’s annual Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign, and the value of more than 45,000 hours of recorded employee volunteer service.

The Board of Directors of the Champlain Valley Exposition, Inc. today named Tim Shea of Williston as the organization’s new Executive Director. Shea will assume his new position in February 2012.
In making the announcement, Matthew Stevens, President of the CVE Board, noted that Shea will have the benefit of working with longtime General Manager David Grimm for approximately eight months. Grimm announced in March 2011 that he would step down as General Manager following the Champlain Valley Fair in September 2012, concluding a 23-year career at CVE.

The holidays are here along with the busiest shopping days of the year. In all the excitement of buying and receiving gifts this holiday season, don’t forget to properly dispose of your old items. Amongst this year’s top gifts are likely to be TVs, laptops, computers, and computer assessories, along with all the other latest electonic toys and devices. When disposing of electronics, remember that electronics don’t belong in your trash. Instead, use one of more than 90 drop off locations in the state that participate in the Vermont E-Cycles Program.

Five Vermont schools are among the recipients of donations made by a regional auto dealership. Berlin City Auto Group, a family of dealerships founded in 1980 in New England, and its Drive for Education foundation, a forward-thinking program created by the employees of Berlin City Auto Group, announce the award recipients in its Drive for Education program. Donating $60,000 to 18 K-12 schools spanning across New England, Berlin City Auto Group has met its annual goal of awarding more than $100,000 to local schools. Beginning today, recipient schools will be honored with a check presentation at a Berlin City Auto Group dealership in Maine, Vermont or New Hampshire, Dec. 19-21.
‘We believe in giving back to the community and helping our local schools succeed in education.’

The gross domestic product of the United States ‘ that oft-cited measure of economic health ‘ has been ticking upward for the last two years. But what would you see if you could see a graph of gross domestic happiness?
A team of scientists from the University of Vermont have made such a graph ‘ and the trend is down.
Reporting in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, the team writes, ‘After a gradual upward trend that ran from January to April, 2009, the overall time series has shown a gradual downward trend, accelerating somewhat over the first half of 2011.’
‘It appears that happiness is going down,’ said Peter Dodds, an applied mathematician at UVM and the lead author on the new study.
Twitteronomics
How does he know this? From Twitter. For three years, he and his colleagues gathered more than 46 billion words written in Twitter tweets by 63 million Twitter users around the globe.

Vermont Attorney General William H. Sorrell announced today that his office has recently mailed letters to 27 Burlington landlords requesting that they demonstrate compliance with the Vermont lead in housing law at their properties. The landlords have been given 90 days to respond to his office.
‘This most recent mailing continues the efforts of my office around the state to reach out to landlords in order to bring more rental properties into compliance with the law,’ said Attorney General Sorrell. ‘Rental properties need to be safe. Through these letters, we are asking landlords to work with us in making that goal a reality.’
Approximately 80% of Vermont’s rental housing units were built prior to 1978, when lead based paint was banned. Two out of every three lead poisoned children live in pre-1978 rental housing.

The Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration (BISHCA) today announced that Bio-Medical Applications of New Hampshire has withdrawn its application to purchase Fletcher Allen Health Care’s outpatient dialysis clinics. Bio-Medical Applications, a for-profit company, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc., itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of a German corporation.
The withdrawal of the application for a Certificate of Need approving the sale follows the release by BISHCA of a proposed Statement of Decision denying approval on the grounds that the sale would result in lower quality services at higher cost without any improvement in access to care.

The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) has approved $5.6 million in business and agricultural financing, helping to leverage enough private investment to support economic development projects totaling $13.4 million.
‘VEDA is pleased to help support the expansion and start-up plans of these businesses and farms,’ said Jo Bradley, VEDA’s Chief Executive Officer. ‘These small business, technology and agricultural investments will help stimulate economic activity and create jobs in Vermont.’
Projects approved for VEDA financing include: