Current News

The 2011 Volunteering in America report lists the Burlington area 8th among 75 comparable cities in the area of volunteerism. The Volunteering In America report is a partnership between the Corporation for National and Community Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Bureau for Labor Statistics to collect volunteering data annually through the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) Supplement on Volunteering.
The Volunteering in America research, released by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), is part of the most comprehensive national study conducted on volunteerism. Nationally, volunteers served nearly 8.1 billion hours in their communities ‘ valued at nearly $173 billion. The report covers 2007-2010 and shows the Burlington area with a Volunteer Rate of 37.7%, compared to 36.5% nationally, and 42 volunteer hours per resident annually, compared to 34.1 hours nationally.

An effort by Entergy Corporation to cancel its $40 million guarantee of the decommissioning of the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear power station in Vernon has been stalled by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Entergy notified the NRC that it was cancelling the financial obligation because the NRC had approved the relicensing of the plant. With the relicensing for another 20 years, Entergy maintains that earnings from the plant during that period will cover the cost of decommissioning and therefore the guarantee would be unnecessary.
However, the NRC is saying in a letter sent to Entergy Vermont Yankee that cancellation is "premature" at this time because operation of the plant for another 20 years after March 2012 is not guaranteed, given the uncerainty of ongoing legal action. The NRC says that Entergy may resubmit its request to cancel the guarantee after the issues with the state and in federal court are resolved.

Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding has released the July 2011 General Fund (GF) Revenue results. July is the first month of fiscal year 2012. General Fund revenues totaled $86.27 million for July 2011, and were -$4.89 million or -5.36 percent below the $91.16 million consensus revenue forecast for the month.
Spaulding explained, ‘While we always prefer to meet or exceed our targets, I would caution anyone from using this one month’s performance as a barometer for the future. July is a notoriously bad predictor of how revenue will trend for the fiscal year in total. For example, July 2010 GF revenue was short of the monthly target by -1.6 percent, but the full year ended up12.9 percent above target.’

By Kevin Kelly
No laws or university policies were violated as a result of the romantic relationship between the wife of UVM’s president and a vice president at the school, according to a Board of Trustees report released today.
University officials clearly hope that the review will put an end to an embarrassing episode that forced Dan Fogel to move up the date of his resignation after nine years as UVM’s president. Board of Trustees chairman Robert Cioffi expressed confidence in an interview following release of the report that Fogel’s accomplishments, rather than the awkward circumstances of his departure, will come to define his legacy.

Mace Security International, known primarily for its pepper spray and other personal defense products, has announced that it has completed a multimillion dollar financing led by The Ancora Group in Cleveland, Ohio. After the financing, Ancora and its investment partnership, Merlin Partners LLC will have achieved an approximate 35 percent ownership in Mace. Mace Personal Defense Products division is based in Bennington, Vermont.
At the same time Cleveland businessman, Richard Barone, Chairman of The Ancora Group, has been elected Chairman of Mace. Other Clevelanders elected to the board include Denis Amato, Chief Investment Officer at Ancora and Larry Pollock, Managing Partner of Lucky Star Partners and former President of Cole National.

By TOM PELHAM. Vermonters need to see beyond Washington’s double talk and understand the budget fight is not about compromise, but about holding partisan ground gained over the last decade. The Republicans don’t favor taxes and with President Bush taking the lead, income taxes dropped from 9.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2000 to 6.2% in 2010. Total federal revenues dropped from 20.6% of GDP to 14.9%. In the other direction, Democrats favor expanded government and as a percent of GDP, federal spending grew from 18.5% of GDP in 2000 to 23.8% in 2010. Spending has increased across the board with discretionary spending up from 6.3% of GDP in 2000 to 9.3% in 2010 and ‘mandatory’ spending up from 10.5% to 14.4%.

By JACK HOFFMAN. Do wealthy residents move if they are asked to pay more in taxes? Another reliable report’the fourth this year’says they do not. This latest was from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. It was both a review of recent studies that show no or weak connections between taxes and people’s moving from state to state and an analysis of cases where data about taxes and migration have been misused.
‘This claim [about tax flight] is false,’ said Robert Tannenwald, former vice-president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and one of the co-authors of the report. ‘The effects of taxes on migration are, at most, small’so small that states that raise income taxes on the wealthiest households will see a substantial net gain in revenue.’
There is good recent evidence to support Tannenwald:

There are ever more rankings of colleges, and of hospitals, graduate schools, law schools, cities and towns. Now Forbes magazine joins Newsweek in the college ranking scene. And Saint Michael's College has landed at number 88 nationwide out of 650 institutions. Forbes says their methodology provides families the best guidance for making one of the most important decisions they will make’choosing the right college for their student.
Forbes describes their approach this way:
‘Our annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the things that matter the most to students: quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates and low levels of debt. Unlike other lists, we pointedly ignore ephemeral measures such as school ‘reputation’ and ill-conceived metrics that reward wasteful spending.’

According to the Kaiser Family foundation, the average per-person health insurance premium in 2010 ranged in cost from approximately $136 per month in Alabama to more than $400 per month in Vermont and Massachusetts. The average across for all states was $215 per member per month. (see chart below)

Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott was elected to the Executive Committee of the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA). NLGA is the professional association for the officeholders first in line of succession to the governor in all 50 states and the U.S. territories.
"Lt. Governor Scott was elected to this position by his peers, and received broad bi-partisan support," said NLGA Executive Director Julia Hurst. The selection of new officers happened at the association's annual meeting, held July 27-29 in Puerto Rico. Scott, who was not able to attend the conference, accepted the nomination last week.
"As a NLGA leader, Lt. Governor Scott will work with other lieutenant governors across the nation to find and foster multi-state and regional solutions to problems," said Nebraska Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy, who serves as NLGA Chair. "Through NLGA, the nation's lieutenant governors discuss shared concerns and seek to influence national dialogue."

The Rutland Southern Regional Airport in Vermont and the Lebanon Municipal Airport in New Hampshire have been spared from a House bill that, if passed, would cut a federal subsidy to numerous rural airports across the country.
According to Andrew Bonney, the vice president for planning for Cape Air, a regional airline that serves the two small airports in Rutland and Lebanon, the bill in Washington is attempting to eliminate ‘wasteful’ spending on airports that are within 90 miles of a major airport hub; both the Rutland and the Lebanon airport were further than this distance. 13 airpots across the country are still at risk if the bill is passed.
The federal government provides the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with funding for their Essential Air Service Program that subsidizes rural airports across the country. The Rutland airport receives $797,000 a year from this program and the Lebanon airport receives $2.3 million.

FairPoint Communications, Inc (NasdaqCM: FRP), the major provider of communications services in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011. Net loss was $27.1 million in the second quarter of 2011 as compared to a net loss of $54.2 million a year earlier.

Consolidated EBITDAR increases to $70.5 million in the quarter on revenue of $262.6 million
High-speed Internet subscriber growth accelerates to 5.4% year-over-year versus a 1.9% loss a year earlier
Voice access line loss slows to 9.3% year-over-year versus 11.6% a year earlier
Net loss improves to $27.1 million versus $54.2 million a year earlier