Current News

Michael Smith, whose vision and leadership turned a largely forgotten, bedraggled forest into a 300-acre city park crisscrossed by one of the nation’s top trail systems, received the 2011 CVPS-Zetterstrom Environmental Award today at a Statehouse ceremony.
The award, named for famed osprey advocate Meeri Zetterstrom, includes a $2,500 cash award to support continued improvements in the park.
‘Michael Smith has not only devoted his life to making Pine Hill Park accessible and enjoyable to thousands of people, he has done it in a way that highlights its importance as an environmental oasis in the middle of an urban center,’ CVPS Executive Chairman Bob Young said. ‘Michael, much like Meeri Zetterstrom, has educated thousands of Vermonters about the importance of preserving natural spaces for future generations.’

Peter Shumlin will deliver the commencement address at Green Mountain College's 174th graduation ceremony May 14, and receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. The ceremony is at 10 a.m. on the College's Griswold Library lawn.
Governor Shumlin is the 81st governor of Vermont. His career in public service began in Putney, Vt. almost 30 years ago when he was elected to serve on the town's selectboard at the age of 24.
He earned his bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University and has worked for many years in his family business, Putney Student Travel in Putney, Vt. Today, Putney Student Travel has nearly 20 full-time employees, with another 200 working around the globe during the summer months.

Vermont Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding delivered good good news on tax revenues Tuesday as the General Fund and Education Fund both exceed targets for the month of MArch. The Transportation Fund, however, fell below its anticipated mark.

General Fund
March is the ninth month of fiscal year (FY) 2011. General Fund revenues totaled
$74.87 million for March 2011, and were +$5.98 million or 8.68% above the $68.90 million
consensus revenue forecast for the month. The monthly results closed the February year to date
shortfall and pushed March year to date results slightly above target. March year to date
revenues were $813.33 million or +$1.65 million or +0.20% ahead of target. Compared to the
same period for the prior fiscal year, FY 2011 GF results are 8.67% ahead of FY 2010, but
remain below the pre-recession FY 2008 results by -2.70%.

The RE/MAX of New England Housing Report indicates that for March every state in New England experienced an upswing in transactions as home sales increased 37.7 percent across the region. Vermont was the only state to see a year over year increase at 5.4 percent. According to RE/MAX, this bodes well for a strong spring market.

RE/MAX of New England Executive Vice President, Jay Hummer, has to say about the market in his monthly podcast: http://www.remax-newengland.com/audio/2011-3-HousingPodcast.mp3

There were 1,194 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, an increase of 358 from the week before. Altogether 12,022 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 180 from a week ago and 2,450 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 1,950 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 76 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 891 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 7 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc

A new study suggests that Vermont shouldn’t worry that higher taxes will drive people away, but how it spends its tax revenue appears to affect the likelihood that people will move here. Employment opportunities, a low incidence of crime, and affordable housing go hand in hand with greater inward migration.
Those were among the key findings of a new migration study released today by the Montpelier-based Public Assets Institute and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) of Amherst, MA. The study was based on migration data from all 50 states, but focused specifically on the effects in the New England states.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org April 12, 2011 Four days after congressional leaders struck a budget deal with President Barack Obama, U.S. Senate and House staffers are scrambling to figure out how the continuing resolution target of $38.5 billion in reductions to fiscal year 2011 federal spending will impact the states.
Congress will vote on the continuing resolution bill on Thursday, and there’s a good chance that details about how the cuts will affect programs on the state and local level will still be unknown, according to the offices of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch. Budget-writers have taken a top-down approach and assigned total amounts for reductions without clearly defining the source of the cuts in each area. Once the congressional cuts have been approved for a given agency, federal bureaucrats will then take on the task of determining what programs should be jettisoned.

Sovernet Communications announced today that it has added five (5) new staff members to support construction and deployment of its new middle-mile fiber optic project known as Vermont FiberConnect. The new positions have been added across a number of functions at Sovernet including Project Management, Engineering, Accounting, Business Development and Marketing.
Sovernet is building and will operate and market services over Vermont FiberConnect under a public-private partnership with the Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA). The project has received $35.4 million in grants from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), the VTA, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Vermont Department of Libraries. Sovernet will also invest over $12 million of its own funds in the project.

In an effort to ensure an even closer working relationship between the physicians and the St Alban's hospital, Dr Lowrey Sullivan has accepted the position of Chief Medical Officer on Northwestern Medical Center’s Leadership Team. He will begin his new part-time role at the hospital on or about June 1.
‘I am very pleased that Dr Sullivan has accepted the position of Chief Medical Officer,’ said Jill Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer. ‘This is a challenging role with many competing priorities and imperatives. Having a physician who already has the respect of our medical staff provides a strong foundation for the success of this position.’

Vermont was one of six states that reported that more than half of released offenders returned to state custody within three years in 2004-2007. Despite massive increases in state spending on prisons, America's national recidivism rate is stubbornly high, with more than four in 10 offenders returned to state prison within three years of their release, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States. State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America's Prisons found that while the overall figures are discouraging, several states have made significant progress in reducing recidivism through a variety of evidence-based strategies.
In the first ever state-by-state survey of recidivism rates, state corrections data show that nearly 43 percent of prisoners released in 2004, and 45 percent of those released in 1999 were reincarcerated within three years, either for committing a new crime or violating the terms of their supervised release.

A competition, called the townhouse and Apartment Electricity Competition, orchestrated by Saint Michael's College Sustainability Coordinator Heather Ellis, has students living in the townhouse-style residence halls competing to lower electricity usage, while learning about cost savings. The competition, running from March 28 to April 18, is moving towards conclusion and the prize to the winning house of students, ‘a local food dinner and bragging rights.’
Measuring baseline electricity usage and weekly usage during the competition
Ms. Ellis sends out an email weekly to all townhouse and apartment residents, some 485 students living in 119 residences, giving them a baseline per capita usage of kilowatt hours and the usage for the week. Students can monitor how they are performing in their efforts to reduce usage, and can compare to other users.

According to disclosure reports filed with the Attorney General’s Office, pharmaceutical companies spent 30 percent less in payments to, or made on behalf of, Vermont health care providers than in prior years. In the 12 months before July 1, 2010, 141 manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices spent approximately $4.8 million to Vermont doctors, hospitals, universities and others.