Current News

Median family income in Vermont fell in 2009 for the second consecutive year and now stands at $64,900, according to The Vermont Economy Newsletter’s annual analysis of just-released Vermont Tax Department data. After adjusting for inflation, the income earned by the median family (half of all families earn more and half earn less than the median) fell by $1,275 or 1.9% in 2009.
‘The decline in median income shows the extent to which the recession has affected the average Vermont family,’ said Art Woolf, co-author of the study and editor of The Vermont Economy Newsletter. ‘Moreover, it comes on the heels of a 2.7% decline in 2008. From 2007 to 2009, median family in Vermont income has fallen by $3,100 and is now back to where it was in 2001.’

Wyndham Vacation Ownership (WVO), the world’s largest vacation ownership company and a member of the Wyndham Worldwide family of companies (NYSE:WYN), has announced it has entered into an exclusive sales and marketing agreement with Smugglers’ Notch Management Company, Ltd. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
WVO is expected to become the exclusive sales and marketing agent for the sale of vacation ownership
interests at Smugglers’ Notch Vermont Resort; sales are anticipated to begin in the second quarter of
2011. Through this arrangement, it is anticipated that all unsold interests will become part of the
company’s flexible, club-based CLUBWYNDHAM Access product. Completion of the transaction is
subject to customary closing conditions.
‘This is another significant step in executing our fee-for-service timeshare sales model while bringing a

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of a Vermont law that requires doctors’ consent before their identifying information in prescription records can be sold or used for marketing prescription drugs. The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds by data mining companies and by PhRMA, a trade organization for the pharmaceutical industry. The federal district court in Vermont upheld the law after trial, but a divided panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in November 2010. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed a petition seeking Supreme Court review on December 13, 2010.
Attorney General Sorrell praised the Court’s decision to hear the case. ‘Vermont doctors pressed for this law because of their concerns about privacy and because they view this data mining practice as an intrusion into the way doctors practice medicine. We look forward to defending this important law in the Supreme Court.’

Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott, Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, and Senator Dick Mazza, members of the Senate Committee on Committees, announced the Senate committee assignments for the 2011-2012 legislative session.
Those committee assignments are:
Agriculture
Sen. Sara Kittell (D-Franklin), Chair
Sen. Harold Giard (D-Addison), Vice Chair
Sen. Philip Baruth (D-Chittenden), Clerk
Sen. Bobby Starr (D-Essex-Orleans)
Sen. John Campbell (D-Windsor)
Appropriations
Sen. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia), Chair
Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington), Vice Chair
Sen. Bobby Starr (D-Essex-Orleans), Clerk
Sen. Diane Snelling (R-Chittenden)
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi (R-Essex-Orleans)
Sen. Alice Nitka (D-Windsor)
Sen. Hinda Miller (D-Chittenden)
Economic Development
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi (R-Essex-Orleans), Chair
Sen. Timothy Ashe (D/P-Chittenden), Vice Chair

National Life Group of Montpelier continues to show remarkable resiliency through the economic downturn as it once again shows revenue growth in 2010, as revealed in Vermont Business Magazine’s annual Vermont 100+ ranking of the largest Vermont-based companies.
VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH WCAX TV
Meanwhile, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Waterbury joined National Life as the state’s second billion dollar company, as listed in VBM’s January 2011 issue. GMCR showed remarkable growth, most notably through its recent acquisitions of coffee companies on the West Coast and in Canada.

Crown Point, New York/Addison, Vermont ‘ January 6, 2011 ‘ The Lake Champlain Bridge Coalition announced today the formation of the Lake Champlain Bridge Community (LCB Community). The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has entrusted the Coalition and LCB Community to create, plan and lead the public festivities that will celebrate the replacement and re-opening of the Lake Champlain Bridge. The celebration will also showcase the reunited regional communities of Addison, Vermont and Crown Point, New York.

(BENNINGTON, Vt.) ‘ The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Southern Vermont College for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification designation. The Carnegie Foundation is best known for its classifications based on the curricular and research missions in colleges and universities. The Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification has only recently been added--and awarded in 2006 and 2008--to include colleges and universities which meet certain criteria for having an institutional focus on community engagement.

Northwestern Medical Center (NMC) is pleased to announce the creation of ‘Northwestern Orthopaedics’ through the acquisition of Synergy Orthopaedics. Dr. Rob Beattie and his staff have joined Dr. Michael Barnum and Dr. Jeremy Hatch as employees of NMC, effective January 1st, 2011.
‘I’m delighted to be an employee of Northwestern Medical Center,’ said Dr. Beattie. ‘It’s an excellent hospital with a culture of true caring, and I’m pleased to be joining my two superb colleagues, Dr. Hatch and Dr. Barnum, as an employee of NMC.’
‘This transition helps ensure the continuity of orthopaedic care in our community,’ said Jill Berry Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer. ‘We are looking forward to expanding access to orthopaedics and are currently recruiting for a fourth orthopaedic surgeon to join the practice.’

Governor Peter Shumlin announced Friday a plan to achieve $12 million in General Fund savings in Fiscal Year 2012 without imposing pay cuts or layoffs of existing state workers.
The administration will implement an immediate hiring freeze across state government. All requests to fill vacant positions will require specific approval of the office of the Secretary of Administration.
In addition, the Governor said Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding will work with the State Employee unions and the Legislature to enact the following savings beginning July 1:

Employees of National Life Group donated more than 2,000 books to an inner-city school in Maryland, helping to fuel the principal’s ambitious dream of bringing 10,000 books into his school.
‘I believe reading is the foundation for everything,’ says Herman Whaley, principal of the 200-student Capitol Heights Elementary School, located on the Maryland border with Washington, D.C. ‘If you are not a good reader you are going to struggle.’
The 2,000 books were presented at a school assembly in December at which students, in a format akin to a television game show, answered book-themed questions.
‘You have to celebrate reading and books the way we celebrate our athletes,’ says Whaley. ‘You have to be a cheerleader and celebrate it so it becomes contagious, like you are celebrating a sporting event like the Super Bowl.’

The Champlain Housing Trust announced today that the Citizens Bank Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to help create a new program that provides financial fitness counseling to applicants of its rental housing. CHT has long provided home buyer education counseling, post purchase counseling, delinquency intervention and foreclosure prevention services.
‘Thanks to the Citizens Bank Foundation, we are able to expand our services and to try a new approach,’ explained Chris Donnelly, Director of Community Relations at CHT. ‘Because of poor credit or other solvable issues, we have to turn away some rental applicants. We have found that with guidance, people can start to repair credit or set themselves on a more stable path. So instead of saying ‘No’ to these people, we want to be able to say ‘Yes, but only if you work with us.’‘

Steven Judge, President of Bob-White Systems ‘ the Vermont farmstead and micro dairy supply and equipment company, announces the addition of a farmstead cheese making supply business and names South Royalton resident, Leslie Mann, the Cheese Manager.
South Royalton’s innovative micro dairy equipment company will now offer cheese making supplies and equipment and provide farmstead and homestead micro dairy farmers with the expertise and support to produce local, artisanal cheese. From moulds, cheese cloths, and vat pasteurizers to measuring instruments, curd knives, and literature, products are available at the Bob-White Systems storefront on the green in South Royalton or online at www.bobwhitesystems.com.