Current News

Vermont s two largest utilities today signed a memorandum of understanding with provincial utility Hydro-Québec that sets the stage for a new power supply contract for Vermont customers. The 225-megawatt deal is comparable the current Hydro-Quebec contract and the initial cost will have little if any inflation, according to a utility source.

A study by the Brookings Institution has found that Vermont received federal funds distributed based on census data at a rate of double the national average, according to data from fiscal 2008. The study found that Vermont received close to $1.79 billion in funds, or $2,873.67 per capita. Nationally, the average is $1,469 per capita. Vermont was second only to Washington, DC in terms of per-capita money awarded. The largest portion of the state s census-related funding, 67.5 percent, was put towards health care, followed by 10.6 percent allotted to transportation. The institution s data suggests that states with a higher participation in the census reap more financial reward from the federal government.
(Source : The Burlington Free Press)

The 2010 Census is here! To conduct this massive undertaking, the U.S. Census Bureau must hire for a variety of positions, and at a time of economic uncertainty, there are still plenty of jobs available. Currently, the Burlington Local Census Office serves residents in the 14 counties of: Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Franklin, Grande Isle, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor. Burlington has 2010 Census positions, starting at $13.50/hour, available for immediate applications.
2010 Census job applicants must be at least 18 years old, have a valid Social Security number, be able to pass a background check and take a 30-minute, multiple-choice basic employment test that measures knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform a variety of census jobs. In most cases, workers will also be required to possess a valid driver's license and have use of a vehicle.

Weekly unemployment claims declined dramatically last week after increasing the previous two weeks. For the week of March 6, 2010, there were 897 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, a decrease of 498 from the week before. Altogether 15,463 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 54 from a week ago and 2,814 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 4,647 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 96 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 3,389 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 32 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 federal regulation from the U.S. Department of Education required states to identify persistently low-achieving schools in order to receive federal funding as part of the Statewide Fiscal Stabilization Fund allocations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Vermont s long standing track record of providing a high quality education for our young people did not exempt us from the latest requirement from the U.S. Department of Education (USED) to identify our 10 persistently low-achieving schools, said Rae Ann Knopf, Deputy Commissioner at the Vermont Department of Education. Nor should it prevent us from providing those and other schools with much needed resources and supports to reach our most disadvantaged kids.

The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2010 was 6.7 percent, unchanged from the revised December rate and up 0.5 point from a year ago.
After our annual benchmark revision process, Vermont s unemployment rate remained unchanged and has been on the decline since May of 2009, said Patricia Moulton Powden, Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor. With the exception of last month, seasonally adjusted jobs have been on a very slow, but positive growth pattern since September, 2009.
Seasonal Job Growth

Governor Jim Douglas today strongly criticized the Environmental Protection Agency s (EPA) decision to reconsider its approval of the Lake Champlain clean up plan known as the Lake Champlain Total Maximum daily Load (TMDL). In papers filed in federal court yesterday, the EPA stated its intent to reconsider the approval given by EPA Region I in 2002.
Vermont s efforts to clean-up Lake Champlain are a model for how federal, state and local officials and organizations can partner to achieve a cleaner environment, said Governor Douglas. EPA s decision to reverse course is an affront to Vermont taxpayers, legislators, our Congressional Delegation and all those who have worked so hard to implement our TMDL.

Island Pond residents voted on Town Meeting Day to sell the John Boylan state airport in order to allow the opening of a log yard and wood-pellet manufacturing plant. The nonbinding vote passed 326-74.
Fran Azur of Newport plans to repurpose the defunct Ethan Allen furniture plant as a wood-pellet factory, a move which will create about 34 plant jobs plus dozens of additional logging and trucking jobs. Before the vote, Azur had stated that if he was unable to purchase the nearby airport property to use as a log yard for the new plant, he would abandon the plan and instead move the project to a site in New Hampshire.

Robert F. Cioffi, a native Vermonter from St. Albans, has been elected chair of the University of Vermont Board of Trustees.Cioffi is currently a venture partner at Alerion Partners, a private equity fund located in Rowayton, Connecticut. He lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife Meghan (UVM Class of 1991) and their three children.
Before joining Alerion, Cioffi was a Senior Vice President with GE Equity, a subsidiary of GE Capital Corporation. Upon graduating from UVM in 1990 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Economics, Cioffi worked for the Franklin County Industrial Development Corp. In addition, Cioffi worked on the staff of former U.S. Senator James Jeffords. He later moved to New York to join the Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1998 Cioffi joined GE Equity, after receiving his M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

On Monday Senator Leahy met with leadership of Fletcher Allen Health Care, the University of Vermont and the Vermont National Guard to view a demonstration of new equipment at the hospital’s Simulator Training Program. At the event Leahy announced more than $1.7 million in funding he has secured in the federal budget for the project, which provides training to hospital nurses and doctors, university medical students and guard personnel on state of the art simulation equipment. The equipment offers realistic training experiences for medical conditions that range from birth to gunshot wounds and other severe trauma.

There are currently 32 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-financed highway construction projects underway or completed in Vermont involving $85 million in funds, according to data released today by the Washington, D.C.-based American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). The projects underway or completed have supported or are supporting 2,366 jobs in Vermont that would otherwise not exist, says ARTBA Vice President of Economics & Research Dr. Bill Buechner.
ARRA, signed into law on February 17, 2009, provided $48 billion for transportation improvements over two years, including $27.5 billion for highway, bridge and related construction projects nationwide. The law is having significant impacts on the transportation construction industry in all 50 states.

House Health Care Committee Chairman Steve Maier, D-Middlebury, has proposed legislation to prevent hospitals from putting money towards advertising. While supporters say the move would help cut the rising cost of health care, some opponents of the proposal are questioning whether such a ban would go against the constitutional right to freedom of speech, according to a story in the Burlington Free Press.