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Governor Douglas this afternoon gave his final State of the State address before the Vermont Legislature. His budget address will come next week. But most of this speech dealt with the budget and the economy. Certainly the centerpiece of this speech concerned public education reform.

The State of Vermont licensed 39 new captive insurance companies in 2009 as it approaches the 900-license milestone, according to data released by the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration (BISHCA). Despite challenging economic conditions, Vermont licensed its 6th highest tally of captives in its 29-year history.
A strong and growing captive industry is good for our economy, Governor Jim Douglas said. That this industry is growing in Vermont, even during this difficult time for our economy, is a testament to the hard work of our economic development officials and the professionals at BISHCA. It also demonstrates our state s economic potential when we put in place policies that make us competitive in an industry or sector.

This past June a television production team came to Vermont to scout out locations, food producers and chefs for a series of Vermont-based episodes of celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse's Emeril Green fresh, whole foods cooking show airing on Planet Green, a division of Discovery Communications. The Inn at Weathersfield, an historic 12-room inn and restaurant in Perkinsville, and Cedar Circle Farm, a 50-acre certified organic farm and education center in East Thetford, were selected to represent southeastern and central Vermont. Filming took place in September and the Emeril Green episode premieres next week.

The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) was recently awarded a $235,000 economic development grant from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support the region’s businesses in minimizing economic dislocations resulting in natural or man-made disasters.
In 2008, towns within the TRORC area were impacted by severe flooding and Congress appropriated funding to EDA to assist businesses in disaster recovery efforts by conducting proper planning in advance of disasters. TRORC sought this nationally competitive funding to meet with the region’s businesses and conduct “business continuity of operations planning”. This effort will identify the vulnerability of a business to disruptions in raw materials and supplies, finished product transportation, employee movement and other factors.

Governor Jim Douglas will deliver his final State of the State message to a joint session of the General Assembly today (Thursday) at 2 pm at the State House. The governor will focus on ways to strengthen the Vermont economy to help employers create jobs. He will also propose reforms needed to curb property tax increases. In that regard, the governor is expected to propose a plan to reduce dramatically the number of school districts and/or supervisory unions across the state to reduce overhead. It is unlikely he will propose closing actual schools or at least specific schools, but he may suggest that there could be some high school consolidation. Vermont currently has 290 school districts. A recent report proposed cutting that number to as few as 13.

According to information supplied by Vermont Yankee, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently completed a security inspection at the plant involving a review of selected procedures and records, observed activities, and interviewed personnel and identified one finding which they describe as a non-cited violation of very low security significance. The details are withheld from the public because they are related to nuclear plant security, but according to the NRC, the deficiency was promptly corrected or compensated for, and the plant was in compliance with applicable physical protection and security requirements within the scope of the inspection before the inspectors left the site. Vermont Yankee agreed with the inspector’s conclusions.

During a tour Wednesday of the firm s newly expanded manufacturing facility in Essex, Senator Patrick Leahy and Revision Eyewear CEO Jonathan Blanshay Wednesday announced $2.4 million in additional funding has been made available for the U.S. Army to supply soldiers with state-of-the-art protective goggles.

The Commission on the Design and Funding of Retirement and Retiree Health Benefit Plans for State Employees and Teachers has released their final recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly. The report notes that required state pension contributions will increase from $73.5 million this year to $105.1 million in fiscal year 2011. Most of the increase is on the teacher pension side, with an increase of $22 million.
The executive summary is attached.
The report is posted online at the Vermont State Treasurer s web site. http://www.vermonttreasurer.gov/retirement/retirement-commission-update.

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Executive_Summary_Retirement_Commission_Report_Dec_09.pdf184.74 KB

A record 83,342 or 1 in 8 Vermonters currently rely on 3SquaresVT (formerly Food Stamps) to buy their monthly food and participation continues to rise. 3SquaresVT is designed to be a nutrition supplement for limited-income Vermonters; yet as the economic recession lingers and jobs remain scarce, more Vermonters count the benefits as their only source of support. 4,706 Vermonters, 1 in 16 getting 3SquaresVT, have no other source of income, according to a recent New York Times article, “Living on Food Stamps and Nothing Else.” That’s a 66% increase in two years.

A $4.8 million economic stimulus grant awarded today to the Central Vermont Community Action Council will train about 2,400 Vermonters under a green jobs program authored by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The Vermont grant – one of 25 announced by the U.S. Department of Labor – was among the largest awarded under the $100 million Energy Training Partnership program. The awards ranged from $1.4 million to $5 million.
“One way to move our country toward energy independence, slow global warming and create good-paying jobs is to use energy in a smarter way,” said Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee. “As a nation we have to cut consumption by making our homes and businesses more energy efficient and move to renewable energies. Trouble is, today you would have a hard time finding workers qualified to do those jobs. This funding helps address the problem by training thousands of Vermonters for good-paying green jobs.”

Reconstruction of an historic hydro-electric facility that has produced renewable energy for 81 years has been completed. Central Vermont Public Service has finished extensive improvements to the company s Arnold Falls hydroelectric project, located on Mill Street along the Passumpsic River in St Johnsbury. The upgraded concrete structures replace wooden rock-filled, timber-crib dams similar to those originally constructed during the 19th Century for nearby mills. The deteriorating timber dams remain in place, with the new concrete dams just downstream of them to ensure the facility s long-term future.
The federally licensed generating station, which was built in 1928, includes two dams separated by an island. The 180-foot north dam and 60-foot south dam consisted of interlocked logs, which had a limited lifespan due to the riverine exposure and the inevitable decay of wood.

Governor Jim Douglas and Lt. Governor Brian Dubie today joined House Speaker Shap Smith and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin to announce a proposal to save $37.8 million in the fiscal year 2011 general fund budget and an estimated $72 million in fiscal year 2012. This proposal will relieve $36 million in property tax pressure in the next two fiscal years. Importantly, it will also enable state government to better deliver services to Vermonters.
This proposal is the culmination of the work of Representatives Mike Obuchowski and Donna Sweaney, Senator Diane Snelling, Administration Secretary Neale Lunderville, Finance Commissioner Jim Reardon and the Public Strategies Group consultants throughout the fall.