Current News

by Maggie Lenz and Gwynn Zakov When the Vermont Land Use Review Board was created under Act 181 last year, it didn’t exactly arrive quietly. The law, one of the most sweeping overhauls of Act 250 in decades, was billed as a “grand bargain” between housing advocates and environmentalists. The pitch was simple. If Vermont eases Act 250 review in designated growth areas to encourage desperately needed housing, we can strengthen protections for sensitive natural resources elsewhere. In practice, it has been anything but simple. Over the last few weeks, multiple legislative committees have had direct, extended conversations with the LURB. The board was stood up midway through last session, so lawmakers are only now getting a fuller picture of how the reforms are playing out on the ground. And the timing is significant. Many legislators this year are taking a hard look back at Act 181, searching for technical fixes and bigger adjustments to make Act 250 more responsive, both to applicants and to meet the needs of Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) today introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, legislation that would establish a 5% annual wealth tax on the 938 billionaires in America — who are now collectively worth $8.2 trillion. In its first year, the bill would provide a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman and child in a household making $150,000 or less — $12,000 for a family of four — and use the estimated $4.4 trillion in revenue raised over the next decade to address the most pressing crises facing working families.

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $2.98/g, up 1.3 cents per gallon from last week's $2.97/g. The lowest price in the state yesterday was $2.64/g while the highest was $3.19/g, a difference of 55.0 cents per gallon. The national average price of gasoline has risen 5.6 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $2.94/g today. The national average is up 7.8 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 10.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) once again is warning the public of more scam text messages that falsely claim that the recipient has an unpaid traffic ticket and is at risk of driver’s license suspension and other penalties. The DMV did not send these messages and does not send any text or email messages demanding immediate payment. 

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Charity Clark kicked off National Consumer Protection Week by announcing the top ten consumer complaints reported in 2025 to her office’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP). In 2025, CAP responded to 7,607 consumer inquiries and provided mediation services for 1,126 consumer complaints, resolving 587 of these complaints. Vehicle-related disputes, home improvement projects, and retail transactions again topped the list for the fourth year in a row, collectively representing 58 percent of the top complaints filed in 2025.

Vermont Business Magazine Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (Blue Cross VT) today announced an operating gain of $53 million and an operating margin of 2.7% for the year ending December 31, 2025. In 2025, Blue Cross VT total revenue was $2.0 billion, and the company paid out $1.8 billion in member healthcare expenses. The 2025 financial performance was largely driven by:  Improved alignment between premiums and medical expenses; Reduced operating expenses: the Blue Cross VT team reduced its operating budget by approximately $7 million in 2025 compared to 2024, reflecting internal cost discipline, staffing controls, and administrative efficiencies, while maintaining the high-quality service its members know and expect; Negotiated resolutions. Blue Cross VT also decided in 2025 to pull out of the Medicare Advantage market for 2026.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Works for Women (VWW) is celebrating National Women in Construction Week by preparing for the 2026 slate of their Trailblazers program. Trailblazers is a free training that prepares women and gender-expansive individuals ages 18+ for careers in construction and the trades. Through seven weeks of hands-on learning participants build skills, gain confidence, and explore career fields that are traditionally male dominated. Trailblazers is a registered pre-apprenticeship with the Vermont Department of Labor and concludes with a paid on-the-job internship with a local employer. In addition to offering Trailblazers in South Burlington and Hartford, the program is expanding to Manchester and St. Johnsbury this year. 

by Scott Dolan, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets State and local jurisdictions throughout the country are celebrating National Weights and Measures Week, which occurs during the first seven days of March each year.  National Weights and Measures Week commemorates the signing of the first United States weights and measures law by President John Adams on March 2, 1799. This year the Vermont Weights & Measures program would like to highlight the concept of Unit Pricing.     How do you know if you are getting the most for every dollar spent? The short answer is unit pricing. The unit price is the cost of a commodity per unit of measure (weight, volume, length, areas, or count). For instance, cereal is sold by weight and is usually unit priced by the pound or ounce, whereas milk is sold by volume and is typically unit priced by the quart or fluid ounce.  

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), a member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, joined Senate Rules Committee Ranking Member Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Senate Rules Committee Democrats for a public forum highlighting how President Trump’s threats to “take over the voting” in several states endanger the voting rights of millions of Americans and jeopardize the integrity of U.S. elections. The forum also highlighted how states, localities, and civil society are pushing back against the administration’s continued attacks on states’ election administration authority and offered a blueprint for states as they prepare for the 2026 midterm elections.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and members of his cabinet will be in Essex County on Wednesday, March 4 for its Capital for a Day 14-county tour. “Spending a day in each county gives us an opportunity to hear directly from Vermonters, see the good things happening in their communities and understand how decisions made in Montpelier are impacting them,” said Governor Scott. “In the past, challenges identified on these visits led us to make historic investments in wastewater systems to support economic growth, strengthen our CTE centers, collaborate on public safety issues and more.”

Vermont Business Magazine A new statewide disability voting rights coalition, REV UP Vermont, will launch on Town Meeting Day to address barriers that limit disabled Vermonters’ ability to fully participate in local democracy and to advance solutions that ensure equal access to voting, town meetings, and civic decision-making. REV UP is a nonpartisan campaign from the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and stands for “Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power!” REV UP Vermont joins 21 other state chapters across the nation with a shared mission to build the power of the disability vote through increasing civic engagement in the disability community and improving the accessibility of elections.

by Scott Waterman, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets March is the month that typically kicks off maple season in Vermont.  Blue skies and birds emphasize the quiet maple woods where maple sap is harvested.  Sugar houses hum with activity as the weather slowly warms; sap boiling punctuates the air above the sugarhouse with steam.  Buckets and horses have given way to tubes and reverse osmosis, but the result is the same: Vermont leads the country in maple sap collection and syrup production. The Green Mountain State has led the U.S. in the number of maple taps every year since 1916 and was only out produced in 1926 and 1918. In 2003 Vermont had 2.12 million taps and has steadily increased that number to 8.4 million in 2024.