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Vermont Business Magazine While 41 Senate Republicans recently introduced legislation to permanently repeal the estate tax – which would provide a $1.8 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires in America and would only provide relief to the top one-tenth of one percent – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, today introduced a progressive estate tax bill that would make sure that the wealthiest people in America "pay their fair share." The For the 99.5 Percent Act establishes a new progressive estate tax rate structure on the top 0.5 percent of Americans who inherit over $3.5 million in wealth. It also imposes a 45 percent tax rate on estates worth $3.5 million and a 65 percent tax rate on the value of an estate worth over $1 billion. This is not a radical idea. In fact, from 1941-1976, the top estate tax rate was 77 percent on estates worth more than $50 million.

Vermont Business Magazine USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will send the 2023 Maple Syrup Inquiry to approximately 1,600 Northeastern producers on April 28. Maple syrup producers, processors and commodity markets rely on the data from this survey to make informed business decisions and help promote the industry. Return deadline is May 8. There are changes to this 2023 survey. Last year, the International Maple Syrup Institute created a working group from their membership and brought the industry’s concerns to NASS’s attention. As a result, this year’s survey is shorter with new questions on acreage, sales, and unprocessed sap. The Northeastern Region produced 4.40 million gallons of maple syrup in 2022. Vermont was the top Maple Syrup state with 51% of the United States’ maple syrup.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Becca Balint (D-Vermont) on Monday introduced the Peer Education and Emergency Response (PEER) for Mental Health Act. This legislation would establish a grant program that supports training for teachers, school personnel, parents, caregivers, and students in mental health first aid. Increased isolation following the pandemic, greater academic and social pressures, and social media have all contributed to a significant mental health crisis among school aged children and adolescents. Forty-two percent of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and twenty-two percent say they seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

Vermont Business Magazine Faculty from the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CNHS) and State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh are training a team of students to help New Americans and refugees with chronic health conditions access critical healthcare services. UVM Exercise Science Program Director Susan Kasser, Ph.D., and Julie Richards, Ph.D., of SUNY Plattsburgh, an advisory board member for the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV), developed the Interprofessional Collaborative Health Access and Care Management Pilot Project to support immigrants and refugees facing barriers to the U.S. healthcare system.

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, VAHHS Last week provided a moment of reprieve as the fire alarm went off during the morning and we were all forced outside to enjoy the sun. Rep. Mari Cordes set up a badminton set—a great reminder to take the occasional moment of fun and levity as we hit the grindstone in the weeks ahead. In preparation for work in the Senate Appropriations Committee on the budget, the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee is looking at the workforce development programs in the House-passed FY 24 budget. The committee has a total of $40 million in one-time funds allocated to workforce development across the state.

The Vermont State Police is investigating the death of a man who had been jailed at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. The man, a 46-year-old resident of Springfield, was found unresponsive in his cell during a check at 9:27 a.m. Monday, April 17, 2023. Corrections staff provided emergency medical care and called first responders to the prison. Lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful, and the inmate was pronounced dead at Southern State at 10:10 a.m. The inmate who died is identified as David Mitchell. He had been in custody since November 2022, when he was detained on a charge of violating probation related to an underlying charge of larceny from a person. He also was being held on a charge of misdemeanor retail theft.

Vermont Business Magazine Workers at the Burlington Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop have formed a union organizing committee and petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an election. The workers, who are known as “Scoopers,” have named their organization “Scoopers United”; they have the backing of Workers United Upstate New York & Vermont, the same union that launched the Starbucks Workers United organizing campaign, which became the first Starbucks to unionize in Rochester, NY, in April 2022. In their letter to management, the workers detailed how their unionizing dovetails with Ben & Jerry’s mission. Meanwhile, the iconic Vermont ice cream brand said it will support the union drive.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) joined Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA), and a bicameral group of colleagues last week to call for an ethics investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas’s failure to disclose luxury travel financed by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Addressed to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, the letter follows reporting from ProPublica outlining the relationship between Justice Thomas and Mr. Crow, who for 20 years reportedly subsidized trips for Justice Thomas and his wife, paying for the two to use Crow’s private plane, travel on his superyacht, and vacation at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

Vermont Business Magazine Evernorth was recently honored with two prestigious energy efficiency awards from the U.S. Department of Energy for exceeding the performance criteria for building envelope performance and for energy equity. Laurentide Apartments received both Building Envelope Campaign Awards - the Novel 40 award and the inaugural Energy Equity award - for the newly constructed building located in Burlington, Vermont. Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) co-developed and is a co-owner of Laurentide Apartments in partnership with Evernorth. The US Department of Energy’s Building Envelope Campaign Awards recognize builders, contractors, designers, and owners for innovative designs and improvements to the building enclosure that results in significant reductions in energy consumption.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas has hired Robyn Palmer for the newly created Education and Civic Engagement Coordinator (ECE) position. Palmer is well-known in the non-profit sector in Vermont for her work over the last 10 years as Director of an AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) Program based at the Vermont Agency of Human Services. Palmer’s hiring marks a significant step in Secretary Copeland Hanzas’ civic education initiative and the secretary is enthusiastic to ramp up the overall campaign.