Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Health has launched a newly designed website, which will help improve Vermonters’ ability to access important public health information. The web address will stay the same — healthvermont.gov — as will most content on the site, including current web pages and links. The new design makes the site more user-friendly, with a layout that is easier to read and find key resources. Visitors can now use a search bar and dropdown menu at the top of the site and browse new and current topics on the home page. The updated site has improved search function and works better for mobile devices and screen readers. It also helps Vermonters find information in languages other than English — with prominent links to professionally translated materials and to Google translate.

Vermont Business Magazine At his weekly press conference today, Governor Phil Scott and his Cabinet commented on the proposed House budget. Scott maintains that the proposed budget over-spends by tens of millions of dollars, eliminates most of his priorities and counts on surplus state funds continuing into the future, despite Vermont economists' warnings that tax revenues are likely to slow sooner rather than later. The budget coming out of House Appropriations cuts or removes almost every single initiative I just talked about. Not only that, but they also increased the State General Fund budget over last year by 12 percent. "Three initiatives alone could add a half a billion dollars in costs on Vermonters every single year."

Vermont Business Magazine After 32 months, seven program extensions, and over 3.6 million meals distributed, the Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE) pandemic relief program ends on March 31st. Between August 2020 and March 2023, VEE has benefited tens of thousands of Vermonters by providing economic stabilization for independent restaurants, strengthening their relationships with farmers and food producers, and contributing significantly to statewide anti-hunger efforts during a time when food insecurity hit record highs. With its unique cross-sector approach engaging local restaurants in providing prepared meals with Vermont ingredients for community members in need, the Vermont Everyone Eats program leveraged over $46 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding.

Vermont Business Magazine State Auditor Doug Hoffer released a new audit today examining the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living’s performance inspecting long-term care homes housing vulnerable older Vermonters. The audit found that across seven years DAIL, as the department is called, was not performing annual facility inspections as required by law and rarely used enforcement tools to address the problems they found. Hoffer said: “To put it plainly, DAIL’s efforts to ensure Vermonters living in assisted living and residential care facilities are safe have not been good enough. Inspections may have been interrupted during the height of COVID, but our review found systemic problems going back years before that.”

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, today led the committee in a hearing titled, “No Company Is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks.” Let me get to the point of this hearing. Today in America, over 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, and millions are working for starvation wages. Unbelievably, despite an explosion in technology and increases in worker productivity, the average worker is making over $50 a week less today than he or she made 50 years ago – after adjusting for inflation. Unless we change the nature of our economy, it is likely that the younger generation will have a lower standard of living than their parents.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) joined Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) to introduce the bipartisan Overcoming Prevalent Inadequacies in Overdose Information Data Sets (OPIOIDS) Act, comprehensive new legislation to help law enforcement better identify, understand, and address opioid overdoses. In 2022, more than 230 Vermonters died from opioid-related overdoses, a ten percent increase from the prior year and the highest number on record. Overdoses can be prevented, but efforts to do so are hamstrung by inadequate data and limited resources. At present, data collection on overdoses is limited and often delayed. The OPIOIDS Act will support data collection at the state and local level, giving law enforcement, public health officials, and local government the tools they need to prevent and respond to overdoses.

by Bill Schubart I’m hearing from friends around the country about the soon-to-be Vermont State University’s (VSU) recent decision and subsequent back-pedaling about removing physical books from its component college, Northern Vermont University’s (NVU) library. A friend, the department chair for Celtic Studies at Berkeley, wrote me to inquire about it, as have other academic friends. The Boston Globe, Inside Higher Ed and other national news media have all covered the library story, though all ignored the fact that the four underlying institutions are not financially viable and, to survive, must reduce costs by or add revenue of $5 million a year and fund $55 million in deferred maintenance. Still, understandably, it was the library closure that caught fire and became the subject of a fervent campaign to engage influencers, opinion writers, and commentators to condemn the decision and urge leadership to reverse it.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont House today gave preliminary approval to legislation that would update and substantially update the scope of the state’s beverage redemption program, commonly known as the Bottle Bill. The vote in favor of H.158 was 115-29, and the bill now heads to third reading. The bill: Promotes clean air, clean water, and a cooler climate by collecting many more containers each year to be recycled into new products again; Makes the current redemption system more convenient by adding more points of redemption around the state; Reduces challenges facing Vermont businesses like redemption centers and small and medium-sized retailers.

Vermont Business Magazine The Norwich University Center for Leadership announced today that it will hold its inaugural leadership conference. The conference, scheduled to take place April 10-11, 2023, will be held on the Norwich campus in Northfield, Vt. The leadership conference, which was designed to take place annually, will bring current and future leaders together to develop solutions to recent leadership challenges, introduce new leadership strategies, and encourage collaborations across different industries and academia. This year's conference theme is Championing Change and Transformation.

Vermont Business Magazine Today the Senate gave preliminary approval to S.18, an act relating to banning flavored tobacco products and e-liquids. This bill would ban the retail sale of flavored cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and e-liquids and would direct the Office of the Attorney General to report on the extent to which Vermont may legally restrict advertising and regulate labels for e-cigarettes and other vaping-related products. Data from the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont chapters of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society show that nearly all youth e-cigarette users report using flavored products. More than eight in ten youth who have ever used tobacco products started with flavored products and nearly 65% of young menthol smokers say they would quit if menthol cigarettes were banned.

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, March 27, Rutland Regional Medical Center relaxed the universal masking requirements that have been in place since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and moved to symptom-based masking. In February, as part of a phased approach, Rutland Regional relaxed masking requirements at one of its busiest clinics, carefully monitoring for an uptick in COVID or other infectious diseases. As there was no discernable increase in infections, masking requirements were relaxed in all other off-site clinics in early March. Results showed no evidence of increase in infections from relaxed masking in these clinics. Furthermore, hospitalizations for COVID have remained low for several weeks.