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The following piece authored by former Vermont Finance Commissioner Tom Pelham asks six vital questions about this year’s budget process. In a kind of Socratic manner, the answers emerge from the questions themselves.
Pelham talks about the increase, not decrease, in the state budget even through the Great Recession; about the budget gap; about income tax rates paid by top 1.73 percent of Vermont wage earners; about local TIFs reducing revenues going to the statewide Education Fund; and what role the somewhat mysterious ‘Rainy Day’ fund played in the actual rainy day of August 28, 2011.
Budget Preparations
by Tom Pelham
Vermont’s blogs and news media are filled with stories about the state budget. It’s sure to be an engaging, if not entertaining, few months that follow the Governor’s budget address. Fiscal 2013 is likely a pivotal year, equivalent to the late ‘80’s, when a few wrong turns traumatized the state budget well into the 1990’s.

This spring a solar energy system will join Middlebury College’s biomass plant and wind turbine on campus.
College officials have signed an agreement with Williston-based AllEarth Renewables to create a small 143kW solar farm consisting of 34 solar trackers that will produce an average of 200,000 kilowatt-hours annually. The installation’s total kWh will produce enough electricity for a year for one of the college’s residence halls the size of Battell Hall, which houses about 238 students. The solar farm will be located on about 1.5 acres of college land on Route 125, west of McCardell Bicentennial Hall, Middlebury’s science facility.

NRG Systems,in Hinesburg V, manufacturer of measurement systems for the renewable energy industry, has signed a collaborative agreement with TechnoCentre éolien that allows NRG Systems to install and validate its patented condition-based turbine health monitoring system known as TurbinePhD. The system was installed on aRepower MM92 wind turbine at the TechoCenter’s northern wind energy research center location in Rivière-au-Renard, Quebec last month.
The TurbinePhD health monitoring system allows operations and maintenance professionals to dramatically lower their costs by accurately predicting when components in the turbine’s drive train are likely to fail months in advance. Maintenance and crane calls can then be scheduled at the most optimal time, such as during the low-wind season.

Housing Vermont, through its Vermont Rural Ventures affiliate, is providing nearly $3.3 million in low cost permanent financing to Laraway Youth and Family Services (LYFS) for its new, 39-acre campus in Johnson. The project allows the nonprofit youth services organization to increase enrollment by 30% and to add 10 to 12 new employees.
This is the third New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) investment made by Housing Vermont. Previous investments include financing a $40 million expansion of the WEIDMANN Technology facilities in St. Johnsbury and providing an $8.3 million loan to DEW for the construction of a new facility for the Community College of Vermont in downtown Rutland.

Garden Arts has just signed a lease to bring a fresh locally produced foods market to Manchester's Historic Depot section this spring.
Garden Arts owner Steve Burzon today announced plans to renovate the Mobil station on Depot Street (Vt. Route11/30) in Manchester into a market featuring locally raised and produced foods and crafts.
The store will continue to pump gas at Manchester's only full-service pumps, but Burzon also plans to sell a full range of Vermont fruits and vegetables, dairy and meat, including ready-to-eat foods.
Renovations have begun and are expected to be completed by early spring, with a soft launch of products beginning as he finalizes arrangements with the partner farms and artisans whose products the store will feature.

Two Vermont-owned media companies have formed a partnership to share award-winning local content. Last fall, WCAX-TV, based in South Burlington, began working with the state’s largest newsweekly, Burlington-basedSeven Days.
Each Wednesday and Friday,Seven Days’ reporters and critics appear on WCAX’s 5:30 news show, ‘The :30,’ to talk with hosts Kristin Carlson and Mike McCune about local news, arts and entertainment. Recent topics have included the Burlington mayor’s race, Vermont’s growing electronic music scene andSeven Daysfood critic Alice Levitt’s 2011 pick for best new restaurant of the year.
Every Thursday on ‘The :30,’ WCAX airs an abbreviated version of the latest episode of ‘Stuck in Vermont,’ a web video series hosted bySeven Daysmultimedia producer Eva Sollberger.
Twice a month, staffers fromKids VT,Seven Days’ free monthly parenting publication, appear on the morning newsto discuss events and issues of interest to Vermont families.

The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, Rock Point School, and AllEarth Renewables will announce a partnership in a new 35-panel AllSun Tracker solar installation and invite members of the media to a press briefing about the project on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at 2:30 pm.
The solar project is the largest in Burlington.
The briefing will be held in the library at Rock Point School, 1 Rock Point Road.
The Rt. Rev. Thomas C. Ely, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, C.J. Spirito, Head of School at Rock Point School, and Andrew Savage of AllEarth Renewables will be available to discuss the development, operation, and significance of the solar farm, which lies between Rock Point School and the offices of the Episcopal Diocese. A tour of the project will follow.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) have secured funding to prevent the imminent shutdown of river and lake gauges in the New York-Vermont Lake Champlain basin that proved their worth again last year during spring floods and Tropical Storm Irene.

Revision Military, located in Essex Junction, VT, the world leader in protective soldier solutions, earns National Stock Numbers (NSNs) for its Desert Locust Goggle PDQ Quick Release. The PDQ Quick Release is a patented goggle attachment system designed for use in rapidly changing environments. Its helmet-mounted design with unique hook and loop attachment system allows the user to single handedly don and doff the Desert Locust Goggle while keeping it at-the-ready. Designed with special operators in mind, the PDQ is ideal for fast-moving, dynamic missions where conventional goggle straps can interfere with helmet integration and operator equipment such as NVGs. The Desert Locust Goggle PDQ Quick Release is combat tested for operational effectiveness and is proudly on the U.S. Army’s Authorized Protective Eyewear List (APEL).

The White House and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced Friday that Leahy Chief of Staff Ed Pagano will begin work next week as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senate Liaison.
Leahy is the Senate’s second-most-senior member and chairs two major Senate panels, the Judiciary Committee and the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations. Pagano started his public service career as an attorney in Leahy’s office in 1993 and has headed Leahy’s staff since 2005, managing his offices in Washington and Vermont and overseeing Leahy’s work on the Senate Judiciary, Agriculture and Appropriations Committees. He is a graduate of the University of Vermont and also an alumnus of the Catamounts’ basketball team, where he played power forward from 1981 to 1985 (wearing Number 42). He earned his law degree from Fordham Law School.

40 Scholarships Available for Students to Attend Efficiency Vermont’s Better Building by Design Conference
Efficiency Vermont is honoring Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) co-founder Blair Hamilton for his visionary leadership in energy efficiency and renewable energy through the creation of 40 student scholarships.
Blair Hamilton, who died in the spring of 2011, was a driving force in creating Efficiency Vermont, the nation’s first energy-efficiency utility. A mentor and innovator in the field of energy efficiency research, policy, design and implementation, Blair helped create similar organizations and initiatives in other states and around the world.

On Thursday, the Senate gave final approval to S.92, a bill that requires manufacturers and distributors of cleaning products to only sell environmentally preferable cleaning products to schools. The bill will now make its way to the Governor’s desk for his signature.
‘This legislation will create safer and healthier learning environments in our schools,’ said Charity Carbine-March, environmental health advocate for Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG). ‘Children in classrooms across Vermont will soon be breathing easier.’