Current News

Vermont Business Magazine LaunchVT, a division of the Lake Champlain Chamber, has initiated a partnership with All Stage, a company based in Boston, MA. All Stage’s products connect the best investors with entrepreneurs, aiming to create a strong investing community that benefits all stakeholders. LaunchVT accelerates outstanding startups through its expertise and network to help Vermonters solve problems and build strong economic opportunities within their communities. LaunchVT’s new initiative with All Stage empowers startup founders to establish strategic relationships and utilize the toolkits they gain during the accelerator, helping them to raise investment so that they can scale and thrive. 

Vermont Business Magazine Chroma Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance optical filters, has launched a redesigned website to provide a best-in-class online experience for the optics and photonics community. The new Chroma.com features a range of enhancements to streamline the sourcing of optical filters and accessing in-depth technical resources. These improvements include an upgraded search engine to quickly find filters, specifications, and expert knowledge from Chroma's extensive Knowledge Center. The site architecture has also been optimized with intuitive navigation to easily locate product data, documentation, software tools, and support information.

Vermont Business Magazine ECFiber customers in danger of losing a $30 monthly credit on their bill as the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) expires will receive a one-month extension directly from ECFiber. The decision was made by the executive committee in hopes that the ACP program funding will be replenished by congressional action in the coming weeks. ECFiber has also been enhancing the ACP benefit by providing a private $20 monthly credit through its internal affordability fund, which previously had been the source of donations totaling $270,000 to the now-inactive Equal Access to Broadband, Inc., a nonprofit that ECFiber leadership created to develop affordability programs prior to the advent of the ACP. The full governing board of ECFiber had previously voted to continue the $20 subsidy for the remainder of 2024.

Vermont Business Magazine The popular NPR program 1A will broadcast nationally live from Vermont Public studios on May 1-2 from 10 a.m. - noon. The program, which is produced by WAMU in Washington, D.C. and distributed by NPR, regularly visits member stations around the country, as part of their ongoing effort to elevate the stories, issues, and perspectives of Americans. The show will be live from the Colchester, Vermont studios on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Traveling the country and broadcasting from local stations is a core part of 1A’s dedication to exploring the issues of our time through individual stories and voices. The show’s daily conversations bring together thoughtful guests and listeners from around the country. On Wednesday evening, May 1 at 7:30 p.m., 1A and Jenn White will host a live taping of the show at the Essex Cinemas.

by Jack Hoffman, Public Assets Institute The 1973 oil embargo prompted many energy-saving ideas—real and imaginary. Daylight savings was extended year-round, which was spoofed in a cartoon of President Richard Nixon demonstrating an energy-saving blanket. He was shown cutting a strip from one end of the blanket and sewing it back on to the other end. The current plan to reform the notorious CLA—common level of appraisal—looks a lot like Nixon’s blanket. It doesn’t actually change how things work, it just makes them look a little better to the public. The latest version of the yield bill now in the Senate changes the way the CLA is calculated but doesn’t actually change the way the CLA works or affects tax bills. The CLA is misunderstood to begin with. It affects school tax rates at the town level, but not school tax bills. The CLA is part of the process to ensure fairness in the property tax system. For taxes to be fair, property needs to be evaluated against a uniform standard—a “common level of appraisal.” 

Vermont Business Magazine On April 30, 2024, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont hosted a press conference to highlight the efforts of the GunSafeVT initiative and to discuss how Vermont is promoting secure gun storage and how secure gun storage can help address the many types of gun violence in the state. U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest described the initiative’s accomplishments over the past year, which included two PSAs explaining the importance of secure storage, launch of the gunsafevt.org website, promotion of Vermont State Police’s program to have Federal Firearms Licensees serve as secure gun storage locations, and the distribution of over 4,000 free cable gun locks around the state. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health reported last week that COVID-19 cases fell again, from 42 to 39. In addition, hospitalizations also fell as COVID overall remains at a low level. There was one fatality last week. The pandemic death total now stands at 1,146 as of April 20, 2024 (the most recent data available). Total reported deaths in January were 28, which is the highest monthly total in a year, but only 16 in February, 11 in March and 2 in April. At this rate April will finish with the fewest COVID deaths since the summer of 2021. The VDH reported last week that COVID-19 hospitalizations were at a statewide total of 3, which is the lowest they've been in over two years. COVID-19 activity remains in the "Low" range, according to the VDH.

Vermont Business Magazine A new study by Birth Injury Lawyers Group has examined data from the National Center for Health Statistics to see which US states have the highest fertility rates and which have the lowest. Fertility rates between the years 2017-2021 were used to create an average overall fertility rate for each state across the five-year period.  The fertility rates were calculated by taking the total number of live births in each state and dividing it by the number of women in that population. This was then expressed as the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. The national average fertility rate across the US is 58.8 births per 1,000 women. Vermont had the lowest fertility rate at 46.7.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Senate this morning voted down the nomination of Zoie Saunders as Secretary of Education after a tumultuous five weeks of political and public discourse. Immediately following the vote, Governor Phil Scott named her the interim secretary, which does not require confirmation. Scott announced on March 22 that the Florida educator would fill the position previously held by Dan French. The position has been vacant for just over a year. Senators voting against her nomination mostly cited her lack of experience in working in public schools in general and her lack of knowledge in the complexities of the Vermont public education system. Unlike in many other states, the Vermont secretary has no control over either local curricula or local boards and budgets and that the bulk of the funding comes from the statewide property tax. The Senate vote was 19-9 against.

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems After years of studies and small pilots on prior authorization, the Senate passed H.766, a bill that provides incremental but very real reform. A last-minute amendment changed H.766 from aligning prior authorizations with Medicaid to eliminating prior authorizations for primary care providers. To misquote Joe Biden’s reaction when the Affordable Care Act passed: this is a big deal. Needless delays caused by prior authorizations drive patients away from primary care and toward emergency departments. Reducing administrative burden will not only result in better care but will also help recruit and retain the primary care providers we so desperately need. A huge thank you to Sen. Ginny Lyons and the Senate Health and Welfare Committee along with Sen. Jane Kitchel for coming up with a compromise to keep the bill alive. 

Vermont Business Magazine Howard Center invites the community to the upcoming session of the Marna and Stephen Wise Tulin Spring Community Education Series, titled "Substance Use and Our Community." This event will take place on May 2, 2024, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Dealer.com, located at 1 Howard Street, Burlington. Both in-person and virtual attendance options are available. The Burlington community, like many others in our country, is experiencing the effects of a surge in substance use, including opioid use. While individuals who engage in illicit substance use often struggle daily, substance use also impacts their family, friends, and community. For the second session in Howard Center's Spring Community Education Series, a panel of experienced clinicians will provide an overview of substance use in our community, including programs and services that provide treatment and efforts to create a bridge between people who use drugs and recovery, followed by a question-and-answer period. 

Green Mountain Care Board Board Members and presenters will participate remotely through Microsoft Teams. Members of the public can attend board meetings by using the links or call-in phone numbers listed below. Wednesday, May 01, 2024: Board Meeting (1:00 pm). Draft Guidance on the Assessment of Affordability in the Review of Rates. AHEAD Model / Global Payment Development Update.