Vermont Economic Development winter report

The Vermont Department of Economic Development has issued its Winter Newsletter to highlight recent developments.
Vermont ranked first overall in the nation in the latest Scorecard published by the Corporation for Enterprise Development. TheAssets & Opportunity Scorecardis a comprehensive look at Americans’ financial security today and their opportunities to create a more prosperous future.
It assesses the 50 states and the District of Columbia on 133 outcome and policy measures, which describe how well residents are faring and what states can do to help them build and protect assets. These measures are grouped into five issue areas: Financial Assets & Income, Businesses & Jobs, Housing & Homeownership, Health Care, and Education. (Photo: North Woods Joinery, Jeffersonville)
For Solar Jobs, Too
A solarindustry research group says Vermont had the largest increase in solar jobs per capita in the nation for 2013 adding 1,000 new solar jobs for a total of 1,300.
The report predicts 15% growth annually in the nation, building on a 50% growth since 2010.
The report is the fourth annual and can be found here.
Vermont Training Program Wage Analysis
New data from the Vermont Department of Labor makes one thing very clear -- wages of individuals that receive training with grants from the Vermont Training Program in the Department of Economic Development go up substantially. Data from the second quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012 show a median quarterly wage increase of 10.9%. What's more notable is that during that same time period the statewide average wage decreased by 1.3%. The analysis shows that median wages increased from $48,660 to $53,966 on an annualized basis. VTP trainees had even better results from the second quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of 2013 with median wages increasing by 13.1%. For more information on this report or the Vermont Training Program contact Beth Demers. (Photo: Revision Military, Essex Junction)
CEDS Process Continues
Vermont's economic development strategic planning process, the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is well underway with a number of meetings held across the state. On January 27th, more than 75 Vermonters gathered at the Sugarbush Inn to describe in more detail the path for Vermont’s Economic Development future. After introductions, Agency of Commerce economistKen Jones provided some targets to consider for the next five years.
These targets include an increase in the dollar value of the Genuine Progress Indicator of 1% above Vermont’s historic link to national economic growth. To get there, Vermont will work to increase the effectiveness of its workforce through education and training, increase access to private sector capital and improve the development of public infrastructure projects. In addition, the Vermont public and private sector will strengthen their partnership to provide networking and assistance to businesses in order to improve the success rate of start ups and the growth of maturing companies.
After the presentation, working groups focused on the topics of workforce development, private finance, public infrastructure, the business environment, innovation and the working lands and tourism to identify the critical pieces necessary to move forward towards the ambitious goals set forth in this project. Over the next two months, the work plans and partnerships necessary to move each of the initiatives forward will form the early draft of Vermont’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
Banner Year for Vermont Insurance
Vermont celebrated it's 1000th newly licensed captive in 2013, but there were plenty of other notable accomplishments as 29 new captives were licensed according to the Vermont Captive Insurance Division. Captive insurance is a form a self-insurance used by companies around the world. Governor Peter Shumlin shared the results during the Vermont Captive Insurance Association's Legislative Day in January, where he was joined by owners of captive insurance companies from throughout the country, government officials and service providers.
“2013 was a terrific year for captives in Vermont,” said Governor Shumlin. “I want to personally congratulate the Division for their hard work and welcome all of the new captives to the gold standard of domiciles.” For more information on Vermont's captive insurance industry visit Vermontcaptive.com or contact Dan Towle, Vermont's Director of Financial Services.
In addition, a first in the nation billexpanding Vermont’s worldwide reputation as an insurance pioneer was signed into law byGov. Peter Shumlin.The Vermont Legacy Insurance Management Act (LIMA)creates specialized Vermont insurance companies that would acquire commercial policies from other companies wishing to get old policies off their books enabling them to use capital reserves for new initiatives.
Turkish Officials Visit Vermont
Turkey wants to do business with Vermont, and Vermont wants to do business with Turkey. That was the message at a presentation in Montpelier by a representative fromTurkey's Ministry of Health-Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices Agency, and the Undersecreteriat for Turkish Defense Industries hosted by the Vermont Global Trade Partnership. They were accompanied by the Turkish Commercial Attache for New England. Several Vermont companies attended and were welcomed by Deputy Secretary of Commerce Lucy Leriche. Turkey is the 16th largest economy in the world with a population of over 75 million.
"Turkey is aggressively pursuing new business with US companies, and there are a number of good opportunities for our Vermont companies," said Brent Raymond, Vermont's Director of International Trade. For more information on doing business with Turkey contact Brent Raymond.
Farm Bill Becomes Law
Vermont's farmers received news that after over a year of delays the U.S. Congress passed a comprehensive Farm Bill. In the closing hours of the negotiations over the conference report, Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy negotiated a compromise to protect small dairy farmers in Vermont by securing drastically lower premium rates for Vermont’s small dairy farmers that will help them to better mitigate their risk through a new Margin Protection program for dairy farmers.
House conferees had rejected the market stabilization program in the Senate-passed bill, then over the weekend also rejected a proposal offered by Leahy to implement a $1 million annual net-payment cap for the new Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers or to create a new third tier of “actuarially sound” premium rates for those with more than 2000 cows.
The final compromise for lower premium rates for Vermont’s small dairy farms and substantially higher rates for the country’s largest dairy farms was agreed to in the final hours of the Farm Bill negotiations and will result in lower costs for Vermont’s family farms. Leahyalsoled in winning renewal of the charter for the Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP) Zone program. Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is one of only three REAP Zones in the country, and the region’s REAP Zone designation has helped bring millions of dollars of improvements to the Northeast Kingdom. President Obama has signed it into law.
VEGI Authorizes $2.5 Million in Job Creation Incentives
Six Vermont companies received incentives from the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive totaling $2.5 million at theFebruary meeting of the Vermont Economic Progress Council. The awards will encourage the creation of up to 327 new, well-paying jobs for Vermonters.
The companies include Freedom Foods of Randolph, Biotek Instruments of Winooski, Dealer.com of Burlington, Logic Supply of South Burlington, Farmer Mold & Machine Works of North Clarendon, and JBM Sherman Carmel of Bennington.
To earn the incentives, authorized companies must meet payroll, employment and capital investment performance requirements each year between 2013 and 2017. If earned, the incentives would pay out to the companies over nine years between 2014 and 2022, only if the new jobs and payroll are maintained.
The Council approved the applications after reviewing nine program guidelines and applying a rigorous cost-benefit analysis that calculates the level of new tax revenue a project will generate for the state. The model estimates that the economic activity approved for these projects will generate $3.1 million in net new tax revenue, even after payment of the incentives.
The Council also determined that these projects would not occur or would occur in a significantly different and less desirable manner (the “but for” test) if not for the incentives being authorized.
(Photo: Freedom Foods of Randolph groundbreaking for new expansion.)
Announcements
Kaman Composites Gets Boeing Contract
Kaman Corporationannouncedthat its Aerospace segment has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Boeing Canada Winnipeg for the manufacture and assembly of two major sections of the 747-8 Wing-to-Body Fairing.
Kaman will manufacture most components at its facilities in Connecticut, Florida, Kansas and Bennington, Vermont with final assembly to be completed at the company's Jacksonville, Florida facility and delivered directly to Boeing's wide-body assembly line in Everett, Washington. The MOA has a potential value, depending on production rates, in excess of $60 million. (Photo 747-8 courtesy Boeing Corporation.)
From the Regions
TheFranklin County Industrial Development Corporationis sponsoring the 16th annual Career/Job Expo at Collins-Perley Fitness Center in St. Albans on Thursday, March 27th. Over 900 high school students will be attending. The event is open to the public in the afternoon from noon to 5pm.The Franklin Region Career/Job Expo Committee is comprised of the Franklin/Grand Isle Workforce Investment Board; Franklin County Business and Professional Women; VT Department of Labor; VT Student Assistance Corporation; Franklin County Regional Chamber of Commerce; Northwest Technical Center; Franklin County Industrial Development Corporation; CVEOE; St. Albans Messenger; Voc Rehab/VABIR; VT Army National Guard; and, Community College of VT. For informationcontact Marilyn Savoy at 527-6513 or[email protected]or Melanie Langevin at 524-6585 or[email protected]
TheGreen Mountain Economic Development Corporationrecently published theUpper Valley Workforce Needs Assessment. Findings included data illustrating the challenges of recruiting skilled labor, connecting young people with local careers, and preparing employees for management roles. It also highlighted industry specific issues and identified well paying, knowledge intensive, high growth jobs especially in health care, social assistance, professional, scientific, and technical services, and manufacturing.
Tools You Can Use
ExporTech
TheExporTechprogram helps companies to enter or expand in global markets, by assisting in the development of a customized international growth plan, vetted by experts, and by building a team of organizations that helps companies move quickly beyond planning to actual export sales. Participants work as a group through a process to accelerate the pace and increase the success rate of international sales efforts. Unlike a static classroom environment, this course is customized to the specific learning needs of participants and produces an international growth plan for each company. Participants will also have the opportunity to work with international business experts to refine their international strategies. The program is intended for small and mid-sized companies, and is aimed at both new-to-export companies and those with exporting experience who have not fully exploited global opportunities. Space is limited, and the costs will be subsidized by a grant from the Northern Border Region Commission. More information? ContactKen Horsemanat 802-828-5236.
Source: Think Vermont