Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont House today gave unanimous approval to S.85, a bill that simplifies government for small businesses. The bill proposes to direct the Secretary of State and government partners to design a system to simplify interactions with small businesses and Vermonters starting new businesses.

by Mark Crow, President, Tenth Crow Creative Relatively recently, I learned that the state of Vermont (so, we taxpayers) is incurring vast and ever increasing amounts of liability for obligations the state undertook to fund retirement plans for teachers and state workers; plans that include pension and retirement healthcare benefits. As of June 30, 2017, the state owes approximately $4.5 billion to these plans, which is an increase of $900 million from just the previous fiscal year. That’s approximately $18,750 per Vermont household (based on 240,000 households).

by Erin Forbes, DVM Vermont Veterinary Medical Association April is Prevent Lyme Disease in Dogs Month. Most people have heard of Lyme disease and know how prevalent it is in Vermont, but may not know much about it.  Lyme disease is spread through deer tick bites and caused by a bacteria called borrelia burgdorferi. This disease can cause your dog to be lame, lethargic, and not want to eat. In more severe cases, it can lead to kidney disease and rarely death. Preventing Lyme disease through vaccines and preventatives is the best way to keep your dog healthy.

Vermont Business Magazine The Leapfrog Group, a Washington DC-based organization aiming to improve health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers, today released the new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. Rutland Regional Medical Center was one of 750 awarded an ‘A’ for its efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards in the U.S. The Safety Grade assigns an A, B, C, D or F grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms among patients in their care. Rutland Regional is the only hospital in Vermont to receive an “A” rating for this spring.

Vermont Business Magazine NBT Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ: NBTB) has reported record net income and diluted earnings per share for the three months ended March 31, 2018. Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $26.0 million, up from $17.6 million for the prior quarter, which included the $4.4 million estimated one-time, non-cash charge recorded in the provision for income taxes related to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Reform”), and $20.3 million for the same period last year.