by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Last Tuesday night, just as Senate Republicans voted to blindfold the Senate from key witnesses and evidence during the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Trump, even more damaging bits and pieces of his illegal Ukraine aid freeze spilled into public view thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. These documents – heavily and inappropriately redacted by the Trump administration – shed light on just how much more information remains hidden about the alleged misconduct for which the President has been impeached.

Vermont Business Magazine Imagine standing in the grocery store, looking at a pile of bananas. On your side of the pile, the manager has posted yesterday's newspaper flyer, showing bananas at 62¢ per pound—so that's what you pay at the register. But on the other side of the pile, there's an up-to-the-minute screen showing that the price of bananas has now dropped to 48¢ per pound—so that's what the guy over there pays. Exact same bananas, but the price you see depends on which aisle you're standing in.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont House approved S.23, the Minimum Wage bill, on a vote of 93-54. The current minimum wage in Vermont is $10.96 per hour. Under the new proposal, this would increase to $11.75 on January 1, 2021 and then to $12.55 a year later.

Vermont Business Magazine Revenue collections continued to show strength in the personal income tax, rooms & meals tax and even the sales tax for the month of December 2019. Meanwhile, the corporate tax followed recent behavior with a wild swing, this time down, and the Transportation Fund-related revenues disappointed again. General Fund revenues collected for the month totaled $137.94 million, or $5.11 million above the monthly consensus revenue target. Year to date, General Fund revenues exceeded their target by $15.40 million, or 2.12%.