By Lola Duffort/VTDigger With the start of a new fiscal year, July 1, some school districts are still without voter approved budgets. While most school districts in Vermont bring their budgets to the electorate on Town Meeting Day in early March, when the pandemic swept the state just weeks later and put the state on lockdown,…

By Polly Mikula Vermont businesses that have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic can now apply for up to $50,000 in emergency support. And some 2,300 businesses had as of 5 p.m. Monday, July 6, the first day the portals opened. The process received generally positive reviews on its first day, with wait times averaging…

Governor Phil Scott, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD), and Department of Tax announced Wednesday, July 1, that the Vermont’s Economic Recovery Grant Program will launch on Monday, July 6. Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first serve basis. The grant program first proposed by the administration and amended by the legislature utilizes…

Friday, June 26 was the official start of the early voting period for the Vermont statewide primary elections, which takes place on Aug. 11. “Early voting, including no-excuse absentee voting by mail, provides critical access to the ballot box for voters unable to vote in-person at the polls on Election Day,” said Secretary of State Jim…

Recent rains will help, crowd-sourcing tool allows public to report and track water shortages According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, approximately 571,000 Vermonters or 91% of the population are living in an area of the state that is experiencing abnormally dry conditions. As a result state officials began asking Vermonters to report water shortages in their…

By Julia Purdy While the official 2020 Census kickoff on April 1, 2020 was delayed by the pandemic, households have now begun to receive invitational postcards by mail or physical invitational packets dropped at their door. A few folks have wondered, why these postcards and packets? The 2020 Census is aiming for a “complete count”…

BY Sen. Allison Clarkson Our extraordinary 2020 Vermont Legislative Session recessed for eight weeks on Friday night June 26 just after 9 p.m. Distinguished by our mid-March pivot to dealing with Vermont’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic which hit the United States full force – this Legislative Session has been memorable. And, it is…

By Rep. Jim Harrison No, it’s not the sound of a toy car, like the one we gave our son, Ben, many years ago. We quickly regretted the present as that’s all we heard, vroom, vroom…as he revved it up on the floor before letting it fly. Rather, it was a week of daylong Zoom…

Vermont Youth Project mobilizes community to reach youth this summer RUTLAND—When a group of dedicated agencies known as the Vermont Youth Project of Rutland County realized that youth summer camp programs were going to be limited, they acted.  Working together, Mentor Connector, 4-H, and the Partners for Prevention put out the call to action to…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger Lawmakers have sent legislation setting next year’s school taxes to the governor’s desk, and property taxes will go up if the measure is signed into law. But they won’t skyrocket the way they would have had lawmakers decided to use them to plug the more than $100 million shortfall the state’s education fund…

Green Mountain Power (GMP) customers can now enroll in Share with Vermont Green, a pioneering pilot program empowering solar net metering customers to share their credits with other customers. The shared energy credits will go to small businesses and nonprofits in Vermont recovering after the Covid-19 shutdown. Solar net metering customers, who are not already…

Vermont retains its title as the nation’s top maple syrup producer with a record-breaking 2.2 million gallons harvested this past spring. This year’s record broke the previous record set just last year at just over 2 million gallons, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, which released a report earlier this month. This is the third…

By Rep. Jim Harrison The state’s economic picture is bleak. Since the pandemic hit, tax revenues are down and will be down for at least the next two years according to state economists…all as a direct result of closed or limited businesses and high unemployment. Yet, at the same time, the governor and Legislature are…

On Tuesday, June 23, Gov. Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Labor announced changes to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program that will reduce employers’ UI tax rates and increase the maximum weekly benefit amount for UI claimants. “This tax relief will help reduce the burden on employers who’ve had to make difficult decisions to…

This article is based on a story by Miriam Valverde that was published by PolitiFact on June 9, 2020, and republished by VTDigger. For more than a week, Americans across the country have been out on the streets calling for justice for George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt…