The Vermont Agriculture Innovation Center would like to announce the release of five “Requests for Proposals” to enhance value-added agriculture in Vermont. Senator Patrick Leahy secured one million dollars for the Vermont Agriculture Innovation Center to continue its work and disburse funds for 2010. Senator Leahy comments that “Vermont is reaping a harvest of new businesses and stronger farms with the growth of innovative and value-added agricultural products. It is heartening to see this first round of competitive grants to cultivate these new ventures.” 

Help is on the way for some -- but not all -- of the 1,500 out-of-work Vermonters who saw their unemployment checks run out during the Senate filibuster of a bill extending unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. Tracy M. Phillips, director of the state Labor Department's unemployment insurance and wages division, said Wednesday that an estimated 860 unemployed Vermonters could start receiving checks again as soon as next week.

The City of Burlington announced today the release of Jobs and People IV, a comprehensive analysis of the Burlington area economy and strategic plan for maintaining and enhancing the city’s economic vitality. “Jobs and People IV is a timely analysis for Burlington to maintain and enhance its economic vitality,” said Mayor Kiss. “Following Burlington’s recognition by Kiplinger’s as one of the nation’s top ten cities for the next decade, we should look to build on our success and address our challenges. Jobs and People IV provides a roadmap for promoting sustainable economic growth now and into the future.”

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance announced today that it has named Burlington one of its 10 Best Cities for the Next Decade—with a focus on locales that specialize in innovative thinking. This year’s picks are profiled in the July issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, on newsstands June 8, and online now at www.kiplinger.com/links/bestcities with additional interactive features. Kiplinger’s methodology included the consideration of several economic indicators and the use of a formula to identify cities with current and likely future growth in high-quality jobs and income. Kiplinger’s also looked at affordability, public transit infrastructure, and the number of “creative class” workers (such as educators, writers, and scientists) in the area.

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Vermont Law School (VLS) plans to increase its free legal work for the public when it undertakes a $3 million relocation and expansion of the South Royalton Legal Clinic. “There’s really no limit to the amount of work we could do in any number of areas due to the lack of affordable legal representation available . . . and the economic downturn,” said Jim May, the clinic’s director. The new clinic, which May expects to be ready in late 2011 or 2012, will help alleviate that need as it will allow for an increase of student workers — and their caseload — of up to 50 percent.

Farmers want Congress to pass an “AgJobs” bill that would enable those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get some kind of legal status. They also say the visa program for temporary workers needs to be simpli­fied. Without those changes, some farmers say they may have to cut back production because of a shortage of re­liable labor.

Car sales in Vermont, which were seemingly sliding into the abyss in Vermont in 2008 and 2009, gradually have begun to improve, auto dealers are saying.Although no large surges in sales are happening or expected soon, auto dealers are breathing a sigh of relief that recent months have seen better sales, even if there are changes in the types of cars people are buying. January and February vehicle sales in Vermont were up 4.8 percent from the comparable period a year earlier.

Businesses, farms and nonprofits that suffered financial losses following the emergency closure of the Champlain Bridge will be able to apply for low- or no-interest loans from a pot of $800,000 in funds earmarked by the Legislature this week. The loan money is contained in a larger, $8.6-million “Jobs Bill (S.288)” passed by the Senate late last week and expected to be OK’d by the House and governor this week. The Addison County Economic Development Corp. (ACEDC) will be in charge of disbursing the loans to area farms, businesses and nonprofits that took a financial hit when the states of New York and Vermont closed the Champlain Bridge last Oct. 16.

The Senate passed a long-awaited economic development bill Friday that distributes $8.6 million in federal stimulus money. With an amendment that ended concerns about how $2.9 million in telecommunications money would be spent, the bill passed 27-0. “We believe it will sustain jobs that exist and create new job options,” said Senate Economic Development Committee Chairman Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans. He said, however, it was hard to predict how many jobs the bill would create.

Hundreds of Vermonters are expected in Rutland on Saturday for the first taste of where Vermont's agriculture community might be headed in the next 10 years. After months spent collecting data and anecdotal information from stakeholders throughout the state, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund is ready to set to work writing the Legislature-commissioned Farm to Plate Initiative, a 10-year plan intended to strengthen the state's farm and food system. But first, they want to put their findings to the public for one last feedback and brainstorming session, a statewide food summit that will be held at Rutland Middle School.

State officials are considering reducing the number of school districts from 280 to fewer than 50 and releasing some low-risk offenders from jail as part of a new approach to reining in state spending amid a continuing fiscal crisis. Those and other ideas were floated Tuesday as officials in the administration of Gov. Jim Douglas joined legislators to announce the results - so far - in a process they’ve dubbed "Challenges for Change." The aim is to use technology and new efficiencies to wring $38 million out of the state’s budget of just over $1 billion -- all without hurting state services.

The University of Vermont will play host to the fifth Invention to Venture Conference on April 9 at the Davis Center. I2V pulls together academic researchers, students, entrepreneurs and business leaders from across Vermont and from several colleges and universities. The half-day event has two speakers and workshops focused on inspiring entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic growth.

Coming off a year of record maple syrup production, Vermont sugar makers this weekend will host visitors at their sugarhouses. About 130 sugar makers across the state are participating in the ninth annual Vermont Maple Open House. Syrup producers open their farms and sugarhouses to visitors, who have a chance to see how the operation works -- if the sap is running.

Vermont businesses may not agree on what model the state should choose for its health care system, but they all seem to agree that the status quo of rising costs is choking economic development. More than a dozen business leaders testified on various health care plans before a joint session of the House and Senate health care committees Tuesday afternoon. "The Legislature is causing the biggest problem that it is trying to fix," said Jamal Kheiry, the owner of Clarity Strategic Communications in Bethel. "And that is high prices."

Gov. James Douglas joined state and local leaders at the future site of a new yogurt factory Thursday to break ground on Brattleboro’s latest economic growth project. Representatives from Commonwealth Dairy, LLC and their partner, Ehrmann AG, joined with Vermont officials to celebrate the first step in constructing a $32 million state-of-the-art dairy processing facility expected to create 24 jobs within three years. The business growth project comes to Brattleboro when the county, and the state in general, has seen very little during the latest economic downturn.