Legislature Ends: No Cloud Tax and Funding for Economic Development
The Legislature formally came to a close May 13, passing the largest budget in state history of $8.4 billion, fueled by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
Among the highlights, the Cloud Computing Tax did not pass, thanks in part to the background the VTTA provided legislators and our ongoing efforts. Funding for most, but not all, economic development and workforce measures supported by the VTTA passed, as well as new funding for housing and broadband expansion.
Here are a few highlights of the concluded session of note for the VTTA:
No Cloud Tax
The House and Senate conferees came to agreement on S.53, the bill dealing with corporate tax changes, which also had included a proposal to add the Cloud Tax in the House version. The good news is that agreement on the final bill does not include the Cloud Tax, which means implementation of this tax was held off for another session.
Economic Development/Workforce Development
The House and Senate conferees came to an agreement on a final $99.5 million economic development and workforce bill, S.11. Many, but not all, of the proposals supported by the VTTA were included. Unfortunately, one proposal that was axed was funding of marketing efforts to attract workers to Vermont. Here are some of the key provisions that did make it:
- Grants to Graduating College Students
$2.5 million will be allocated to the University of Vermont Office of Engagement, in consultation with the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, to administer a statewide forgivable loan program of $5,000 per graduate for recent college graduates across all Vermont higher education institutions who commit to work in Vermont for two years after graduation. This could be a positive incentive that VTTA members can use when recruiting new graduates.
- Workforce Relocation Grants
Funding was continued for the workforce relocation and remote worker incentive programs, at approximately $3 million; half of the original $6 million proposed. Improvements to the program include the ability to initially approve an applicant for a grant before they relocate to the state, and the elimination of restrictions on who can apply for the grants, which means tech and other related positions are eligible to participate.
- VEDA Short-Term Forgivable loans
The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) was allocated $19 million of ARPA funds to create a Short-Term Forgivable Loan Program to support Vermont businesses impacted by COVID-19. To be eligible, a business must have experienced at least a 22.5 percent reduction in its adjusted net operating income in calendar years 2020 and 2021 combined as compared to 2019.
- Regional Workforce Expansion
The bill includes funding of $1.5 million to the Department of Labor for a two-year pilot program to launch a coordinated regional system, beginning in up to three regions of the state, to help workers find jobs and employers find workers.
- Work-Based Learning and Training
The bill also includes $1.5 million for work-based learning and training programs, such as internships. This will include establishing a statewide platform for listing internships, apprenticeships and other opportunities, and assistance to employers to create work-based learning and training opportunities.
- Community Recovery and Revitalization Grant Program
Funding of $10.5 million is provided for a Community Recovery and Revitalization Grant Program, previously known as the capital grant program. The purpose is to make investments to retain and expand existing businesses and nonprofit organizations with a preference for projects located in regions and communities with declining or stagnant grand list values. Maximum awards are $1 million or 20 percent of the total project cost.
A Paid Leave Grant Program funded with $15 million in ARPA money will award grants to employers to reimburse the cost of providing COVID-19-related paid leave to employees. An employer may apply for quarterly grants to reimburse employers for the cost of paid leave provided to employees between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
The bill also includes funding for the trades and health care professions. You can see an outline of all the provisions in the bill here.
Housing
The Omnibus Housing Bill passed, which includes $15 million for the Missing Middle Home ownership Development program, intended expand the supply of housing available for middle income individuals. Also included is funding for the expansion of priority housing projects and funds for manufactured homes. Another housing bill that passed this session has funding to increase the supply of rental units.
Broadband
The budget allocates $95 million in federal ARPA funds to expand broadband connectivity in Vermont. As an organization that has been advocating for broadband expansion for more than 10 years, it is gratifying to see this new investment, a silver lining response to the impact of the pandemic.
The lion’s share will go to the Vermont Community Broadband Fund to make grants to community broadband organizations and other entities, and can be used to fund match requirements to broadband grants from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
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The VTTA thanks the 16 member businesses for the financial support they provided to enable us to stay on top of the key issues and connect with legislators this session. It was particularly helpful in issues such as the Cloud Tax. We will plan to continue to make connections and have discussions with appropriate contacts during the off-season leading up to next year’s session. A number of legislators are not seeking reelection, which will mean new faces and new chairs of some committees who we may want to connect with to help them understand Vermont’s tech business sector.
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Webinar on Unifying Sales and Marketing
The Vermont Technology Alliance is partnering with Scout Digital for a free webinar on building alignment between sales and marketing to improve conversions, on May 26. Sales and marketing departments tend to operate with their own goals and priorities that make it challenging to presented a united front. Emily Piper and Travis Bragg of Scout will discuss how to align the two functions around customer value leading to higher conversions and happier teams.
Jeff Couture
Executive Director
Vermont Technology Alliance
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Featured Member – Consolidated Communications |
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Consolidated Communications (Nasdaq: CNSL) is a leading broadband and business communications provider serving consumers, businesses, and wireless and wireline carriers across rural and metro communities and a 20-plus state service area. Consolidated Communications offers a wide range of communications solutions, including: high-speed Internet, data, phone, security, managed services, cloud services and wholesale carrier solutions. Consolidated is dedicated to turning technology into solutions, connecting people and enriching how they work and live.
Find more about its Vermont services here.
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The Power of Alignment: Unify Your Sales & Marketing Goals to Improve Conversions
(May 26, 2022)
Join Scout Digital and the Vermont Technology Alliance for an insightful presentation on why and how to build alignment between sales and marketing to improve conversions
Join sales and marketing experts Emily (Piper) McMahon and Travis Bragg for a lively discussion on what’s needed to make this happen.
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LaunchVT Demo Night
(June 21, 2022)
Celebrate the 2022 LaunchVT cohort and their startups during the program’s annual pitch competition. Demo Night showcases the business accelerator’s most promising new businesses and their innovative founders after they have completed LaunchVT’s intensive, two-month program.
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Cloud Connect Summit: The Quest for Cybersecurity
(June 29, 2022)
The Cloud Connect Summit, presented by FirstLight returns to New Hampshire, in-person, June 29 at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, N.H. This year’s focus is on cybersecurity and ransomware protection. Join some of the nation’s leading experts on cloud, cybersecurity, and best practices from KnowBe4, Homeland Security, Veeam, FirstLight, and others. Take advantage of the VTTA code to waive the registration fee.
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MindEdge & VTTA Professional Development Offering |
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Cybersecurity & CISSP®
Learning Opportunity
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The cybersecurity program offers a range of introductory to advanced training for IT
professionals and cover topics like Cloud data security and cryptography, malware,
and risk management.
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Why Cybersecurity Training?
For either advancement or changing careers, there are many reasons for Cybersecurity training, including a strong demand in the job market, the pay, and the opportunities.
For companies looking to protect their valuable data and
information, Cybersecurity training has plenty of benefits.
Cybersecurity training helps lessen the exposure to
Cybersecurity risks, lowers costs due to lower frequency of
cyber-related loss-incidents, and creates a positive staff
culture regarding cyber and information security.
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Sample Course List:
1: Certificate in Cybersecurity
2: Application, Data, and Host Security Scenarios
3: Real-World Cybersecurity Scenarios
4: A Manager's Guide to Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity
5: Access Control and Identity Management Scenarios
6: Asset Security
7: CISSP® Exam Prep Course
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Tech Tribune Lists Top 10 Tech Startups in Burlington
(May, 2022 –VTTA)
Online publication The Tech Tribune published its list of the “Best Tech Startups” in Burlington, including VTTA member companies such as Faraday, THINKMD, Mamava and Widewail.
The list is based on several factors, including revenue potential, leadership team, brand/product traction, and competitive landscape.
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GlobalFoundries and Motorola Solutions Announce Strategic Agreement for Chip Supply from Vermont Facility
(May 19, 2022 – GlobalFoundries)
GlobalFoundries Inc. and Motorola Solutions announced a long-term agreement to safeguard the supply of innovative chip solutions for Motorola Solutions’ radios, which are widely used by public safety, critical infrastructure and enterprise organizations across the world.
Several critical chips the company designs for its public safety, professional and commercial radios are manufactured in Vermont by GF, a world leader in the manufacturing of silicon-germanium (SiGe) products, which are used in generations of wireless and wired networks. GF’s SiGe process technology enables the highly reliable, long-range, secure and clear communications vital to police, fire and other first responders.
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Opinion: We’re Finally Making Progress Supporting Rural Tech — We Can Do Much More
(May 19, 2022 – The Hill)
Matt Dunne of VTTA member the Center on Rural Innovation:
Rural America wants to be part of the growing tech economy.
We know because rural Americans have told us — in a national survey, nearly 60 percent of rural adults expressed interest in tech jobs and careers, according to a recent report from the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), a nonprofit I founded in 2017.
Who could blame them? The digital economy has been a reliable growth engine — expanding 3.5 times faster than the U.S. economy as a whole from 2005 to 2019 — and produces jobs whose median incomes are more than double that of all jobs nationally.
CORI’s research, sponsored by Ascendium Education Group confirmed that in addition to a majority of rural adults being interested in tech jobs, half of those currently employed in these roles identify as self-taught. This underscores the desire for resilient, good-paying jobs and the fact that in an industry that can recruit based on competencies rather than degrees there are nontraditional paths to these opportunities.
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A Richmond, VT Firm Aims to Help Save the Planet by Cleaning Ocean Vessels with Robots
(May 11. 2022 – Seven Days)
Ben Kinnaman thinks he can transform the shipping industry and the world’s navies by making vessels faster, more fuel-efficient and cheaper to operate. In the process, he hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect delicate marine ecosystems from invasive species.
How? By using small, autonomous robots to clean a ship’s hull faster than was previously possible — at a fraction of the price. The robots were all designed and built by Armach Robotics, Kinnaman’s new Vermont-based company. Armach is a spin-off of Richmond-based Greensea Systems, which Kinnaman founded in 2006 to design technology used in the guidance of deep-sea robots.
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OVR Technology's Virtual Olfactory Exhibit is a Metaverse Focusing on Smell
(May 19, 2022 – Tech Times)
OVR Technology, a Vermont-based virtual reality developer, decided to work on a new metaverse that focuses on smell. Thanks to its OVR (Olfactory Virtual Reality) headset, people can smell what is within the new digital olfactory exhibit, "Living with Scents." At the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco. OVR Technology partnered with other companies and design firms to make the new smell-based metaverse.
"The focus of Living with scents will be on objects, not just scented products, but creative and artful interfaces to deliver scents with manifold design outcomes," according to MCD’s Living with Scents' official website.
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Loaded With Cash and Poised to Expand, Beta Technologies Sees Clear Skies Ahead
(April 26, 2022 – Seven Days)
Beta Technologies has been raking in the dough. In May 2021, the South Burlington electric aircraft pioneer landed $368 million in venture capital from Amazon and others, putting the company into a class of its own among Vermont startups. Then Beta announced last week that it had secured another $375 million in financing from investors, including the Rise Fund and Fidelity.
The latest cash infusion capped a year full of highlights for Beta, which has gained national attention for its groundbreaking technology. Founded in 2017 as a quirky startup operating out of an aging hangar at Burlington International Airport, the company has transformed into an economic engine in Chittenden County, with more than 300 employees.
The achievements have solidified Beta's position as a leader in the much-hyped electrical vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, industry, which has attracted billions in investment for the long list of startups racing to turn electric flight into a commercial enterprise.
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G.S. Precision Acquires Aerospace Company F.T. Gearing
(April 28, 2022 – GS Precision)
Brattleboro Vt based G.S. Precision, Inc., a leading manufacturer of complex, high-precision components and specialty hardware used primarily in aerospace engines and defense systems, announced that it acquired F.T. Gearing Systems, a provider of highly engineered gears to the aerospace and defense industries. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
G.S. Precision is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense & government services, space, power & utility services, and specialty industrial markets. F.T. Gearing marks GSP’s second add-on acquisition since being acquired by AEI, including its acquisition of SMC Aerospace last month.
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Vermont Technology Alliance Membership Update
The Vermont Technology Alliance works on behalf of its members and is able to carry out its mission through the support of its membership.
Not a VTTA member yet? Then why not join now? Find more information and register here. You can also contact us at admin@vtta.org.
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Useful Information & Links |
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Applications Open for the 2022 Windham County Business Plan Competition
The 2022 Business Plan Competition is an opportunity for startups and existing businesses in the Windham region to build and refine business plans and hone their pitch. The competition is funded by the Windham County Economic Development Program (WCEDP), and administered by the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC).
To enter the competition, first submit an Application to Compete, and then attend a Quick Pitch Event. Qualified applications will result in an invitation to submit the formal business plan. These participants will have access to an online business plan software platform. Business Plans that meet the eligibility and scoring requirements will be entered into the final business plan competition. Finalists will be eligible to win a $20,000 award package designed to advance their project.
Find more and apply here.
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Online Professional Development Courses
The VTTA has partnered with MindEdge to offer easy-to-access, affordable, online professional development courses. Whether you are looking to expand your skill set, earn professional credits, or learn something new, these courses are an option to gain essential and in-demand skills on your own time, at your own pace, and from any location. As a bonus, VTTA members save 10% on all offerings.
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VTTA Career Center
Vermont Technology Alliance member companies are hiring, and when you visit the Career Center on the Vermont Technology Alliance website you can browse and search for these job openings and subscribe to updates. The Career Center on average features 150+ tech and non-tech jobs with Vermont Technology Alliance member businesses. Jobs available from VTTA members are listed at no charge in the Career Center as a member benefit.
Find the Career Center here.
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The VTTA Thanks Its Member/Sponsors
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