New Legislative Session Starts – VTTA Ready to Represent Vermont’s Tech Sector
The new Vermont Legislative session has begun, and the VTTA will continue to monitor activity and provide information and context to inform the work on legislation that can impact Vermont’s tech business sector.
Cloud Tax Redux
Like the proverbial bad penny, the so-called “Cloud Tax” has returned again this session with the House Ways and Means committee introducing H.120, which applies the Vermont 6% sales tax to “vendor-hosted prewritten computer software,” which is defined as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. The Senate Finance Committee also received a briefing on the Cloud Tax, since the proposed tax will ultimately end up in its committee. Here is the overview from legislative counsel Abby Shepard and the presentation by Patrick Titterton with the Joint Fiscal Office on the proposed tax.
The VTTA has long opposed the tax due to the increased costs it would add to all businesses, particularly tech-focused businesses, that use and depend on online applications and services, nearly all of which would be subject to the sales tax. If instituted, the estimated annual revenue from this tax is now $18.4 million, up $2 million from last May.
If your business uses internet-based tools or service subscriptions and would be impacted by this increased business cost, please provide some background to the VTTA by emailing jeff@vtta.org.
Child Care
Governor Phil Scott outlined his proposed $8.4 billion state budget in an address to the Legislature. He proposed a number of initiatives, the largest of which is an additional $56 million to expand child care subsidies to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, without raising taxes.
His proposal came after Legislators received a requested report from the RAND corporation on how the state can expand child care access, with goals that included families spending no more than 10 percent of their annual income and improved pay for childhood educators. They concluded a total cost of $645 million annually to cap out-of-pocket expenses to 10% of household income for families making less than 350% of the federal poverty level, or $80,600 for a family of three.
Subtracting current public-sector funding and family-paid tuition leaves a gap of between $179 million and $279 million in needed annual state funding, based on different payment scenarios. The researchers offered a range of potential revenue options, which included a 1% payroll tax increase, an increase in the sales tax to 7%, expanding the sales tax to a range of services, a soda tax, and increase in the rooms and meals tax. You can see the presentation here.
Public Policy Networking Event
Get up to date on what’s happening in the legislature and connect with the tech community on Feb. 13, when the Vermont Technology Alliance hosts a public policy focused networking event.
Join at Black Flannel Brewery and Distillery for drinks, light fare, and an informative public policy discussion, sponsored by Codingscape.
We’ll discuss issues that the VTTA is following, and Dylan Zwicky of Leonine Public Affairs will provide an overview of the current session. We’ve also invited a Vermont Senate committee chair to share their perspective, schedule permitting. It’s a good opportunity to network with others in the tech community and learn a little about issues and legislation that could impact the tech sector and all Vermonters.
Jeff Couture
Executive Director
Vermont Technology Alliance
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VTTA Public Policy Discussion and Networking Event
(February 13, 2023)
The Vermont Technology Alliance is holding an informal networking event that offers an opportunity to gain insight into what’s on legislators’ agenda and how it may impact the tech sector.
Join us Feb. 13 at Black Flannel Brewery and Distillery for drinks, light fare, and an informative public policy discussion, sponsored by Codingscape.
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MindEdge & VTTA Professional Development Offering |
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Agile Project Management Learning Opportunity |
Learn the principles of Agile Project Management: an iterative, skinnied-down
approach to project management for teams that move quickly.
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Why Agile Project Management Training?
In today’s job market, an edge can be one that counts, and one such edge is Agile Project Management. Agile adds incredible value to an organization with early and continuous delivery of projects, frequent review of requirements and plans, increased project control, and reduced risks.
Beginning with an introduction to the core philosophy of Agile and the basic structure of an Agile project, our courses address specific challenges that may be encountered by teams using Agile, best practices for integrating Agile methods into Waterfall environments, and the principles of Scrum – one of several specialized Agile methods.
VTTA members receive 10% off all courses
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Sample Course List
1: Agile Project Management (ACE CREDIT®)
2: Certificate in Agile Project Management
3: Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Exam Prep
4: Challenges for Agile Teams
5: Integrating Agile into a Waterfall Environment
6: Introduction to Agile
7: Agile Improvement Simulation: SaaSy Corporation
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Vermont Anchors 100/100 Broadband Model, Municipal Approach
(January 23, 2023 – Fierce Telecom)
Vermont, one of the least populated states in the U.S., has to contend with plenty of broadband-related challenges. But state legislation and municipal providers have made bridging the digital divide a little easier.
Speaking with Fierce, Robert Fish, deputy director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB), said Vermont’s issues are the same as elsewhere in the country. That is, traditional providers have only built out to areas they deem the most profitable, leaving the more rural and low-income areas “to fend for themselves.”
Act 71, passed by the state legislature in 2021, propelled universal broadband efforts in Vermont. The bill, which also established the VCBB, requires providers, most of whom are communications union districts (CUDs), to serve every single unserved address in their service area. Providers that want to receive funding from the VCBB must be capable of offering symmetrical speeds of at least 100 Mbps.
“That’s been our ongoing challenge of getting rid of the donut hole, where everybody around you is served but not the people who need it most,” said Fish. As for the 100 Mbps requirement, the state wants to ensure it’s investing in infrastructure that will last for the next 30-40 years.
“We don’t want infrastructure that’s going to need to be replaced, that’s not going to have the capacity…the speed that’s necessary for what’s coming not just today but what’s coming tomorrow,” he added.
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Resonant Link Plans to Launch its First Remote Smartphone Charger to the Public This Year
(January 15, 2023 – VTDigger)
Resonant Link moved into its new offices in an industrial park next to Ben & Jerry’s last spring. The company had been headquartered in Shelburne. Fifteen months ago, it had seven employees. By the end of 2021, it had 18, including founders Aaron Stein, Phyo Aung Kyaw and Grayson Zulauf. Last year, it hired 30 additional employees. Resonant Link’s employees are now spread out over 12 states and three countries.
Resonant Link was founded in 2017, building on its revolutionary method to send power wirelessly using coils made of layers of foil and thin film dielectric, an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electrical field.
The technology uses one-fifth the power of other existing wireless technology, Zulauf said. It was developed by Stein and Kyaw at Professor Charles Sullivan’s lab at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
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Vermont ranked #5 as a Hotspot for Female Founders
(January 2023)
Vermont ranked number 5 in a listing of the top five states for female founders in a report from recruiting firm Lensa, based on the number of women starting businesses.
Lensa analyzed government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to ascertain how many females are starting businesses, what increase women have seen in business, and which states are the hotspots for female entrepreneurs.
New England neighbor Maine came in at number one, followed by Montana, West Virginia, New Mexico and Vermont. In listing Vermont, the report finds that 21.6% of 162 company founders as of 2022 were female (26.43% for Maine).
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Burlington Business Incubator Teaches Student Entrepreneurs at Middlebury College
(January 22, 2023 – VTDigger)
Thirteen Middlebury College students are spending their January term learning about entrepreneurship from the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, a Burlington business incubator, and VTTA member.
To qualify, each student must have a business of their own to promote. About a third of the students in this year’s class are generating revenue already, according to VCET president David Bradbury.
Bradbury and vice president Sam Roach-Gerber teach the course, which is in its ninth year.
One of the students, James Heath, is building a website called Dormplex that allows students to offer goods and services to others on their campus.
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New Bill Would Require More Transparency Around Vermont’s Corporate Incentives
(January 10, 2023 – VTDigger)
Since 2007, Vermont has awarded more than $33 million in incentives to companies that are opening or expanding in the state, including a number of tech businesses — a program that supporters say brings in far more in tax revenue and economic value than it costs.
But little information is publicly available about the businesses that have received grants through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program, including whether they actually lived up to the promises they put in their applications. This year, some lawmakers are hoping to change that.
A new bill, H.10, would create new requirements for the incentive program to report on previously “proprietary” data — including on how much money businesses have gotten each year from the state, how many jobs they’ve created and how much revenue they’ve put in state coffers thanks to corporate incentives.
It would also change the administration of the program, eliminate additional incentives and pause incentives entirely when the state’s unemployment rate is low, like it is right now.
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Vermont Once Again Tops United Van Lines’ List of Top Moving Destinations 2022
(January 4, 2023 – Vermont Biz/United Van Lines)
Vermont has topped the list of Top Moving Destinations of 2022, according to the 2022 National Movers Study released by United Van Lines, the nation’s largest household goods mover.
According to the results of the study, which tracks the company’s data for customers’ state-to-state migration patterns, Vermont saw the highest percentage of inbound migration (77%) for the second consecutive year. It wasn’t close. Vermont was 10 points higher than second place Oregon. Those who moved into Vermont tended to be older and wealthier.
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New Smell Tech Could Make VR Therapies More Powerful
(January 2023 - WebMD)
An emerging trend in virtual reality – incorporating smell – could be exciting news not just for gaming but for health care as well.
A growing number of hospitals across the country are using virtual reality to help patients manage pain, overcome phobias, and calm anxiety. And VR therapies may start to become more common, particularly if insurers begin to cover the cost.
But despite its potential in health care, VR continues to fall short in one way: We still can't smell it.
At the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held earlier this month, Vermont-based OVR Technology unveiled a headset with eight primary aromas that can be combined to create thousands of scents. The ION3, as it's called, is scheduled to be released later this year.
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NRG Systems Provides Monitoring Solutions for Canada’s Largest Solar Farm
(January 4, 2023 – Solar Builder)
The turnkey systems capture a range of site-specific parameters, including solar irradiance, module temperature and soiling conditions, as well as albedo, a vital piece in determining the solar energy potential available to the backside of the plant’s bifacial solar modules. Together, the data collected by NRG’s SRM Systems play a critical role in determining the Travers Solar Project’s performance ratio.
The Travers Solar Project is the largest utility-scale PV plant ever installed in Canada. The project was developed by Calgary-based Greengate Power Corp.
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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.
Renewing members include Creative Microsystems, Freshtracks Capital, Global-Z, Howard Center, Mamava, NRG Systems, Stone Environmental, Union Street Media, Valley Net, Vermont Technical College, and Widewail; and individuals Thomas Chen (Argonaut, LLC), Jeff Manley (Liberty Mutual Technology), Joe McVicker (McVicker Group), Monique Priestley (The Space on Main), Kalman Saffran (Kalman Saffran Associates).
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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Featured Member – Springer-Miller Systems
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Springer-Miller Systems develops comprehensive, integrated guest-centric property management systems and spa management systems for the finest hotels, resorts and spas in the world. Our employees combine a love of the hospitality industry with a passion for technology and customer service.
Our software includes SMS|Host, a comprehensive Property Management System extensively used in luxury resorts and hotels, and the SpaSoft spa management system.
Our software has been developed in collaboration with our collection of luxury resort and city-center hotel customers, ensuring both breadth and depth of functionality. We have over 1000 installed locations globally, with more installations every year.
Springer-Miller is headquartered in Stowe, VT with additional offices located in Las Vegas, Toronto, London, and Kuala Lumpur.
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Useful Information & Links |
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Vermont Business Owners Invited to Participate in the 2023 Annual Business Economic Survey
Davis & Hodgdon CPAs, a VTTA member, has once again partnered with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce in an effort to better understand Vermont small- to medium-sized business owners’ perception of the business climate. They are asking business owners to take the annual survey related to the economy and local businesses. The survey usually takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete
Please click here to take the survey. The survey will remain open until Friday, February 11.
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Champlain College Spring Career Fair
Champlain College is hosting its Spring 2023 Career Fair in person on Wednesday, March 1.
For this Fair, they are targeting employers who are actively recruiting positions (full- and part-time, internship, and summer/seasonal) of direct relevance to Champlain’s academic programs. Click here for a list of our majors and specializations to determine which ones best align with your talent needs.
Find more information and register here.
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LaunchVT 2023 Accepting applications from Feb 1 - Mar 3
The startup business accelerator program LaunchVT is accepting applications for its 2023 cohort from February 1 to March 3, 2023. This year's cohort is scheduled to run through April to the end of June with a Demo Night at Hula June 22.
Find more information here.
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State Seeking Feedback on Voluntary Paid Leave Program
Governor Phil Scott recently announced the Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Plan (VT-FMLI), the state's first voluntary paid leave program that will give all working Vermonters access to affordable paid family and medical leave insurance by 2025. The program will be available to employers with two or more employees beginning July 1, 2024.
Employers may choose from several plan options to best support the needs of their business and employees, including flexibility to create their own plan, or they can buy the base (6 weeks of pay at 60%) and provide more leave for employees if they so choose.
The Department of Economic Development is collecting feedback from employers about the business community's interest in participating. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey.
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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 300+ 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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