Business
The unemployment bill formerly known as S.10 – Business owners had their most challenging year in memory. Many hoped that the legislature, knowing this, would have sought to offset their challenges. Unfortunately leveling unemployment tax rates was considered by some to be too much help.
One of the most contentious negotiations of the session centered on the formula that determines the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund balance. Recent years unemployment rates are entered into the calculation, and many experts felt that 2020 was an anomaly and should be removed from the formula given the pandemic. Without 2020 in the equation, the balance required would be $600 million, and with 2020 it would be $1 billion (by all accounts too much).
[co-author: Jessica Griswold]
Senate passes budget
On Friday, the Senate gave final approval to the $7.17 billion FY 2022 budget, H.439. Senate Appropriations Chair Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, called it “as complicated a budget as I’ve ever had to put together in my time in the Senate” due to the flood of federal aid to Vermont for coronavirus relief and an unexpected $211 million revenue surplus.
The bill spends $478.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, while incorporating only a portion of Gov. Scott’s ARPA spending proposal. Kitchel said the governor’s plan did not focus enough on the legislature’s funding priorities, including service delivery structure, court re-opening and higher education needs. Scott had asked the legislature to place all of the ARPA expenditures in a separate bill. Kitchel rejected that request, instead placing all ARPA spending in one designated section of the budget bill.
Governor proposes $90 million for state capital investment
Department of Economic Development Commissioner Joan Goldstein presented Governor Scott s Capital Investment Grant Proposal to the Senate Economic Development Committee this week. The proposal would allocate $90 million over three years for capital investment grants to businesses and non-profits. Regional Development Corporations and Regional Planning Commissions would identify eligible projects. Twenty-five million dollars would be dedicated to outdoor recreation projects.
Senators expressed concerns about how the Agency of Commerce and Community Development would select projects. Commissioner Goldstein said they would consider ready or near-ready proposals that will leverage other financing, with projects funded in every region. The RDC/RPC inventory of projects is a work in progress, and Commissioner Goldstein said she would provide a list to the committee when it is ready.
Governor lets controversial H315 become law without his signature vermontbiz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vermontbiz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Members of the Vermont Legislature,
We, the undersigned organizations, representing cumulatively more than 9,500 employers with more than 200,000 employees implore you to conform with the federal treatment of forgiven Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the tax year 2021, just as you did in tax year 2020. This is important for the following reasons:
Taxing PPP loans would negate the purpose of the program. When PPP was first created under the CARES Act, the legislative intention was that these loans would be non-taxable. Congress saw this as so important to the program’s desired impact that they took the extraordinary step of reaffirming this in the subsequent Consolidated Appropriations Act.