Author Archive

In case you have wondered where PNR disappeared to, it has taken an indefinite hiatus. Since 2007 and after roughly 200 weekly issues, Her Wonderful Loveliness (HWL) felt the need for a break. Though it may not be readily apparent to the Gentle Reader, PNR actually was a delightful, yet very labor intensive undertaking. Pooped and concerned about quality control, I suspended publication prior to the holidays and tilted my cupped ear to the wind, expecting to hear protesters in the streets demanding their PNR. None came and I interpreted the quiet to mean lack of interest, and that’s okay, too. To every thing, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. (more…)

The 24^th Annual Meeting of the Vermont Business Roundtable saw the passing of the Chair’s torch from America’s #1 Family Resort ~ Smugglers’ Notch Resort ~ to America’s Oldest Flour Company ~ King Arthur Flour. After two years and countless hours in the saddle hauling water for the Roundtable, Bill Stritzler delivered his outgoing remarks and was presented with the Chair’s Chair by a grateful membership. During his tenure Stritzler exhibited a leadership style that Roundtable President Lisa Ventriss described as “sage wisdom through story telling.” Stritzler also chaired two very important and successful initiatives including the 2010 Pulse of Vermont: Quality of Life survey and the Business Leadership Summit on Early Childhood Initiatives. (more…)

At the February meeting of the Roundtable Board of Directors, Ken Perine, President and CEO of the National Bank of Middlebury, and chair of the Tax & Fiscal Policy Task Force, presented that group’s reactions and policy recommendations, which were ultimately endorsed by the Board. On two separate occasions over the past year, the Roundtable presented formal testimony before the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission (BRTSC) and, later in the process, also participated in a roundtable discussion of current issues with members of the Commission and other stakeholders. (more…)

If you missed the Roundtable’s March 2^nd ski day at Sugarbush Resort, then you missed one of the best CEO presentations to date. Oh, the skiing was pretty awesome, too, and you missed my high-viz day glow, lime green jacket ~ an update over my old, banana yellow jumpsuit, which Staige Davis was fond of. But I digress…

Win Smith was our congenial host at Lincoln Peak and, throughout the changeable weather day we skied on terrain ranging from groomed corduroy cruisers, to natural coverage on steep, wooded trails, to rapidly accumulating fresh powder.  (more…)

The family’s winter vacation to Florida this year included a new element, one that I highly recommend if you’re ever within striking distance…”taking the waters” at one of that state’s hot mineral springs. If I’d known about these natural spas before, I would most certainly have made it a tradition long ago. The setting was definitely funky old Florida, not sexy South Beach; the music piped through the trees was New Age, not Top 40 Hip Hop; and, surprise! the café featured Vermont beer to accompany our spa food menu. But it was the spring itself that was most fascinating: it maintained a steady 87 degrees as 9 million gallons of water flowed through it every day, and the water that we soaked in was totally and naturally changed every three hours. So while I slowly made endless circuits around the neck-deep natural pool, marveling at all the Russian tourists, I mused. (more…)

Nobody likes to give up comfortable old habits that make us feel secure and content or that are predictable and familiar. Even when the data show that those habits are bad for us (think smoking), or unsustainable (think Defined Benefit plans) we still find it hard to give them up.  The time comes, though, when the smoker develops cancer or the treasury is empty, and that’s the moment of conversion. Real change happens only in crisis. So it is with the state’s response to the Great Recession – the crisis has finally hit and change, though difficult, is under way. (more…)

In his remarks during last week’s Senate floor debate on Entergy/Vermont Yankee, Senate President Peter Shumlin gave five reasons why he would cast a ‘nay’ vote on relicensure: power price; tritium clean-up; corporate responsibility; liability; and trust.  And then he appealed to his colleagues “to have courage to move onto the next generation of energy creation.” Well, courage is in the eye of the beholder.

Moving onto the next gen of energy is not courageous, it’s common sense, or “a no-brainer” to use Senator Bartlett’s words, and is something that Vermont’s energy utilities (including many Roundtable members) have been doing for awhile now as they plan for an incremental shift away from heavy reliance on nuclear power. What does require courage is this: staring into the head wall of a media tsunami and urging restraint where no restraint exists; calling for patience while waiting for information that doesn’t come fast enough; acknowledging that we don’t know enough at this time to make such a critical decision as closure; and, standing with an important corporate citizen that admits it has, more times than not, been its own worst enemy.  This is what the Douglas Administration and many business and labor leaders, including the Roundtable, have been doing.

Religious crusades and wars require courage. Resolving crises of public confidence and environmental degradation do not. They require steadfast leadership; clear and unambiguous communication; and swift, rational decision-making that is benefitted by credible information.

I just returned from spending a week in snowy Minnesota, nursing my college roommate after her stroke. Over coffee each morning we read the headlines…and I found that the similarities go well beyond our respective snow levels. (more…)

Op – Ed by David Coates, former Managing Partner of KPMG  and Vermont Business Roundtable Member, and Bruce Lisman,  former Chairman of J.P. Morgan Company’s Global Equity Division

A long campaign season ahead, lots of gubernatorial candidates, and an economic catastrophe that may change how we think about economic growth make for an ideal environment in which to consider new approaches to how we govern our State.  This economic crisis is forcing us to re-examine with fresh eyes our tax structure, our educational funding and our public pension plans.  And there is another idea worthy of public discussion. (more…)

During testimony before the Blue Ribbon Tax Structure Commission this week, Ken Perine, Chair of the Roundtable’s Tax & Fiscal Task Force was asked the question, should the state’s economic system be used to incent social policy, or put another way, should Vermont’s tax system be used as a “blunt instrument or a functional tool?” Actually, the question perhaps should have been asked, “should the state’s economic system continue to be used…”, because that is indeed how we operate today. (more…)