This year’s Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership will go to Michael Monte.

Monte serves as Chief Financial and Operating Officer of Champlain Housing Trust. He has more than 30 years of experience in the community and economic development field. Read more

Household income went up and poverty went down in Vermont in 2015, mirroring the improvements at the national level that the U.S. Census reported on Tuesday.

The new American Community Survey data from the Census show median household income in Vermont was $56,990 last year. After adjusting for inflation, that represented an increase of nearly $2,800, or 5.1 percent. Vermont’s median household income in 2015 was about $1,200 higher than the national median household income, but the percentage increase was the same.

For all of the problems and criticism swirling around the state’s health insurance exchange, Vermont is getting results where it counts. New Census data released today show Vermont tied with the District of Columbia for having the second lowest percentage of residents without health insurance. According to the Census, in 2015 just 3.8 percent of Vermonters were uninsured.

Massachusetts was ranked first, with 2.8 percent with no health care coverage. Alaska was last; 14.9 percent of residents there were uninsured last year.

Starting in the fall of 2013, people in Vermont and across the country began signing up for the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Some states, like Vermont, set up their own online exchanges for people to purchase health insurance. Other states opted to let the federal government run the exchanges.

Tomorrow, August 9, is primary day. Not the presidential primary, which Vermont held on Town Meeting Day in March. It’s the other one—the primary for state offices and the General Assembly. It’s time to choose party candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor, attorney general, and all 180 Vermont House and Senate seats. Read more

High-quality child care in Vermont is too expensive, too hard to find, too far away from too many families, and pays workers far too little. At least that’s what a new report by Let’s Grow Kids found. The supply is particularly bad for infants and toddlers. Read more

Welcoming refugees could solve a lot of problems worrying Vermont policy makers.

Declining enrollment in schools? Check.

Sluggish economic growth? Check.

Aging population? Check.

Stagnant population growth? Check.

Lack of diversity in many Vermont communities? Check.

A new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress confirms what many immigrant advocates have long believed: Rather than being a burden on communities, refugees contribute positively to local and state economies. Read more

There’s still time to submit a nomination for The 2016 Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership.

The $15,000 annual award—to be spent however the individual winner chooses—was established in 2015. It intends to encourage and reward mid-career leaders who share Con’s vision of a better Vermont—one that places the highest value on the public good, who seize the responsibility for making that vision real, and who use data and measurement to guide their decision-making. Read more

Young people and rich people are moving to Vermont.

If this surprises you, you aren’t alone. You’re more likely to hear that the young and the wealthy are fleeing Vermont for better opportunities. Your neighbors bought a condo and moved to Florida. Read more

A college degree can be the ticket to more job options and higher pay. And a well-educated workforce is critical to strong communities and a growing economy.

But as a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows, Vermont is one of only three states that has cut per-student public spending on higher education in each of the last two years, even as tuition at public colleges increases. Read more

The legislature passed the final fiscal 2017 budget along with tax and fee bills raising approximately $49.0 million in new revenue.1 At $5.8 billion the new budget is $133.9 million (2.4 percent) above the current year with much of the growth going to pre-K to 12 education and human services. Read more