Treasurer Mike Pieciak leads a discussion on the future of manufacturing in Vermont at the VEDA Annual Meeting Friday at the Essex Resort. VermontBiz photo.
More Than $2.8 Billion Provided to Vermont Businesses Since 1974
Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority, or VEDA, marked its 50th anniversary in the state through the release of its annual report during its annual meeting at the Essex Resort.
VEDA CEO Cassie Polhemus was joined by Governor Phil Scott, Treasurer Mike Pieciak, industry leaders, lenders and friends at the luncheon event.
Scott discussed the value VEDA has provided to the business community, especially for startups and entrepreneurs and Pieciak led a discussion on manufacturing with Chroma Technologies in Bellows Falls, OnLogic in South Burlington, Rigorous Technology in Williston and Vermont Precision Tools in Swanton.
The extensive, nearly 50-page detailed annual report examines VEDA’s work during the last fiscal year and looks at the world in which the states’ diverse business landscape has endured, survived and thrived over the five-decade period.
As the industrial and farm economies have changed and diversified, and new sectors, like green energy, have emerged, VEDA has created new financing programs to keep up with the world around it, providing business owners from all walks of life, seasoned or brand new, major or “mom and pop” the chance to live their dreams while maintaining the neighborly relationships that have built up Vermont’s — and Vermonters’ — identities.
In its first year, VEDA approved six direct loans totaling $967,000. This year that number was more than $58 million, through129 loans to the agricultural, travel and tourism, renewable energy, manufacturing and other sectors. Even this is a mere fraction of the 11,000 loans and $2.8 billion provided since 1974, when the Vermont legislature created VEDA to positively impact Vermont’s economy and job opportunities.
Other standouts from fiscal year 2024 include:
- The creation or retention of 2,061 jobs at VEDA-financed companies, with average compensation of $33.64 per hour
- The transition of ownership of 22 businesses
- Twenty eight start-up businesses established, including 10 new farms, no small feat in a culture of continued agricultural decline
- The creation of a forest products-focused loan program to benefit loggers and others in the field
Through VEDA’s financing opportunities within the energy sector, enough electricity was generated to support more than 1,000 homes, and about 6,694 tons of greenhouse gas emissions — or 1,445 cars’ worth — were mitigated.
Jolene Kao, owner of Charlotte’s revamped Old Brick Store, was one business owner whose story was represented in the annual report. Through VEDA, she said, building up a business in a new-to-her location in a new community was a positive experience.
“It just went smoothly, and I felt like they actually read the business plan that I had put together,” she said. “When I was writing it, there was a question of, ‘Is anybody going to read this and actually care about all of myself that I’m putting into it’?”
A decade-by-decade breakdown of VEDA and the global context that impacted the economy in which it navigated was created, to explore the ways in which VEDA has adapted, shifted and prevailed.
VEDA CEO Cassie Polhemus with Governor Phil Scott at the VEDA annual meeting Friday.
See the full report on VEDA’s website.
The Vermont Economic Development Authority is the statewide economic development finance lender. Created by the General Assembly in 1974, VEDA’s mission is to contribute to Vermont’s economic vitality by providing a broad array of financing programs to eligible businesses that create jobs and help advance Vermont’s public police goals. veda.org
Original article published on 10/27 here.