The Vermont Working Landscape Partnership announces the release of Investing in our Farm and Forest Future. This nonpartisan Action Plan offers five recommendations to help reinvigorate the state’s rural economy.· Build a major campaign to celebrate the distinctiveness of the working landscape that is Vermont.· Target strategic investment through a Vermont Agriculture and Forest Products Development Fund.· Designate and support ‘Working Lands.’· Develop tax revenue to support working landscape enterprise development and conservation.· Create a State Planning Office and activate the Development Cabinet. The Vermont Working Landscape Council developed this plan. Its sixteen members have deep expertise in issues pertaining to farm and forest enterprises and rural development in Vermont. Its report also identifies challenges and opportunities for the working landscape, trends for the future, and goals for the proposed policy changes.‘We have an historic opportunity for a Natural Resource Renaissance that will keep Vermont’s land working for all of us for many generations,’ explains VWL Council Chair and Former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee. ‘But we must all support the significant investment it will take to rejuvenate our land-based businesses.’The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) launched this broad-based partnership as a way to focus efforts to keep our farm and forest economy healthy and prosperous. The report is available online at www.vtrural.org(link is external) or by contacting VCRD at 802-223-6091 or by email at info@vtrural.org(link sends e-mail).‘We know how much Vermonters value and benefit from the Working Landscape,’ says VCRD Executive Director Paul Costello. ‘Implementing these recommendations is our best strategy for ensuring the future of our greatest asset.’This focus on the Working Landscape stems from the extensive work by the Council on the Future of Vermont. In interviews and surveys with thousands of Vermonters, the state’s working landscape emerged as a top priority.The Partnership formed following a packed State House summit in December of 2010. There are currently almost 500 individual and 170 organizational members from all parts of the state and the numbers continue to increase. To learn more visit www.vtrural.org(link is external) .Use this link if you prefer to go directly to the .pdf of the report.http://vtrural.org/sites/default/files/library/files/working%20landscape…(link is external)
Three credit union-specific regulatory relief provisions, as well as more than a dozen other relief items that benefit credit unions, are contained in a bill introduced by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) Tuesday.The much-anticipated bill is expected to be marked up by the Senate Banking Committee on May 21.“Several Title I provisions within Chairman Shelby’s draft legislation align with regulatory relief changes that CUNA has long advocated for on behalf of our members,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle when the bill was unveiled. “CUNA has repeatedly called on Congress to provide regulatory relief, and I thank Chairman Shelby and his staff for the many Title I provisions that will benefit credit unions and their members.”The credit union-specific provisions in the bill are:Allowing privately insured credit unions to become members of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system;Granting credit unions under $1 billion in assets parity with like-sized banks by allowing less restrictive access to the FHLB system; and continue reading » ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr