Vermont lawmakers on Thursday advanced a jobs bill with enhanced incentives for businesses that create new jobs, a new statewide internship program, grants for fruit and vegetable farmers trying to upgrade their operations and a host of other provisions.
Some of the sections of the bill are aimed at making it easier for businesses to get state job development help when they’re located in parts of Vermont with unemployment higher than the statewide average.
Among the provisions of the bill is aid to fruit and vegetable farmers to upgrade their operations to meet increasingly stringent requirements imposed by some grocery chains to guard against food-borne illnesses.
There’s also money to create a new skilled meat-cutters apprenticeship program. The bill got preliminary approval Thursday on a vote of 122-13.