Archive - Oct 29, 2009 - Editorial

Nothing will be pleasant when tackling the task of shoring up the state unemployment compensation fund. Sacrifices will have to be made by the business community in the form of increased taxes into the fund, and by workers who have lost their jobs.

As compassionate Vermonters, the notion that unemployed workers may have to do with less is tough to hear, but we all must brace for the pain that comes with shared sacrifice.

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I took off for New York earlier this month, cutting out of work a bit early on a Friday afternoon to make the trip. Almost all of my dearest college friends flocked to the city after graduation, so an outing to New York is a bit like one-stop shopping at a big-box store: Somewhere, in a city of 8 million some odd people, are a half-dozen friends waiting for me; I just have to elbow my way through never-ending aisles of strangers, knick-knacks and two-for-the-price-of-one deals to find them.

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FairPoint Communications’ resort to bankruptcy court to restructure its debts raises important policy issues for state and national legislators and utility regulators. FairPoint, Vermont’s dominant provider of landline communications services, bought Verizon’s landline operations in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in early 2008. FairPoint, which had been a small company serving rural markets in southern states, added more than 1 million new customers in the Verizon deal, along with over $2 billion in debt.

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