Burlington Telecom would seem to be in trouble. It has to make a $386,000 payment on the interest on its debt. They’re already in trouble, of course, for dipping into city reserves without repaying them in defiance of their licensing from the state. Now the Public Service Board is saying “no” to their request to do it again, and a court has barred them from using other city money. Doomed? Probably not.
As I said, when the Mayor and the Council Progressives dug in on the issue of transparency and rule breaking, rather than just biting the bullet from the get-go with a “mistakes were made” moment, they upped the ante, making Burlington Telecom itself a partisan issue and putting its continued existence in jeopardy. That has clearly played out to the letter.
But now that BT is synonymous with the Burlington Progressives, it will likely be treated similarly to the now-defunct Vermont Milk Company. So here’s my prediction: A deal will be announced by Friday whereby an anonymous guardian angel “investor” will have emerged to cover the $386,000, and the status quo will live to be fought over another day.
And once again for the record (and as a firm supporter of this kind of public information utility): it should never have come to this.
it never should have come to this and the intervention of Shaver and that other numnuts from the NNE is just further evidence of how far the R contingent will go to stand in the way of progress just to spite Kiss. Decells had a piece on FPForum talking up Google….Jesusinahandbasket…
When will Burlington folks realize that internet and TV and phone are public utilities and the ability of a public entity to provide that service is a good and cost savings thing for citizens??
Are those clowns now advocating that Burlington Electric be sold off to GMP or Velco??? Pretty much the same situation except one is established and the other developing and competing with Fairpoint and Comcast. The service from BurlTel is so much better than Comcast that they cant stand a side by side test. Even for the same money you get better service…
Both the R and D contingent are willing to sacrifice something good to shame Kiss, who is not without blame, but they certainly should be able to rise above this game for the public good.
DoesLess and his PSB clowns are just another story… we no longer have a functioning state government.