Vermont should let entrepreneurs succeed or fail on their own

Vermont’s Employment Growth Incentive (VEGI) program is designed to provide financial support to companies in the state that are increasing employment and/or making capital investments. Its role was highlighted last week to the Vermont legislature by Kevin Dorn, Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, who is seeking to expand its role in [...]

Why should the tourism industry get our money?

Vermont Travel and Recreation Council Chair Brian Cain has asked the Vermont legislature to increase its subsidy of the state’s tourism industry from $3.8 million to $6.8 million… and this comes as the executive and legislative branches of government are desperately working to slash tens of millions of dollars from the budget in response to [...]

This is what media bias looks like

As a former journalist, I like to think of myself as qualified to judge when a story has been written in a biased manner. This story from Vermont’s WCAX News is one of the most blatant examples of pro-social programs bias.
It’s very short, as is appropriate for television. A total of one sentence is devoted [...]

Schools can’t save the world

As a taxpaying citizen whose government contributions are spent increasingly on education, it is disheartening to see constant streams of headlines suggesting, implying and demanding that schools should take on more and more of society’s ills.
Schools are naturally expected to provide education in the areas of math, science, history/social studies, and language. And they have [...]

Vermont considering additional economic suicide measures

Bureaucrats and legislators in Vermont seem to never lose their enthusiasm for making it harder for businesses to turn a profit here. With one of the worst recessions in a generation under way, they are now talking about increasing the dollar amount that businesses have to pay into the unemployment insurance fund.
To say that this [...]

Another move away from personal responsibility

Among those with the liberal vision of the world, the phrase “personal responsibility” is merely a thinly-disguised superiority complex that implies racism, classism, sexism and several other -isms. But rather than argue the issues on their own merits, based on facts and statistics, the liberal preference tends to be redefining reality so as to avoid [...]

Are zoos a critical taxpayer priority?

The economic downturn has given rise to a bonanza of news stories about the many corners and pockets of our economy that are suffering. A good portion of them, unfortunately, are about taxpayer-funded programs or facilities that suddenly find themselves subject to budget-cuts because they have tumbled to the bottom of the priority list.
One such [...]

Artificial demand is no way to “fix” the auto industry

President-elect Obama and like-minded supporters have made much of their grand idea to force the U.S. auto industry into producing “green” vehicles as the next wave of the future, with electric cars and plug-in hybrids held up as  particularly attractive saviors. Never mind that there are no indications that consumers actually want to buy these [...]

NYT shows its disdain for the public

Today’s New York Times editorial, advocating the imposition of mass transit systems on taxpayers, displays the typical liberal contempt for what most people in the country would choose for themselves. I use the term “imposition” because it’s obvious that Americans – by vast margins – prefer to use their own personal transportation rather than mass [...]

Vermont Attorney General works to increase costs to renters

As I have noted in previous posts, Vermont government never seems to tire of making housing more expensive, especially during this recession. The most recent effort, chronicled in this Rutland Herald story, is headed by the Vermont Attorney General’s office, which has notified landlords in Burlington and Rutland that they are behind on performing their [...]