Let’s not lose the spirit of Irene

Posted by Jack Hoffman on October 31, 2011 at 9:52 am

One of the good things to come out of Tropical Storm Irene was seeing the state respond to human needs. Individuals, businesses, government, and other institutions all had a similar reaction to the crisis: they jumped in with both feet and did what they could to help their fellow Vermonters.

The moment, unfortunately, was fleeting. A month after Irene struck, the Shumlin administration was back into manage-to-the-money mode, building a…

Education spending: Just the updated facts

Posted by Paul Cillo on October 20, 2011 at 3:19 pm

Providing a good education for each of its citizens is one of the most important jobs of state government. So it should come as no surprise that we spend a significant amount of money, about 5 to 6 percent of the state’s gross state product, on public education. But with all the talk about skyrocketing school costs in recent years, it has surprised many that education costs as a percentage…

Job cuts create jobs? I don’t think so

Posted by Paul Cillo on October 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm

“[B]usiness is run for the benefit of its owners, its shareholders, its customers and its employees. It’s not run for the benefit of the country.”  That’s according to venture capitalist and Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Bill Frezza in an NPR interview on Tuesday.

His point, which he laid out in a blog post a few weeks earlier, was that business views jobs as a necessary…