Wherever you have a majority of Democrats, you will hear lots of words about supporting various demographics: women, minorities, blue-collar workers, and small business owners. Talk, as they say, is cheap, while everything else under Democrat rule is expensive.
The Putney Paper Mill has been around for a good long time. Paper production began in the area in the early 1800s, and the current mill is reported to have been built in 1869. But its parent company has announced that it has to close the mill, not because the cost of energy has gotten so high it is no longer possible to do business.
“Despite our best efforts to sustain operations at this historic paper mill, we had no choice but to shut down operations,” said [Soundview Vermont President Rob] Baron in a prepared statement.
“The high cost of energy in the region has made it unaffordable to keep our doors open. Our top priority moving forward will be supporting our incredible employees and their families throughout this difficult transition.”
There is no shortage of news or opinion on these pages about the cost of electricity in New England, but recent efforts to replace affordable, reliable sources with intermittent wind and solar have driven up costs. Decommissioning Vermont Yankee didn’t help, and the Vermont Dem’s war on coal and gas has only made matters worse. Add to this a myriad of bureaucracy-building carbon and emission schemes that make it cost more to do just about anything, and you can feel Putney Paper’s pain. Their officers are eating out their substance at the dwindling margins with increased fixed costs.
News reports say 127 people will lose their jobs. In a town of 2630, and they may not all live in Putney, that is not a small number of jobs.
The ironic bit is that the so-called party of the working man and woman (Democrats) will gnash their teeth and pound their chest at the injustice or indignity of the dissolution of not just another business but one like Putney Paper, without ever admitting it was their fault. Vermont Democrats and the Biden Presidency have made it too expensive to do business, and Putney isn’t the only casualty.
Every industry in the state except for the government is at risk; according to USA Facts, the government is the biggest business in Vermont and is only likely to get bigger as it offers its gold standard subsistence lifestyle alternative to the former employees at Putney Paper Mill: unemployment checks, welfare, Medicaid, housing assistance (or not), and teaching them to code probably won’t help.
Six score and seven have been let go, and there isn’t much call for what they do around these parts anymore, but I bet the government is hiring. Or, you could run for public office. The legislature is working hard on making that into a more meaningful and profitable career choice, which will only make the Vermont government an even bigger “business” than it already is, and you know what Skip always says. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.
Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, blogger, and a member of the Board of directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the Managing Editor and co-owner of GraniteGrok.com, a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.
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Categories: Commentary
Not an issue .
The tax revenues to both local and state will be made up by the rich of Vermont. Oh , you tell me they have left the state? Guess it will be on the rest of us ( less recently arrived new non citizen voters ) to make up the difference.
Of course the truly sad event are all the people who made their livelihood and supported their families for decades.
Mr. MacDonald, great article. I moved back to New England from Colorado in ’08. I was apolitical at the time and a registered Independent. I would read the bills and bios the day before election but otherwise paid no attention. I was a busy working homesteader. We chose VT because NH is too crowded, and there was no way I was living in Mass or CT. We just wanted to be close to elderly and disabled family members to provide assistance.
And then, crap started happening. I cannot move without losing all my investments of time, money and capital. While our home has appreciated in value so has everything else… what do they call that now, zero sum game?
I wish to God I had not moved back east. Wouldn’t have stayed in CO. But what are you gonna do when you have people that need your help?
I regret moving to Vermont. Wish we had been able to make Alaska work. I guess God has a different plan for me.
But back to your article, it will take generations to repair the damage the prog/dem/lib/Marxists have done should we even get the opportunity. I don’t believe our future will look much different than Venezuela’s. Or similar countries. We are done. It is over. I will still plug on and hope for the best because one can be no other way but it is highly doubtful. Let’s just hope Strauss and Howe were right and things will get better.
Respectfully,
Pam Baker
Begrudgingly, I must agree….. What really bothers me is, that our conservative representatives both in state and in DC seem to just sit on their hands and put up a feeble defense. Like Fox News… They are just paid opposition.
I know several of our state Republican legislators personally. They vigorously work to defend our interests. Unfortunately, the presence of a Dem/Prog super-majority makes their best efforts in effectual. They do score the occasional minor victory, but spend most of the session frustrated .
Re: ” They vigorously work to defend our interests.”
No, they don’t. At least not vigorously enough to publish their points of view or encourage their constituents in any way to support them. They’re pretenders at best and either have no idea what a ‘bully pulpit’ is, or they’ve grown comfortable in their elitist political class.
And they welcomed the Drug Dealers! NO PERMITS REQUIRED!
Vermonters’ here’s you sign. We reap what we sow.
Make it hard for legit business, make it easy for drug dealers boom!
And “suddenly” you have homelessness, crime and addiction rampant across our state, and “suddenly” everything is unaffordable, because you, the average person is getting the squeeze.
“suddenly”…. out of nowhere….I have no idea how this happened!
Our legislature is now made up of 80% progressive social activists not civic minded business leaders anymore. These same fools shutdown VY to advance an agenda not in the best interest of the State or local towns. Sadly things are not going to improve until our legislature has changed hands. Even Sam’s in Brattleboro has gone out of business sadly. Another piece of Vermont gone forever.
hope they were not producing toilet paper/// that would be real bad news//
I’m starting to be reminded of an earlier tragedy: The Salem Witch Trials, in which the persecuting individuals were hell-bent (quite literally) on cornering demons, not for any good reason, or because there actually were demons, but for the purpose of wielding power within the Puritan theocracy. We know how that ended up: innocents were stripped of their property and livelihoods, and a score or so died, and the accusers eventually died a living death of shunning and disgrace.
Here’s a thought, how about a database of every legislator that voted for the policies responsible for the collapse of businesses. Distribute the database far and wide, and service provider, supplier or retailer charges triple to any of these people, if they all band together they’ll have no where to turn. It might be considered price gouging, but who cares? They’ve been gouging us for years now.
Perhaps the author or readers can help with an explanation here.
The graph in the link below shows an increase in profit for Soundview of $49M to $69M from 2022 to 2023. What can that increase be attributed to? Increased productivity and sales or reduction in expenses? And, the big question us how that might relate to the plant closure.
https://www.buzzfile.com/business/Soundview-Vermont-Holdings-LLC-802-387-5571