The city of Burlington has always owned the risk for Burlington Telecom. The notion that taxpayer money was never at risk was patently false. Big D or small d department, BT belongs to the City and always has.
Now it owes fifty million and is worth perhaps fifteen. If it died today the taxpayers would have to make up the difference.
So what do we do? Cut our losses or keep rolling the dice and hope it improves?
Here's a poll for Burlington Taxpayers only. If you don't pay property tax to Burlington, please don't vote in the poll:
No comments?! Where are BT's defenders? You're going to let me bash BT's skull over and over like this and just remain silent?
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OK I voted to "cut losses". . . in a fit of pique. Can I take back my vote? I actually do not want to see BT fail. I would be a subscriber, if only BT served my NNE neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteBut "pique" is exactly what a lot of taxpayers are feeling right now. . . which begs the question: Has BT's reputation been so tarnished that their latent customer base--both in and out of the city--has eroded below the point of long term viability? Does anyone remember the "feel good" vibe that BT had a few years ago, with all the bus ads and favorable buzz from new subscribers?
Maybe it's not surprising then, that the mayor has responded to the crisis by petting BT and it's customers on the head, offering comfort to that particular group's fear rather than assuage the broader anger of everyone else.
I can't believe the Mayor is so blind to this outrage, but I have not seen from him a single gesture of outreach or understanding to those who feel aggrieved. It's as if he has not yet learned to take baby steps, politically.
At least with the length of these council meetings, lasting well beyond closing time we hath not worry about our concillors, meeting after the meeting and getting all kissy face after the brawling council meetings. They can head home catch a very few hours of sleep and get up the next day and continue to throw roundhouse rights or lefthanded jabs at their fellow councillors.
ReplyDeleteA quick rant:
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to defend what's going on when the leadership has been terrible. Mayor Kiss is awful at politics; pretty sure he always has been and that's a good thing in my view. He's a mayor and a manager not a politician. It's a difficult situation with people like Ed Adrian trying to play politics with BT. I think the analysis that the Council Dems wouldn't mind taking down BT to get the mayors office back after all these years is right on.
Politics aside this is a serious situation that needs to be dealt with. Citizens need to be assured that taxpayers won't be on the hook. That assurance hasn't been forthcoming. From my understanding the infrastructure is valuable enough that even in the worst-case scenario selling the network would recoup the losses and protect taxpayers.
Let's get real: BT has huge potential and could be a revenue generating asset for taxpayers; the service has enormous capacity that needs to be utilized to justify the initial investment. BT needs to have an ambitious plan to serve all of Chittenden County and even beyond within 5-10yrs, generating revenue for the city, if it's going to survive. There needs to be assurance that the enterprise will be cash-flow positive even sooner.
Such a plan is infinitely doable. It could be put together, publicized and sold by the administration easily but with all the stupid politics I'm certainly not holding my breath.
Aside, if it weren't for the geology of Red-Rocks condos and the PSB condition requiring full build-out it's possible that we wouldn't even be having any of these issues because we'd already be hooking up neighboring communities.
If BT thinks ledge in the red rocks area is an obstacle, wait till they get out of town with expansion and hit real ledge.
ReplyDeleteGrrateful for sharing this
ReplyDelete