http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20131227/NEWS01/712279976
Published December 27, 2013 in the Rutland Herald VEDA loans include Springfield, Rutland STAFF REPORT The Vermont Economic Development Authority recently approved $4.5 million in financing for farmers and small businesses around the state, including loans to Springfield and Rutland manufacturers. Vermont Machine Tool Corp. in Springfield received an $810,000 VEDA loan to partially insure a working capital line of credit that was renewed by Mascoma Savings Bank. Vermont Machine Tool expects to increase its employment from 19 to 32 workers within three years. Rutland Plywood Corp. received a $114,963 loan through VEDA’s Small Business Loan Program. The loan will partially finance an increase in the company’s log inventory and upgrade electric and hydraulic production systems. Small business loans were also approved for: Hill Farmstead LLC, Greensboro Bend – $350,000 in financing to partially fund the two-phase construction of a new brewhouse. Peter and Jayne Chevalier, St. Albans — $150,248 in financing as part of a $375,620 project to help the Chevaliers purchase a 6,000-square-foot building in St. Albans for lease to Chevalier Fire Protection Inc. Britch & Sons Welding & Fabrication Inc., Highgate Center — $25,000 was approved as part of a $34,000 project to finance construction of a company garage. The latest round of financial assistance was concentrated in the agricultural sector. Of the $4.5 million in financing, $3.1 million in loans was approved for farmers through the Vermont Agricultural Credit Corp. Since 1974, VEDA has provided more than $2 billion in financing to assist thousands of entrepreneurs, manufacturers, small businesses, family farms and agricultural enterprises.
Money from the government constitutes big news for Vermont's subsistence economy. There was a day when news consisted of major contracts won by Vermont and Springfield businesses that would generate real wealth and provide for decent jobs. What a sham all this government funding is. The bubble grows bigger.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between a grant and a loan, 2:02. This is a loan.
ReplyDeleteA business that makes a 40% return on its outlays can turn an $850,000 loan into $1.2 million in revenues, pay back the loan with interest at $884,000 and come out $316,000 ahead. Now, the only two types of business in Vermont with that rate of return are commercial TV and bottle redemption. The only question here is, what does VEDA see as Vt. M&T's likely rate of return on the loan? My guess is they judged it to be satisfactory.
Money from the government constituted a lot of America's prosperity-- canals, steamboat development, railroads, planes, highways, public education, colleges, TV, radio, telephone, the Internet, the machine tool business, hospitals, fire departments, law enforcement, agriculture...
Did VMT ever pay back the town of springfield for the 'loan' to purchase Bryant? Employment from 19 to 32???? I doubt that. One and done.
ReplyDelete6:18-- the original charge of this thread was that government spending is bad. Your claim is a different field and certainly worth considering on its own merits.
ReplyDeleteQuestions that could use answers are: 1. Was VEDA aware of that before it made its decision? 2. At any point in the process was the public invited to participate? 3. What can the press do to inform the public more fully? 4. How is the proper use of the money tracked and the effectiveness of the loan evaluate?
It would be nice to be informed beforehand, as with the Winstanley biomass project, so that Springfield doesn't prostitute itself in the name of job creation.
VMT has received many loans and/or grants in the past.
ReplyDeleteMoney well spent ???????????????????????????????
Chuck's wearing his government-furnished Polyanna glasses again! Everyone understands the difference between grants and loans from the government Chuck. The point is that Springfield and most of its businesses can't seem to survive without these handouts at preferred rates. And even then, as others have pointed out, they usually default on them with little or no consequence. The era of government building infrastructure was a much different time, but leave it to you to fail to realize that in the days of large highway, hydro, canal, and other such projects, America was generating wealth and growing its economy through manufacturing and exports throughout the globe - and Springfield's shops were contributing to that. Now the shadow of Bryant as it barely exists at Vermont Machine Tool is left to limp along on the government dole.
ReplyDelete1:25, please be specific about your claim that "they usually default on them with little or no consequence." I would like to know more about that.
DeleteWhen a town has almost 30% of its households lacking a livable wage, it stands to reason that most of its businesses might need "handouts" to survive.
It is government's job to build and maintain infrastructure. You turn that over to private enterprise, and Springfield will have a castle and 8,500 peasants-- and no middle class. And are you ready for the 110-year-old water main in your neighborhood to break?
Apples and oranges, Chuck. Apples and oranges. We're discussing dole outs to private enterprise (apples), yet you've chosen to take in beyond that scope (as you usually do) and attempt to sensationalize the matter by inducing the fear of a major infrastructure failure (oranges). Handouts to established private enterprises is NOT the role of government and only encourages them to continue to mismanage their businesses because they realize that there will be little or no accountability or consequence for defaults or failures to comply with the provisions of the dole out. The great thing about America, Chuck, is that the peasants have mobility, such that when the kingdom is decaying they can relocate to better opportunities. They just have to have the will and determination to do so - and avoid the desire to cower in a corner and be coddled by other penniless do-gooders who would have them experience no discomfort in life and thus attempt to misuse/abuse the power of government to redistribute the declining wealth of a town, state, or nation. The latter is a downward spiral from which there is no recovery.
ReplyDelete1:02, good government does indeed invest in established private enterprises-- had FDR's administration not pumped money into manufacturing in 1939-41, it would have delayed our ability to take the initiative in WWII until 1944. If somebody in the commercial paper business has info about VMT, let's hear what they have to say about the deal.
ReplyDeleteYour notion of the mobility of the peasantry is hopelessly romantic. It requires internal and external resources to be able to relocate. Here are twelve factors that have to be dealt with: 1. Perception that one's situation is intolerable. 2. Belief that one can engage in changing. 3. Ability to set criteria to define a better situation. 4. Ability to set goals to meet those criteria. 5. Knowledge of the tools available to do so. 6. Skill to implement those tools. 7. Material support from one's social set to accommodate the effort (e.g., meals,money, couch surfing). 8. Emotional support from same (e.g., not condemning or discouraging; praising and defending). 9. Sufficient willingness to abandon one's society-- spouse, children, friends, lifestyle, etc.-- to achieve better situation. 10. Good health or ability to sustain one's medical needs when separated from one's social base. 11. In the face of absolutely no contacts in the area of the imagined "better situation," the ability to persevere if needed through homelessness, hunger and personal filth. 12. The tolerance of the society into which one moves for just such an individual.
Of course, it's important to have peasants and even more important to keep them that way. Here's a little quote from someone Adam Smith knew and liked: "Poverty is that state and condition in society where the individual has no surplus labour in store, or, in other words, no property or means of subsistence but what is derived from the constant exercise of industry in the various occupations of life. Poverty is therefore a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society, without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of civilization. It is the lot of man. It is the source of wealth, since without poverty, there could be no labour; there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth."