Fairpoint says in the long run, customers will get better service from the telecom if it can pump fees back into its broadband network
Fairpoint Communications customers might get a small sliver cut from their phone bills. It all depends on an upcoming Public Utilities Commission decision about how, exactly, the company can pay some hefty fees. As Bob Sanders reports for TheLobbyNH.com, the PUC recently slapped Fairpoint with $2.8 million in “penalties for inadequate service”:
“The PUC had previously ordered that the company pay off the penalties by 99 cents per month, per line. Consumers wouldn’t see a penny in the first month under that plan – scheduled to start April Fools Day – because of a previous decision to add 99 cents to the bill to make up for the legislative tax on poles.
But Fairpoint said if they do have to pay the penalty, they’d rather do it all up front. However, how much of a rebate that would mean per line and when it will actually happen is up in the air.
Fairpoint contends customers would be better served if it was able to expand its broadband service beyond the 85 percent currently required.”
Sanders writes the PUC agreed Fairpoint “could pay the penalty up front.” But, the commission also said it’d need more info from the telecom before it could make a call on the broadband expansion.
He also notes an argument among Fairpoint’s critics that when a company pumps fees back into its own infrastructure to sharpen its competitive edge it “isn’t a penalty at all.”
Good afternoon! As usual, we’ve got this week’s roundup of our top five posts. This week, they spanned a number of economic themes:
How State Budget Cuts Hit Nursing For Sick Kids: NHPR’s Dan Gorenstein takes us inside the state’s process of evaluating how much Medicaid-funded nursing assistance New Hampshire’s most disabled kids get.
Charting NH’s Incredible Shrinking Government: Over the course of two fiscal years, the state shed more than 4,200 full- and part-time government jobs. We use state numbers to chart the changes and break down key points in the data.
Why Gen Y’s (Slowly) Reconsidering Factory Work: Our slideshow tells the stories of why, after years of hearing about manufacturing’s decline, some students at Nashua Community College decided to put their faith in this resurgent sector.
“Once the contract goes into effect May 4, union officials said they will still earn less than their New England counterparts. The union, an affiliate of the State Employees’ Association, is fairly new and formed after a majority vote last February…
The one-year contract expires June 30, 2013. It covers about 850 full-time employees. Continue Reading →
How much could a Eurozone recession hurt New Hampshire? We look into it after the jump
A good-sized chunk of New Hampshire’s economy depends on its manufacturing sector–especially the fabrication of high-tech products and components. And a lot of that stuff gets exported. Now, with increasing chatter about a possible European recession, we thought it would be a good time to re-post our explanation of how, exactly, Eurozone troubles could affect the state’s economy.
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Recently, Wells Fargo Securities released a short report offering a state-by-state look at the places that could be hardest-hit by a potential European recession. Since New Hampshire has carved out a healthy niche for itself in the high-tech components export market, we thought this report might be of interest to our StateImpact readers.
For its analysis, Wells Fargo looked at each state’s exports to Europe by percent of GDP, and then ranked them on a scale of highest-to-lowest risk. Among the report’s key findings are: Continue Reading →
We dig into why home care workers aren't guaranteed minimum wage, and the implications
Some of our most popular posts have been our look at the Obama Administration’s push to include home care workers under federal minimum wage and overtime. This issue is ripe for more coverage, and we’ll almost certainly be returning to it. But for now, we invite you to get up to speed on the social and economic implications of raising wages–or not–for this class of worker.
Jobs, competition, and NH's economy all play a big part in the Certificate of Need debate
During session, the legislature handles umpteen bills. The ones that grab our attention often focus on hot-button issues, like abortion, guns, and Right To Work. It can be tough to keep up with the ins and outs of more complex public policy bills. One of the ongoing issues we’ve been following is the legislature’s reexamining of the Certificate of Need process for hospitals. Yeah, it doesn’t sound too riveting on the surface. But right now, this is how the state decides if hospitals and specialty clinics (like Cancer Treatment Centers of America) can build here–and potentially bring new jobs with them.
So if you’d like to catch up on the debate, here’s the story so far:
The Fouts are among the New Hampshire families struggling with cuts to Medicaid hours
Over the last year, dozens of families have lost state subsidized nursing support to care for their sick children. Some parents say the reductions have made it hard to juggle work and keep their kids healthy.
New Hampshire hired a private company, Schaller Anderson to manage these cases.
Frustrated parents accuse the company of making decisions based on money, not the health of their children.
There are about 150 families in the state of New Hampshire with children so ill most of them need medical care every day. Many of them can’t walk or talk; some are fed through tubes, some have debilitating seizures. Historically this state has provided nurses to help these families care for their kids. Continue Reading →
Happy Friday! As always, we’d like to celebrate the end of the work week by bringing you up to speed with our most popular posts:
How Apps Are Keeping Ski Areas Honest: A pair of Dartmouth researchers take on tales of ski resorts exaggerating snowfall…and find that apps are helping to curb fibbing.
Gen Y Struggles With Declining Wages: We offer highlights from a Wall Street Journal article noting that over the past decade, college graduates have seen increasing downward pressure on their pay scales.
Why Gen Y’s (Slowly) Reconsidering Factory Work: As part of our series examining New Hampshire’s changing manufacturing economy, we visited the machine shop at Nashua Community College. Younger Americans are better known for their digital savvy than their zeal for manual labor, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of open factory jobs in the US. We talked with NCC machining students about why they’re putting their faith in manufacturing, and gathered their responses in a slideshow.
New Hampshire's no longer failing in transparency ratings...but not by much
New Hampshire has a long history of frugality. And with the current crop of spending hawks in the legislature, that sense of thrift has only intensified.
But you’ll have a hard time if you want to keep tabs on state spending online.
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