Year: 2012
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A Wild and Crazy Idea: Base State Transit Funding on Performance, Not Spending
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transit (DRPT) dishes out roughly $190 million a year in financial support to some 24 transit operations around the state, and that doesn’t include $50 million that goes to the Washington Metro system. Mark Aesch, CEO of the TransPro consulting firm, thinks that money can…
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Smart Cars Are Coming…. And They Will Need Smart Roads.
by James A. Bacon Computer-operated vehicles are coming, and they offer the potential to create dramatically safer, less congested roads, asserts Clifford Winston, a Brookings Institution scholar writing in the Wall Street Journal today. “The driverless car represents one of the most amazing breakthroughs in safety and quality of life in recent history.” The greatest…
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Expand Medicaid? Sure… If You Think Uncle Sam Can Keep His Financial Commitments
by James A. Bacon It looks like Virginia will get its first serious debate about Medicaid in decades. In its recent ruling on Obamacare, the Supreme Court made it optional for the states to participate in the law’s massive Medicaid expansion. After an initial phase-in period covered by the federal government, in which coverage will…
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Hey, It’s Worth a Look
The McDonnell administration has discovered $5.4 billion in “surplus” bond proceeds to help pay for Dulles Rail. Unfortunately, that’s all there is to pay for Dulles Toll Road improvements over the next four decades.
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Another Cry for Virginia Tax Reform
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s revenue problems run much deeper than the Great Recession, argues the Commonwealth Institute in a new report, “Frozen in Time: Virginia’s Revenue System Can’t Pull Its Weight.” Chronic revenue shortfalls are the fault of the Old Dominion’s antiquated tax structure. Virginia has grappled with budget shortfalls in 10 of the…
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The Dangerous Online Education Craze
By Peter Galuszka Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell sure seems to love lobbyists. When it came time select someone to be co-chairman of a “summit” on education in August, he chose James W. Dyke Jr., a former state secretary of education who is now a registered lobbyist for the big-time online, for-profit companies as The…
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Dulles Rail and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises
by James A. Bacon The Dulles Rail project plods inexorably forward. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has issued a Request for Qualifications Information (RFQI) to solicit qualifications statements from potential bidders on the 11.5-mile rail line. Companies who submit applications will be narrowed down to a short list of five firms. The contract will be…
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Record Heat Wave? Not in Virginia.
The U.S. State Climate Extremes Committee established by the National Climatic Data Center has updated and refined its national database of climate extremes. Now anyone can conduct a Web search to find the dates of extreme climate records in their home state. The chart above shows the numbers for Virginia. Notice how the hot-weather extremes…
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The Desperate Need for Financial Regulation
By Peter Galuszka Regulation is the perpetual bug-a-boo among Baconauts, Boomergeddons and Blowhards of many ilk. Drop back to 2008 when our economy nearly crashed and the banking system all but collapsed. These folk will blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for giving out home mortgages to unqualified “under class” types. They conveniently forget that…
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Clogging Corridors
Is the McDonnell administration serious about protecting state highways from encroaching development? A dispute over a rural stoplight on U.S. 29 may tell the story.
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Richmond’s Buses To Nowhere
By Peter Galuszka Inner city issues seem to be a trend this week on the blog so here are a few more points about the so-called “under-class” as some define lower income, under privileged people. The locus is Richmond, the state capital that despite its pretensions is actually a working class town with plenty of…
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Are Virginia Schools Too Easy on Students?
The popular media portrays the nation’s teenagers as buckled under by homework. Are middle and high school students being asked to work too hard? One way to find out is to ask the students themselves. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) does that every two years, and the Center for American Progress (note to…
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A Charlottesville Bypass Alternative: the New 29
Foes of the Charlottesville Bypass have produced a video detailing six spot improvements that would not only speed travel for drivers passing through town but for the thousands of drivers who use the road for local trips. “The bypass only offers minimal time savings to drivers passing through the area, and it offers even fewer…
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Infographic of the Day: Working Class Communities
In the mid-20th century, the “working class” — workers engaged in manufacturing, construction, transportation and maintenance — comprised half the nation’s workforce. Today, the number is down to one fifth. Of the country’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Elkhard-Goshen, Indiana, has the highest percentage working-class population, 46.0%. The highest in Virginia is Harrisonburg, ranked 17th in the…
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Food Deserts, a Problem of Supply or Demand?
by James A. Bacon Why do people get obese? One widely circulated explanation is that many Virginians, poor people especially, live in “food deserts” — places where they do not have access to grocery stores that provide fresh, healthy food. Deprived of choice, these unfortunates get their food wherever they can, such as fast food…