Author: James A. Bacon
-
Legislative Updates: Minimum Wage
by Hans Bader On January 28, a subcommittee in Virginia’s House of Delegates apparently voted 5-to-3 to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15, and to eliminate some longstanding exemptions to the minimum wage. The vote was along party lines. The House’s bill is harsher on employers than the companion bill in the state Senate.…
-
The Mixed Implications of Slowing Population Growth
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s annual population growth has slowed to the lowest rate since the 1920s, according to the University of Virginia’s Demographics Research Group. In the past decade, the 2010s, the population growth fell by almost half — from a 1.3% rate to a 0.7% rate in the 2000s. There is no evidence,…
-
Reminder: Virginia Medical Insurance Premiums 5th Highest in Country
As lawmakers ponder some 50 bills this General Assembly session with the potential to affect healthcare costs (see previous post, “Rocket Fuel for Healthcare Costs“), hopefully they will bear in mind that Virginia’s insurance costs, as measured by average premiums and deductibles, are the 5th highest among the 50 states. The data above, from Business…
-
Rocket Fuel for Health Care Costs
James C. Sherlock Elections have consequences. Democrats won fairly at the ballot box the right to pass anything they wish. I simply request that they consider the costs of legislation to their constituents, to business balance sheets, and to jobs before submitting health insurance-related bills. Virginians who get their health insurance both at work –…
-
Senate Committee Votes to Raise Minimum Wage
by Hans Bader The Virginia Senate’s Commerce and Labor Committee has voted to raise Virginia’s minimum wage. As NPR notes, “business groups maintain that Virginia will lose jobs — and its business-friendly reputation” — as a result. The Virginia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business estimates that the increase would slash 130,000 jobs in Virginia over 10 years.…
-
Virginia: Still More People Leaving than Coming
by James A. Bacon The net out-migration of Virginian taxpayers continued in 2018, extending a six-year trend and contributing to the slowest rate of population growth in Virginia since the 1920s when African-Americans were fleeing the state’s oppressive Jim Crow laws. If there’s a silver lining to the data published by the University of Virginia…
-
UR in Uproar over Racist Graffiti
by James A. Bacon The University of Richmond is in a state of shock after three alleged acts of racially motivated vandalism. The dormitory door of an African American student was defaced last week by the N-word. Additionally, two students of Middle Eastern descent were targeted with slurs. UR President Ronald Crutcher described the incidents…
-
The Political Economy of Healthcare: a New Coalition Forms
A new healthcare coalition has appeared on the scene in Virginia that claims to represent the interests of “thousands of Virginians with chronic diseases, small business owners, and older adults” to protect patients with pre-existing conditions and to “strengthen” the health insurance marketplace. The Healthy Market VA Coalition is endorsing SB 404, which would limit…
-
At Least He’s Asking the Right Questions….
by James A. Bacon With Democrats controlling the Governor’s mansion, the Attorney General’s office, the state Senate, and the House of Delegates, what’s a Republican to do, asks Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania. Republicans constitute a minority caucus of 19 senators and 45 delegates, but they are hardly powerless, Reeves says in a Fredericksburg.com op-ed. Today’s Virginia Democrats,…
-
Chart of the Day: I-95 Congestion Bottlenecks
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is getting more sophisticated in how it analyzes and presents data. The chart above comes from a VDOT study looking at average northbound speeds on Interstate 95 to determine where to focus traffic-relief efforts, according to Inside NoVa. The department will develop a similar study for the Interstate 64…
-
Governance Nightmare: Integrating Hospitals and HMOs
by James C. Sherlock Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, has introduced a terrific piece of legislation, HB 1731. The bill tackles for the first time an increasing threat to competition, cost, availability, consumer choice and quality of health care in Virginia — the vertically integrated carrier. The combination of hospitals and insurance carriers has captured the…
-
Guns for Teen Killers?
by Hans Bader Virginia’s legislature may make it easier for people who killed or raped as teens to later possess or transport a gun. Ironically, this is being proposed at the same time that the legislature is restricting gun possession by law-abiding adults. Legislation sponsored by senior Democratic legislators would raise the age for trying many juveniles as adults from 14…
-
Progressivism as a Cause of Racial Inequity in Schools
by James A. Bacon Chris Stewart has long dedicated himself to community activism and racial equity in public schools. He has served on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education and, as a nonprofit CEO, he has championed grassroots movements to spur innovation in family and education policy. Somewhere along the line, it dawned upon…
-
No Basis for Governor’s Community College Claim
by James A. Bacon Last month Governor Ralph Northam announced a plan to spend $145 million to make community college tuition-free for low- and middle-income students pursuing jobs in high-demand fields. As justification for this massive entitlement expansion, he cited numbers from Reynolds Community College showing that students who dropped out before completing their degrees…
-
Payoff Time for Construction Unions
by James A. Bacon Among economic special interest groups in Virginia, organized labor is consistently one of the top contributors to political campaigns. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, Big Labor has contributed $46 million to candidates since 1996-97, almost all of it to Democrats. The construction unions, which are the biggest donors of…