Author: James A. Bacon
-
Map of the Day: Impact of Conservation Easements
Luke Juday is using his mapping tools over at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Policy to project what Virginia’s population distribution could look like 25 years from now and 50 years from now. You can see those maps here. We’ve re-published many of his maps here at Bacon’s Rebellion, so you may find them…
-
Trickle-Down Economics Revealed
by James A. Bacon A generation ago, liberals mocked the so-called “trickle-down economics” of the Reagan administration, the idea that creating wealth for the rich would trickle down to the less affluent by way of expanded economic activity. While Reagan himself never used that term, his economic philosophy of tax cuts, tax-code reform and restrained…
-
Who Is Being Intransigent Now?
by James A. Bacon Let me get this straight. Virginia Democrats in the General Assembly are saying that they will not pass a state budget until they get Medicaid expansion? “We won’t vote for a budget — and I can’t be emphatic enough — we will not vote for a budget, nor will the governor…
-
How to Create Healthier Communities without Breaking a Sweat
by James A. Bacon American society is buckling under the strain of health care costs. The debate, as I have often opined, is stuck on the question of who pays those costs rather than how we can bring costs down. Improving Americans’ health is not a job we can should relegate to Congress and the General…
-
Study Boosts Case for Columbia Pike Streetcar
by James A. Bacon Investing $284 million in a streetcar system along Columbia Pike would generate between $3.2 billion and $4.4 billion in net tax revenue for Arlington and Fairfax Counties, over and above capital and operating costs, over 30 years, according to a new analysis by HR&A Advisors prepared for Arlington County. The street car system…
-
Getting the Healthcare We Deserve
Here’s the good news on the transparency of health care prices in Virginia: The Old Dominion is one of the five top-rated states in the country rated by the “Report Card on State Transparency Laws” for its laws and regulations. Here’s the bad news: We rated a C. We look good only because 45 other…
-
65 Is the New 25
by James A. Bacon As Baby Boomers reach their retirement years, the Age Wave is washing over the country. The big push among the G.I. Generation and the Silent Generation was to head south, settling in Florida and Arizona. But Boomers have other ideas. They are more inclined to age in place. And if they…
-
Sarles Makes Pitch for Metro Subsidies
by James A. Bacon Last Wednesday Richard Sarles, chief executive officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), appeared in Richmond to brief the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) on the transit authority’s plans to meet the transportation needs of the fast-growing Washington region, including Northern Virginia, through 2025. Sarles did not provide a specific…
-
Someone Has to Worry about Tomorrow
Mercedies Harris, speaking to the Times-Dispatch, came as close as anyone to summing up what Virginia’s Medicaid debate is all about: “The system is crazy. They have got to stop worrying about what is going to happen tomorrow and deal with the people who need help today.” The 53-year-old veteran and Waynesboro resident suffers from…
-
How the Buy-America Mandate Hurts U.S. Transit
by James A. Bacon Why do bus lines so consistently lose money? One reason is that transit companies, out of concern for the poor, keep fares too low. Another is that politics dictate that money-losing bus routes stay open. A third reason is that federal regulations effectively require transit companies to purchase American-manufactured buses that…
-
Virginia’s Behind-the-Scenes Transportation Planning Revolution
by James A. Bacon The McAuliffe administration is generating big headlines by re-thinking mega-projects like the Charlottesville Bypass and the U.S. 460 Connector favored by the previous administration. Those projects came to the fore because federal regulatory authorities made it clear they had major problems with them, leaving Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne scrambling to keep…
-
Picking up the Pieces of the U.S. 460 Fiasco
by James A. Bacon Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne said today he suspended work on the U.S. 460 Connector project because he didn’t want to run the risk of paying the contractor millions of dollars for work on a project that might be radically revised. The state of Virginia has spent $300 million already on the proposed…
-
VDOT Seeks New Solution to Charlottesville Congestion
by James A. Bacon Effectively pulling the plug on the proposed Charlottesville Bypass, the McAuliffe administration has set up an advisory panel to recommend improvements to the U.S. 29 corridor north of Charlottesville. Lead by former Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Philip Shucet, the group must submit recommendations by May 14 — less than two…
-
Busy Day at the CTB
Many meaty stories from the Commonwealth Transportation Board meeting today. It will take me a long time to do them all justice, so, for the moment, I will settle for whetting your appetite with the highlights. The Charlottesville Bypass is dead. It may not be buried — a few ritual oblations remains — but it…
-
If Not for Government, Who Would Build the Roads?
A couple of blog posts over on Smart Growth for Conservatives shed light on some of the controversies raging within the comments section of Bacon’s Rebellion… Emily Washington asks in “Urbanism without Government,” if not for the government, who would build the roads? She points to the example of Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia, built around…