Author: James A. Bacon
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County Speak with Forked Tongue
by James A. Bacon To justify a proposed 4% meals tax, Henrico County officials have repeatedly invoked the fact that county government has cut $115 million from its budget (set at $785 million this fiscal year), and it just can’t cut no more. The county’s meals-tax advocacy website, Henrico County Meals Tax, frames the issue…
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Growing Skepticism of Proposed Henrico Meals Tax
Speaking of the Henrico meals tax… WTVR ran this piece asking whether Henrico County’s meals tax website was breaking the state law against spending state dollars on advocacy promotion. I’ll forgive the TV station for failing to credit Bacon’s Rebellion for raising this issue — I’m just happy the matter is getting some attention. Clearly,…
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What the Henrico Meals Tax Website Doesn’t Tell You
I wrote this op-ed for the Times-Dispatch, which published it this morning. JAB As an 11-year resident, I long deemed Henrico County a well-run locality. It has the lowest property tax rate among Virginia’s largest counties yet maintains an AAA bond rating. Its employees are helpful and courteous, and its schools are reasonably well regarded.…
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Prairie Populism Meets Boomergeddon
Over on the Strong Towns blog, Andrew Burleson describes the reaction that he and his compatriots get when they tour the country preaching their Minnesota brand of Boomergeddon, to wit: that human settlement patterns in many cities and towns are fiscally unsustainable; local elected officials need to re-think everything about growth and development; and communities…
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A Logical Approach to Reforming Parking Policy
by James A. Bacon The United States has hundreds of millions more parking spaces than it needs. As a result of this excessive supply, mandated by local government regulations across the country, acreage worth billions of dollars is tied up in unproductive land use. So-called “free” parking really isn’t free. It drives up the cost…
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Bill Maher Plays to the Liberal Id
Bill Maher brought his stage act to Richmond last night. Unrestrained by whatever programming standards are left at HBO, which airs his “Real Time with Bill Maher” talk show, he let loose with a hour-and-a-half, profanity-laced tirade against Republicans, conservatives and all forms of religion, leavened by a handful of jokes about Anthony Wiener, wimpy…
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Charlottesvillians Pay Premium for Walkable Urbanism
by James A. Bacon Residential real estate assessments in the City of Charlottesville increased far more rapidly during the 2000s-era real estate bubble than assessments in next-door Albemarle County, and then held up better during the housing bust that followed, according to research conducted by Jeff Werner, Albemarle County land use officer for the Piedmont…
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UVa Stops Shafting the Middle Class
The University of Virginia Board of Visitors voted earlier this week to restructure AccessUVa, its student aid program. This fall students from the poorest families will have to take out loans as part of their financial-aid packages just like other students. The University still will continue its “needs blind” admissions policy, which meets 100% of…
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What Happens in Detroit, Does Not Stay in Detroit
Detroit seems a long way from the Old Dominion, and its bankruptcy woes seem largely irrelevant to a state and its local governments which, whatever else their flaws, have among the strongest bond ratings in the country. But it would be a mistake for Virginians to ignore events in the Wolverine State. It looks like…
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Va Colleges a Bargain. Is that Enough to Save Them?
I know this undercuts my narrative of outrage regarding continual tuition hikes at Virginia’s public universities, but I try to present all the relevant facts. And the fact is, Virginia institutions score well for the educational “bang for the buck” they deliver. The Princeton Review has issued its “2013 Best Value Colleges,” and the University…
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Low Truck Volume on Rt. 234? Really?
by James A. Bacon Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton returned yesterday to his old stomping grounds in Prince William County to make the case to the Board of Supervisors, a body he once chaired, to back the Bi-County Parkway. The board took no action but, Connaughton certainly got a first-hand taste of the controversy the project…
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IG of the Day: English as Second Language
Data geeks should have fun with a new interactive map published by the U.S. Census Bureau, which maps the distribution of speakers of 15 non-English languages across the United States. The data comes from the latest American Community Survey data. No surprise that Spanish is the top non-English language spoken in Virginia. That’s followed by…
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IG of the Day: Virginia Colleges More Unaffordable than Ever
The plundering of the middle class continues unabated. The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) has tallied the numbers and found that in-state undergraduates at Virginia’s public colleges and universities will see a 5.1% average increase in tuition and fees this fall. That exceeds last year’s 4.5% rise, despite an additional $25 million…
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Tawana Brawley Surfaces… in Hopewell, of All Places
An oddity in the news: Tawana Brawley, the 15-year-old black girl who rocketed to momentary fame in 1987 for making racially charged accusations of rape, has surfaced in the public eye. And she’s living the Richmond area! Brawley had been laying low, living in Hopewell and working as a nurse at The Laurels of Bon…
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Where Teachers Make Money Like Rock Stars
If America treated its teachers like rock stars, the theory goes, we’d get better, more motivated teachers. And better teachers would lead to superior academic performance. Well, there is one country in the world where teachers have the potential to make money for nothing, even if they don’t get, in the immortal words of Dire…