Author: James A. Bacon
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A Conservative Case for Mass Transit
by James A. Bacon A new paper published by the conservative Free Congress Foundation makes the connection between mass transit and the economic vitality of American regions. Author Michael S. Bronzini, with George Mason University, argues that mass transit is needed to support a population shift back to walkable urban communities, which is being driven…
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Dude, Where’re My Cars?
by James A. Bacon In 2008 the Washington Department of Transportation converted 10 miles of HOV lanes in the Seattle metro region to tolled HOT lanes. If the experiment was successful, the state planned to expand the HOT lane concept around the state. After four years of experience, the verdict is in: People aren’t willing…
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Dude! WaPo Columnist Ventures Look at Downstate Road Project!
Robert McCartney, a Washington Post columnist, has done a remarkable thing: He has taken a look at a transportation project outside the Washington region and decided he didn’t like what he saw. Not only is the Charlottesville Bypass ill conceived, it is part of a pattern in which the McDonnell administration “relentlessly pushes a major…
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State Revenue Surges, but Growth Not Sustainable
by James A. Bacon There’s good news on the state budget front. Governor Bob McDonnell announced yesterday that thanks to a spike in May collections, General Fund revenues have grown 6.0% through May, ahead of the 3.6% forecast growth. The fiscal year ends in June. While advising caution, McDonnell said, “At this moment, it does…
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Don’t Look to Uncle Sam for Help
by James A. Bacon One of the reasons I’m so pessimistic about the long-term fiscal health of state and local governments is that they rely so much on federal funding to sustain ongoing operations. The perilous state of affairs is highlighted in a new American Enterprise Institute (AEI) report, “State and Local Spending: Do Tax…
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Food Insecurity: Virginia Must Be Doing Something Right. But What Is It?
by James A. Bacon Question: Why does Virginia have the third lowest rate (tied with Massachusetts) of “food insecurity” among the 50 states? Given the Old Dominion’s low rates of unemployment and poverty and relatively high incomes, one would expect Virginians to be less at risk for going hungry. But look at the map above,…
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The Case Against the Meals Tax
by James A. Bacon Even to those who know him and love him, Sidney Gunst is a wild man. Friends never know what cause he will embrace next and pursue with his trademark (as in, monomaniacal) enthusiasm. Luckily for the taxpayers of Henrico County, he has embarked upon a crusade to block a proposal to…
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Climate Alarmists Admit: They’re Flummoxed
by James A. Bacon Well, well, well, Justin Gillis with the New York Times has acknowledged an inconvenient truth: “The rise in the surface temperature of earth has been markedly slower over the last 15 years than in the 20 years before that. And that lull in warming has occurred even as greenhouse gases have…
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Demand Surges for Transit-Oriented Housing
Speaking of the economics of mass transit (see previous post)… The good news is that residential property prices are surging around mass transit stations. In the clearest of possible signals, the marketplace is telling us that there is strong demand among large swaths of the American population for access to mass transit service. People are…
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How Federal Safety Regs Hurt Passenger Rail
by James A. Bacon There has been increasing interest in passenger rail around the United States in recent years but the high cost of building and operating rail systems has posed a major barrier. One reason rail service is so expensive, writes David Edmondson for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is that Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)…
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Everything’s Big in Texas, Including Spending and Borrowing
Texas has been stomping every other state, including Virginia, when it comes to job creation. Some of that’s due to the oil-and-gas boom, some to a favorable tax and regulatory structure. And some, no doubt, can be attributed to the splurge in state and local borrowing and spending. Writes Steven Malanga for City Journal: While…
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Gearing up for the Smart Car/Road Revolution
by James A. Bacon The automobile industry is undergoing the greatest technological revolution since… well, probably since the invention of the automobile. Cars are getting “smarter,” as in embedded with more powerful sensors and artificial intelligence, and they are getting more connected — with other cars and with roads, which are getting smarter as well.…
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Dude, This Isn’t Chicago
Mayor Dwight Jones has done a creditable job overall running the City of Richmond — far from perfect but above what you’d expect from a locality with a deep-blue electorate. I’ve never had cause on this blog to criticize him. Until now. I do have to say, I’m taken aback by the revelation that he…
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Let’s Jump on the Peer-to-Peer Bandwagon
Vested interests in cities around the country are mobilizing to thwart a new generation of peer-to-peer technologies threatening to disrupt the lodging and transportation industries. I have documented the difficulties of Uber, the e-hailing service (tap on your smart phone app and an Uber limo comes to pick you up), in Washington, D.C., where it…
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Business Taxes Not a Problem State Gov’t Should Try to Solve
by James A. Bacon Both Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli have proposed reducing or eliminating three locally imposed business taxes — the Business Professional Occupation Licensing (BPOL) tax, the Machinery and Tool (M&T) tax and the Merchants Capital (MC) tax. Both sides of the partisan divide agree that Virginia should be able to find a…