Author: James A. Bacon
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Express Lanes! Express Lanes! Get Yer Express Lanes While They’re Still Cheap!
The 495 Expressways on Northern Virginia’s capital beltway generated an average of nearly 18,600 daily trips and $828,000 total revenue in December 2012, reports concessionaire Transurban. That’s a drop in the bucket for the $2 billion project, which opened November, but the private-sector operator anticipated a long, slow ramp-up. As congestion increased, demand for the…
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Washington Studies a VMT Tax. Where Is Virginia?
While Governor Bob McDonnell proposes to scrap the gasoline tax on the grounds that drivers are shifting to more fuel-efficient vehicles and alternate fuels, the state of Washington is heading in a very different direction — instituting a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax. According to the Associated Press, a committee of transportation experts recently concluded…
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Murders, Accidents and Public Health
by James A. Bacon The United States spends more money per capita on health care than any other nation yet Americans have a shorter life expectancy than citizens in 16 countries with advanced economies. The conventional wisdom blames the fragmented and dysfunctional American health care system. A new National Research Council and Institute of Medicine…
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Utt Says What’s What on Transportation Plan
Ron Utt, recently retired transportation scholar with the Heritage Foundation, has elucidated his concerns about Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan. In an op-ed published in the Bearing Drift blog, he makes some salient points: There is much that is wrong with this plan; chief among them is the end of the fuel tax – which…
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Aargh! Argh! and Argh!
It’s long been a dream of mine that national conservative publications would one day take notice of Bacon’s Rebellion and my brilliant application of fiscal-conservative and free-market thinking to state and local issues. At long last, I have been noticed. The irony is that Jim Geraghty, author of National Review‘s Morning Jolt, has pegged me…
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Thinking Outside the School Yard
by James A. Bacon Step aside Bob McDonnell, you and your tax-hiking, burden-shifting transportation-funding package. Make way for Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, who has introduced what may prove to be the most audacious piece of legislation of the 2013 General Assembly session — a bill to create a state virtual school organized as a free-standing statewide…
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McDonnell Throws Virginia Transportation Policy into Reverse
by James A. Bacon Governor Bob McDonnell has submitted his proposal for overhauling the state’s antiquated transportation funding sources. Unfortunately, he has moved in precisely the wrong direction — rather than tightening the nexus between how much Virginians drive and how much they pay into the system, he would totally sever it. According to a…
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Medicaid Madness
State bean counters have revised their estimates for what it would cost to expand the state Medicaid program under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The good news is that Virginia actually would save money, thanks to federal reimbursements and other provisions in Obamacare, through 2019. And when it does start costing the state,…
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Retaking Roads from Cars
Speaking of bicycles… Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, has introduced SB736, which would forbid drivers and passengers to open car doors on the side adjacent to moving traffic “until is is reasonably safe to do so.” Violators would be fined by up to $100. On his Ox Road South blog, Peterson defends the bill as a…
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Beware Drug Peddlers on Pedals
by James A. Bacon It is hard for me to imagine, but not everybody is thrilled about the idea of having a bicycle trail run near their home. D. Gareth Embrose Jr., of eastern Henrico County, says he would rather have a road cut through his property than the Virginia Capital Trail bicycle trail. At…
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Ripping off the Scab of SOQ Wealth Transfers
Hey, as the General Assembly readies itself for the 2013 session, let’s rip off an old scab and talk about state support of school funding and the inter-regional transfer of wealth! The topic seems particularly appropriate, now that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission has issued a new report to the governor and General…
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Factoids of the Day: Virginia’s Prison Population
If you encounter an Asian walking down a dark alleyway in Virginia, you probably don’t have anything to fear. If you bump into an Hispanic in a dark alleyway, you still don’t have much to fear. Both racial/ethnic groups are significantly less likely to wind up in Virginia prisons than other groups, according to the…
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The 2013 Session’s First Sure-Fire Media Circus: The Boneta Bill
by James A. Bacon In August 2012, Martha Boneta held a birthday party for eight girls on her Fauquier County farm. After an ensuing altercation with local authorities over permissable land uses on her property, including the hosting of events and the sale of farm products and home crafts, she filed suit against the county.…
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Creek by Creek, Fish by Fish, the Bay Is Slowly Recovering
Despite a growing population in its watershed, the Chesapeake Bay continued its long, slow recovery in 2012, reports the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CFB). It may be another four decades before we can say that we “saved” the Bay, but we’re moving in the right direction. Five of 12 key indicators improved last year while only…
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Another Hint that Virginia is Losing Its Mojo
Virginia has never been one of the fast-growth states, but it has long experienced steady domestic in-migration from other states. Bolstered by a relatively strong economic performance, we have consistently grown faster than the national average. Moderate growth is beneficial in many ways — it stimulates the economy without overloading the fiscal ability of state…