Author: James A. Bacon
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Still Waiting for Higher Ed Reform in Virginia
by James A. Bacon Governor Bob McDonnell has let the presidents and boards of Virginia’s public colleges and universities know that he’s not happy with the rising cost of tuition. The just-passed 2012-2014 budget will provide more than $230 million in new funding for the higher ed system. Alluding to mandatory tuition price caps enacted…
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Austerity, Recession and Staving off Boomergeddon
A year and a half ago, I went out on a limb and predicted that the budget austerity plan implemented by the newly elected Conservative Party in the United Kingdom would pay off. While chopping down the size of the budget deficit would act as a Keynesian-style depressant on the economy, I hoped that re-establishing…
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Housing Needs More Freedom, Innovation, Not More Loans
This post is based upon remarks I made in a panel discussion yesterday, a blogger luncheon on Housing & Opportunity hosted by Housing Opportunities Made Equal. — JAB Housing policy is badly flawed, the artifact of the-Post World War II era of boundless geographic expansion of our metropolitan regions. Here in Virginia, we must thoroughly…
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Boomergeddon Watch: Social Security
by James A. Bacon File this under the “Long, Slow Demise of America’s Democratic Welfare State”… The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees have published their 2012 annual report on the financial condition of Social Security and Medicare, and the news just keeps getting worse. The combination of a slowing economy and a payroll…
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Commonwealth Lines up Talent for Infrastructure Deals
An important story that I (and everyone else) missed… The Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships (OTP3) announced earlier this month the selection of its team of consultants to help in negotiations with complex P3 deals. (See the press release.) Developing a bench of outside consultants is critical as the Commonwealth pursues partnerships to build billions…
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Zoning Laws, Housing Segregation and Educational Inequality
by James A. Bacon Following the lead of the book, “Why Nations Fail,” Brookings Institution scholar Jonathan Rothwell classifies national institutions into two categories: “open” institutions that diffuse power and opportunity and “extractive” institutions that concentrate power and limit opportunity. Among the extractive institutions he espies in the United States is zoning. As he writes…
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Virginia Ports Need More than Rail to Handle Cargo Growth
by James A. Bacon In Mid-March the MSC Roma paid a stop at the Port of Virginia. Setting a record for a container ship in Virginia waters, the vessel drew 48 1/2 feet when it departed with export-bound containers. Virginia was the only port on the East Coast with channels deep enough to handle the…
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Where’s the P3 Money Going?
Four days ago Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, issued an analysis contending that the McDonnell administration could find $300 million to support the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project from funds set aside for public private partnerships. That argument is moot now that the state Senate approved the 2013-2014 budget without the…
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Loudoun’s Metro Marriage
This guest column was contributed by David LaRock, a Loudoun County resident and member of the Loudoun Opt Out Group. Spring is here, romance is in the air, and the arranged marriage between Loudoun County and D.C. Metro seems destined to take place. Although the courtship has spanned decades, the moment draws near when Loudoun…
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Quote of the Day: Mark Spitznagel
From “How the Fed Favors the 1%” in the Wall Street Journal. The Fed, having gone on an unprecedented credit expansion spree, has benefited the recipients who were first in line at the trough: banks … and those favored entities and individuals deemed most creditworthy. Flush with capital, these recipients have proceeded to bid up…
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Private Colleges and Educational Opportunity for African-Americans
By James A. Bacon There is a tremendous thirst in Virginia’s African-American population for higher education that is not reflected in minority enrollment at Virginia’s public colleges and universities. Only 13.8% of the students attending public institutions in the fall of 2008 were African-American. But 47.4% of the students enrolled in private, proprietary colleges (often…
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CTB Authorizes $100 Million for Norfolk Toll Relief
by James A. Bacon The Commonwealth Transportation Board has allocated approximately $100 million in transportation funds to cover the cost of delaying tolls on the Midtown-Downtown tunnels for a year and half, but Norfolk-area commuters still will be stuck paying tolls for two or more years before the new tunnels and Martin Luther King Boulevard…
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Richmond’s Creative Class and the Indie Music Scene
Richmond is no one’s idea of a cultural trend setter. I often joke that the last cultural innovation that originated in my fair city and spread beyond its borders was the festival flag (an adornment whose allure has long since peaked and faded). Perhaps I could add the Geico Gecko and Cave Man commercials that…
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Drive Down Dulles Tolls by Restructuring Bond Financing
by James A. Bacon If the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) restructured the way it plans to finance the Rail-to-Dulles project, it could reduce tolls on the Dulles Toll Road by $.90 per driver in the early stages, Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton told the Commonwealth Transportation Board today. “We’ve been going through their finances. We…
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Rail-to-Dulles Controversy Goes Statewide
The debate over Rail-to-Dulles has taken a fascinating new twist. For years the controversy over the heavy rail project and its concomitant financing through Dulles Toll Road revenues has been a purely Northern Virginia issue. It received zero coverage in the Rest of Virginia (RoVa). Ninety-nine percent of downstate residents were ignorant of it, and…