Author: Steve Haner
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I Miss The GOP That Welcomed Bob Calhoun
Former State Senator Bob Calhoun’s death on August 6 at age 83 is apparently only Alexandria local news so far, but he was such a colorful and useful member of the Senate that his passing needs more notice. The family is delaying any formal memorial services. Calhoun was funny, one very smart lawyer and an…
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We Underpaid Dominion in 2019? Not Really.
By Steve Haner You will be shocked to learn that we customers of Dominion Energy Virginia did not pay it enough money in 2019. The shareholders did not get the profit margin they were due, the utility reported to the State Corporation Commission, which subsequently reported it to us on August 18. We’ve entered the…
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Northam Asks Legislators: Resist Urge to Spend
By Steve Haner Perhaps the most important point about Governor Ralph Northam’s latest Virginia state budget proposal is what he did not recommend. He did not recommend dipping into the state’s current cash reserves to restore spending items which had been frozen. No additional taxes are proposed. In fact, Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne told…
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Shhh. COVID Deaths Drop. Keep It Quiet.
Isn’t this always the way? Just as the Virginia General Assembly arrives in Richmond to save us from COVID-19, Virginia’s number are getting way better.The 7-day average for deaths in the Northern Virginia region tracked by the Virginia Department of Health is zero. Zero. It has recorded zero deaths in August so far. The statewide…
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Meters Keep Spinning On Unpaid Utility Bills
By Steve Haner During the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginians piled up $184 million or more in unpaid bills with several Virginia utilities, and that was before the worst of the heat arrived in July. The figure comes from a short letter from the State Corporation Commission to General Assembly leaders dated…
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August 14: VJ Day Celebrated In Honolulu
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named… There is one more major World War II milestone to note, and this short video does that well. In recent weeks, as the anniversaries of the nuclear bombs passed, we were subjected to the usual 20-20 hindsight…
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COVID Workers Comp On House Democrat Bill List
By Steve Haner The coming Special Session of the General Assembly will be narrowly focused but filled with controversy, based on the legislative wish list just released by House of Delegates Democrats. Only two bills listed fall outside of the major categories of “COVID-19 Relief” or “Criminal Justice and Police Reform.” Under the heading “COVID…
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How To Lessen the November 3 Polling Train Wreck
By Steve Haner If the state and the major political parties do not spend substantial time educating voters about how voting rules have changed, and what has not changed, the lines and delays on November 3 will be incredible. This voter education must start now. The Northam Administration is not known for effective communication, sadly.…
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Taxaginia Reappears As Special Session Looms
By Steve Haner It must be a reflex. Waken or startle a Democrat and they shout, “raise taxes!” Our friends at the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis came out Monday with a new list of (mostly old) tax proposals for the August 18 General Assembly special session. It drew the attention of Virginia’s Public Radio…
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How Discount Power For Poor Will Raise Your Bill
By Steve Haner Virginia’s two major electric utilities estimate that as many as 150,000 of their poorest residential customers will see their monthly bills reduced next year using money extracted from all their other customers on their own power bills. Appalachian Power Company projects about 30,000 of its low income customers will receive subsidies of…
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Limit On Emergency Powers is First Bill
Aaaaaaand, they’re off. The first five bills have been filed for consideration by the August 18 Special Session, all introduced by Senate Republicans. As the list of proposals fills in rapidly, you can track it here. First on the list, surprising no one, is a bill from Senator Steve Newman of the Lynchburg region limiting…
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VEC: 1.5 Million Unemployment Claims In 2020
By Steve Haner By the end of this amazing year, almost 1.5 million Virginians may have filed claims for unemployment insurance payments, leaving the state’s once-record unemployment trust fund balance of $1.5 billion reduced to $750 million in the red, legislators were told this morning. That $2.25 billion swing is due to $2.6 billion spent…
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How Employers Must Prevent COVID, Or Else
By Steve Haner The first thing every employer in Virginia needs to understand about the state’s new COVID-19 temporary workplace standard (here) is it is universal. It applies to every workplace, public and private, for-profit and non-profit, with 10,000 workers or two. The rules are the same, “one size fits all,” without regard to the…
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Ocean Pathfinder Maury Swamped by Culture Wave
Today we get the attempted cancellation of Matthew Fontaine Maury, one of the world’s greatest oceanographers. Having had his memory preserved on Richmond’s Monument Avenue, and having served the Confederate States Navy, any scientific contributions he made before or after the war are hereby nullified, despite worldwide acclaim. The crane is at his statue as…
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Housing Grants Just a COVID Relief Rounding Error
By Steve Haner Will $50 million be enough? Will that get all the Virginians who have fallen behind due to COVID-19 square on their rent or mortgage payments? Or is that amount, in a relief program now fleshed out by the Northam Administration, merely a start? There is a hint on the program’s web page,…