Author: Steve Haner
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Virginia Mercury At One: Kicking GOP Butt
Success and quality demand recognition, so congratulations to the folks at Virginia Mercury for one year of e-publication. It represents the future of journalism, which is nothing short of tragic. Not that a deep progressive bent (or conservative for that matter) has been unknown in journalism. Most of the great early publications had political backers,…
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VRS Hybrid Plan Drawing Even Fewer Contributions
The percentage of state employees making voluntary contributions to their own retirement pot, contributions which are matched with free money, has continued its rapid decline over the past year. As of March 2019, fewer than half of state employees who should be investing in their own retirement are doing so, according to a Virginia Retirement…
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Yes, Mental Illness is Key, Says U.S. Secret Service
The United States Secret Service, probably not a tool of the gun-loving American right, has just issued a report on 2018 mass shootings with a strong focus on the mental health problems displayed by the shooters. Clearly it didn’t get the same memo received by our friends at Blue Virginia, who think any such discussion…
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Virginia Tax On Racinos Among Lowest in U.S.
If Virginia is going to sell its soul, we should at least get the market price. The Virginia Racing Commission is starting to publish monthly reports on the cash flow to Colonial Downs and to the government under the new state-granted monopoly to operate gambling dens. Any relationship to horse racing in these establishments is…
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Pollution Control Tax Break Not An Incentive
Not every tax policy decision should be made or measured on whether it stimulates more economic activity and thus more taxable revenue for the government. There are things the government should not tax. Yet, returning once again to the well-thumbed June report on manufacturing incentives produced by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, that…
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You Want Solar? Swear Fealty to the Monopoly
The push to create retail electricity choice about to start in Virginia is already fully underway in Florida, with the dominant utility there first proposing and then abandoning a stunning opposition tactic. It wanted to offer an attractive solar option only to customers loyal to its monopoly. The recent Miami Herald story (here), accompanied by…
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Firearms Theater: Boring, Tiresome, Repetitive
It is easy to dismiss next week’s special session of the General Assembly on proposed gun control as meaningless political theater, because that it what it will likely amount to. It is also boring, tiresome and repetitive. Following the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech, a group of well-intended and well-informed experts formed a non-partisan task…
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Make This Check To: Southwest Virginia
Here is what I had to say in today’s The Roanoke Times about Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed pumped storage facility in Tazewell County, addressed to the people so excited about the revenue it will generate. This posting is for the people here in the other part of Virginia who pay the bills for the utility.…
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The (GOP) Chaos and Dysfunction Must End
For years my daily routine during the General Assembly included time in Delegate Riley Ingram’s office, in fact pretty much as long as the Hopewell Republican was there. I’d worked on several of his campaigns. Trust me, he left the best stories out of his hilarious farewell floor speech. In 2018 I was present when…
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Dominion’s IRP Approved, With High Costs Detailed
The State Corporation Commission today approved Dominion Energy Virginia’s Integrated Resource Plan, laying out possible investment combinations to keep the power flowing in its territory over the next fifteen years. It also laid out the costs, in excess of $18 billion of investments plus interest plus profit margin to be paid by future customers. The…
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Federal Tax Conformity Flooding State With Cash
What will you do with your $110? Thanks to the conformity revenue flood, it’s coming. Checks are expected to arrive in October for most Virginia taxpayers, the most important piece of campaign mail they’ll get before November’s election. The $110 extra refund, $220 for a married couple, is the General Assembly’s response to the huge…
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Dominion Seeks To Add Carbon Tax In Fuel Factor
Dominion Energy Virginia is taking advantage of its annual, and usually boring, fuel cost review to move the cost of any future carbon tax or emissions allowances out of its fixed base rates and into its variable fuel charge. If the State Corporation Commission agrees it could either lower or raise your bill someday but…
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Comrades: Check Out Virginia’s Planned Economy!
There are portions of the recent state audit report on economic incentives that would warm the hearts of retired Soviet planned economy apparatchiks, sitting around their dachas dreaming of the good old days. Case in point: The analysis concluding Virginia’s use of a single sales factor method to tax manufacturers is “moderately effective.”
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JLARC: Semiconductor Grants Have Not Succeeded
The recent report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission on economic incentives related to manufacturing (here) goes far beyond a discussion of data centers, and if the General Assembly accepts it as gospel some of the existing incentives might be in jeopardy. Two programs aimed at environmental goals should be eliminated, the staff…
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Fix the General Assembly, Then Tackle Energy Bill
It has been over a month since a coalition of unnatural allies announced a proposal to revise Virginia’s electricity regulation system – again – but the idea dropped from view fairly quickly. One of the main and most visible proponents, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has now taken on a very different role in…