Author: Steve Haner
-
Medicaid Fraud Unit Grows With Program
It would be interesting to know which is growing faster, the Medicaid program itself or the state-run legal and investigative team charged with rooting out and prosecuting the fraud, waste and abuse that appear on pools of dollars like algae on a still pond. My guess is the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), now around…
-
Public Meetings And Private Texts Don’t Mix
As a registered lobbyist I am prohibited from walking onto or sitting on the floor of either chamber of Virginia’s legislature while in session, and can get no closer than the desk at the front door or the benches in gallery. If I wish to speak to a member during session the custom is to…
-
Rolls-Royce Revs Its Engine (Factory)
The Rolls-Royce Crosspointe facility outside Petersburg is growing, demonstrating once again that economic development projects are hard to predict but can reward patience. A story posted at the Times-Dispatch reports another batch of new jobs may bring the total close to 400 this year. When it was announced in 2007, the first plant built from…
-
State Budget Bacon Bits: Reserves and R&D
And now for the some other interesting elements of Virginia’s new $117 billion two-year state budget, because Medicaid expansion sucked all the wind out of the room (understandably.) The House Appropriations Committee added this summary presentation yesterday while the Senate members were filling up their Facebook and Twitter accounts with Riveting Speeches before delivering votes…
-
Make The Next Round A Double
Virginia leaders like to get up on their soapboxes and worry that Virginia is too dependent on defense spending and promise elaborate strategies to diversify the economy. Be grateful in some places the focus remains on building more combat ships at Newport News Shipbuilding, keeping its 20,000 plus employees and thousands of suppliers and contractors…
-
Their Money is Bad and Our Money is Righteous
During the 2018 session I received a curious meeting invitation, hush-hush, from somebody who indicated a possible alliance in the struggle against the pending utility legislation. We had to meet away from the Pocahontas Building to avoid observers. My curiosity led me to take the meeting, and it turned out to be about the Clean…
-
Most States Use Provider Tax for Medicaid
The pending proposed amendments to the stalled state budget bill, which almost broke the log jam earlier this week, did indeed include not one but two new provider assessments/fees/taxes (you pick the term) on Virginia private hospitals. When both chambers return next week with their “this time we’ll really do something” promises on the line,…
-
Will Ghosts Haunt The Senate Today?
If you listen very, very carefully you can hear it: A double whirring sound. It is the sound of the late state Senators Ed Willey and Hunter Andrews spinning in their graves. Four decades ago as Finance Committee chairs they were responsible for establishing the independent authority of the Senate in the state budget process,…
-
Behavior Has Changed But Within Limits
There are plenty of complaints these days that the legislative process is unduly influenced by money, but when the spotlight shines or a major scandal erupts, behavior can change. For example, Virginia legislators simply do not want to report that they have received gifts or attended lobbyist dinners, on public records which are available to…
-
Medicaid Can Cost Taxpayers Less than ACA Plans
One of the interesting tidbits gleaned from a presentation last week on the Medicaid expansion debate was that with expansion perhaps 60,000 Virginians now enrolled in Affordable Care Act Public Exchange plans will qualify for and switch over to Medicaid. People who have low-enough incomes to qualify for Medicaid are also eligible for subsidies for…
-
Grant Process Tightens at VEDP
Tomorrow Governor Ralph Northam travels to the coalfields for what is billed as a major economic development announcement, and steps have been taken so that four years from now he won’t cringe when shown the old photos. For the past year the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) has been doing additional due diligence on companies…
-
Wait, A Second Hospital Tax?
For years a Virginia business policy group, the Thomas Jefferson Institute, has been pushing a Virginia tax reform proposal that would impose the sales and use tax on services. The sales and use tax covers tangible goods, not (with a few exceptions) services. Looking at the group’s 2015 report on the idea, imposing the sales…
-
Wonk Corner: Briefing on Medicaid Expansion
You have to read the footnotes: The state estimates that should Virginia approve an expansion of Medicaid to an additional 300,000 low income persons, about 60,000 people now covered by individual ACA plans will revert to Medicaid. That snippet is buried in a presentation made yesterday to the Senate Finance Committee by its staff, which…
-
Revenue Surge May Be Fake News
May 1 is the deadline for Virginia personal income tax returns, but more than 700 very high income Virginia taxpayers skipped the deadline. As long as they have paid enough tax to cover their liability, they can wait as late as November 1 to file an actual return. That is one the facts stressed by…
-
Oh, Not Him. He’s A Lobbyist!
“Will Republicans Put a Health Insurance Industry Lobbyist on the Powerful Virginia State Corporation Commission?” screams the headline on the website which to me epitomizes the intellectual depth of that particular political party. It is responding of course to news that Richmond attorney and lobbyist David Clarke is now considered the most likely choice by…