Category: Business and Economy
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Youngkin Expounds on His Expansive Economic-Development Vision
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s economy has grown at a sluggish 0.9% compounded annual rate of growth over the past eight years, says Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, and he wants to get it “really cranked up” to a normalized rate of 2.5%. To accomplish that goal, he tells Virginia Business magazine, he proposes to do three…
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Old Guys Rule
by James A. Bacon Rather than compile a list of young business executives on the move, Virginia Business magazine earlier this year profiled “Eight Over 80” — old guys still active in business or in the community. The list, which the magazine is highlighting in its end-of-year recap of top stories, included such successful entrepreneurs…
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Another Brick in the Wall Around Sentaraland
by James C. Sherlock Which one of these doesn’t match? Story in Virginia Business Dec. 20: EVMS, ODU and Sentara sign health center agreement. Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University and Sentara Healthcare entered into a memorandum of understanding Friday to work toward a collaborative academic health center…. That’s right. EVMS and ODU are…
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Bacon Bits: Hampton Roads Edition
Wind power to the rescue? Hampton Roads, Virginia’s second-largest population center, is the anchor dragging down Virginia’s economic growth. Could that be about to change? The region has pinned its economic-development hopes upon leveraging Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion offshore wind farm to become a manufacturing and supply- chain center for the burgeoning East Coast wind…
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Not a Lost Decade, Perhaps, But a Lagging Decade
Old Dominion University’s “2021 State of the Commonwealth Report” provides an unwelcome, but necessary, reminder that Virginia’s economy has been lagging since 2010. While the U.S. gross domestic product grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 1.6% between 2010 and 2020 (hardly a robust performance), Virginia’s economy grew at a mere 0.7% rate. Of…
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Virginia Migration Trends
by James A. Bacon Over the decade between 2010 and 2020, Virginia lost more than 80,000 inhabitants through domestic out-migration (a figure that captures the number of people moving across state lines within the United States). But it more than offset that loss through an international in-migration of roughly 300,000, according to data published in…
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BBB Demise Is Also Labor-Rules Reprieve
by F. Vincent Vernuccio Yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV, gave an early Christmas present to Senators Mark Warner, D-VA, and Tim Kaine, D-VA, by declaring he would not support the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB). Virginia small businesses, job creators, and workers were wary of what the U.S. House passed in BBB, specifically…
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We Have Your Files. To Get Them Back, Send Money
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Tried to get into the Legislative Information System lately? If you did, you were likely greeted by the following message: We’re experiencing a service outage with some of our servers. The Budget Portal, Law Portal, Reports to the General Assembly, and some other data may not be accessible. Our team is currently…
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Now EMT Workers Are in Short Supply
by James A. Bacon Bedford County, an 800-square-mile county in Central Virginia, is theoretically staffed to operate six medic units. Based on call volume, the county could justify maintaining eight units, reports the News & Advance. But on most days one or two of the six are out of service because of insufficient staff to…
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Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035. The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders…
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A Sociological Mystery: Why Are Black Women Dropping Out of the Workforce?
by James A. Bacon Ever-alert to unexplained sociological phenomena, Bacon’s Rebellion has taken note of a just-published Brookings Institution article based on the November 2021 jobs report. Unemployment is declining for most major demographic groups — Whites, Asians and Hispanics, both men and women, and even for Black men. But the unemployment rate increased in November…
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Inflation Disruption Watch: Property Tax Assessments
by James A. Bacon Inflation may be a national, even global, phenomenon, but many of its ramifications play out locally. When housing prices rise, so do real estate tax assessments and tax burdens. Inflation creates tensions in the labor market as workers demand pay raises to offset lost purchasing power. Higher wages push employees into…
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Workplace Heat Rule Given Cold Shoulder
by Steve Haner First published this morning by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s Safety and Health Codes Board on Friday voted down a proposed workplace heat protection standard, strongly opposed by the state’s business community but ardently sought by organized labor and farmworker advocates. The Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) was seeking…
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Welcome to Loudoun – Just Avoid Route 7
by James C. Sherlock Saw this headline in the Washington Business Journal. “Toll Brothers pushes big residential plans in Ashburn — and a tribute to enslaved people who once lived there.” Behind the headline: This is to be a development of 1,300 residences in a project named Mercer Crossing. Since it is being built by…
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A Curious Coincidence Regarding Those Price-Gouging Actions
by James A. Bacon Earlier this week, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced a successful enforcement action against a gas station under the state’s price-gouging statute. Richmond-based 7HC Inc., doing business as 7 Heaven BP in eastern Henrico County, will be required to refund $2,858 to 152 customers for jacking up the price per gallon…