Category: Business and Economy
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Which Side Are You On?
by Joe Fitzgerald Dartmouth’s basketball team voted this week to unionize. It’s a shame Harrisonburg’s police officers can’t. The basketball players will join the SEIU, Service Employees International Union, a kind of super union for people who don’t qualify for other unions. SEIU strongly supports health care and a higher minimum wage, making it a…
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EPA Told CVOW Wake Has Air Quality Impacts
By David Wojick In formal comments, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the adverse impact of the giant Virginia offshore wind project on air and water quality. The issue is far-reaching because all big offshore wind facilities could have these adverse effects.
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Killing the Digital Goose for Its Golden Egg
By Steve Haner The last time the General Assembly made a similar mistake with the Virginia tax code was 20 years ago. It was 2004, and the complaints that business was not “paying its fair share” came from Republicans in the House. They introduced and quickly pushed through a bill that stripped sales tax exemptions…
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RVA Meals Tax: Practically Poetic Injustice
by Jon Baliles As noted, two weeks ago City Council approved the change to city code to make sure the city’s Finance Department only applies meals tax payments to the month for which the invoice is submitted. So, no more of the shady practice that had been applying a portion of say, May’s tax payment,…
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Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money
By Chris Braunlich Some years back, I ran into a friend, a Virginia Education Association unit chair, outside the General Assembly building, there to lobby on behalf of a state-wide teacher salary increase.
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Governor May Get Two Different Nuclear Bills
By Steve Haner A Virginia Senate committee voted Monday to approve a House of Delegates bill designed to finance a small modular nuclear reactor in Southwest Virginia, contradicting its own earlier vote for a much broader bill that had statewide application. Two different bills on the same topic might now pass the Virginia Senate. If…
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A Veto-Proof Local Tax Hike Nearly Approved
By Steve Haner A bill likely to produce $1.6 billion or more in local sales tax increases is moving through the General Assembly with enough bipartisan votes to block any veto from the Governor, but differences remain between the House of Delegates and Senate versions.
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Democrats Lose Concerns About Taxing the Poor
By Steve Haner A piece of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s tax package has survived after all, but only the part that increases the sales tax base to collect about $1 billion or so more per year from citizens. Democrats who recently complained that sales tax increases were unfair to the poor are suddenly embracing them. …
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Floyd Judge Ponders Order to Return RGGI Tax
By Steve Haner A circuit court judge in Floyd County may soon order Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and to reimpose the related carbon tax on Virginia’s electricity consumers. Judge Kenneth “Mike” Fleenor Jr. ruled earlier this month that a suit seeking reinstatement of RGGI could continue and held a hearing on…
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Four Major Progressive Goals Still Advancing
By Steve Haner The aggressive progressive agenda working its way through the 2024 Virginia General Assembly has lost some steam at the halfway point, but at least four of the major Democratic goals discussed earlier are still advancing. The two bills which will have the greatest impact on the Virginia economy are the proposed minimum…
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If Assembly Wants SMR Bill, Then Fix It
By Steve Haner This is progress. Only twenty members of the Virginia Senate voted Tuesday to ignore a key tenet of utility ratemaking and put utility stockholders and profits ahead of consumer protection. Usually when the utilities persuade the General Assembly to do that to Virginia consumers, they get a bigger vote margin than 20-16.*…
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Analog Tax Policy is Harmful in a Digital World
By Chris Braunlich To many, testifying before a government committee conjures visions of the drama surrounding the McCarthy, Watergate, or Zuckerberg hearings. In Virginia, not so much. Faced with processing more than 2,600 bills in 60 days, the legislature conducts hearings that are often more of a kabuki dance, while backstage choreographers figure out the…
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The Case for an RVA Meals Tax Amnesty
by Jon Baliles Today we are posting a special edition featuring an email from former restaurateur Brad Hemp that he recently sent to City Council about the meals tax fiasco you have probably heard about as a result of seven years of neglect at City Hall. The Mayor raised the meals tax in 2018 to…
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Will Dominion Fool Us Again with SMR Cost Bill?
By Steve Haner Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. A utility-backed bill to stick electricity ratepayers with the high-risk costs of developing small (modular) nuclear reactors, approved by a Senate committee Friday, is a “fool me twice” example. Shame on the General Assembly if it falls for it.
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Rare SCC Deadlock Sinks Dominion’s Energy Plan
By Steve Haner The year long debate over Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed integrated resource plan, which threw climate catastrophe activists into a frenzy because it added a new natural gas plant, is ending with no decision. Two State Corporation Commission judges split on whether to approve it, basically a win for the anti-fossil fuel forces.…