Category: Business and Economy
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Court Blocks Pennsylvania from Joining RGGI
by Steve Haner A state court in Pennsylvania has ruled that the regulatory decision to enroll that state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) exceeded the authority of state regulators. It ruled RGGI is a tax that could only be lawfully imposed by the legislature. It was the Republican majority in one of the…
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Dominion’s Wind Project Wins Federal Approval
The Biden Administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued final approval for the construction of Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Here is the release. A few more steps remain and should be completed by late January, according to BOEM. The announcement, fully expected since all previous U.S. projects have been…
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Will the Left Repudiate this Evil?
(This column was published earlier today by The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy) by Chris Braunlich “You dance with the one who brung ya” goes one of the oldest sayings in politics. It means that when elected officials get into public office, they vote with those who helped put them there. The deadly Hamas…
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Resorts Like Airports
by Jon Baliles There has been a lot of boasting from the casino advocates about their partnership with Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI). The rebranded Richmond Grand casino developer Urban One is a radio and TV conglomerate that has said they are partnering with CDI because of their huge capitalization and experience with casinos. But…
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How Pass Through Tax Rules Raid the U.S. Treasury
By Steve Haner When the General Assembly was briefed on the state’s financial status last week, the $412 million in unexpected revenue growth was dismissed as potentially misleading because of some new quirk in Virginia tax law called the Pass Through Entity Tax or PTET. PTET keeps coming up in these discussions. Approval of the…
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The Impact of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need Laws on Nursing Home and Home Health Care Availability and Expenditures
by James C. Sherlock I have come across a major study in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine that made a point that I have not explored sufficiently to this point. It discusses the intersection of nursing homes, home health care, CON laws like Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law, and…
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Miyares Moves to Support Israel
from The Republican Standard In the wake of the attack on Israel carried out by terrorist organization Hamas last week, Attorney General Jason Miyares is calling upon Virginia law enforcement agencies to help Israelis fight for their lives in a new way. Fox News obtained copies of a letter distributed to over 100 sheriffs’ offices…
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NY Ratepayers Better Protected Than Virginia’s
By Steve Haner The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) last week told several offshore wind developers it would not approve changes in their state contracts, putting several planned ocean turbine projects into jeopardy. The story is important for its contrast to how Virginia faces the same future.
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Local Government Unions Raise Your Taxes
By Chris Braunlich Subscribers to Netflix will soon see rate increases because of the Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA Hollywood strikes. Buyers of new and used cars will, as a result of the United Auto Workers strike, see prices go up as supply dwindles and costs rise. The current spate of labor actions – involving more than…
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Why are the Poor Still Paying for Dominion Wind?
by Steve Haner Virginia’s new electricity bill subsidy program for customers of Dominion Energy Virginia has cleared its final hurdle at the State Corporation Commission and will begin enrolling participants in time for this coming winter. It is largely following the schedule previously outlined. In a final order issued October 13, the Commission set the…
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Deep Dive: Casinos, Highways, and Ignoring RVA Voters
by Jon Baliles Republished with permission from RVA 5×5. They say the past is prologue and that if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it, among other famous quotes that have stood the test of time. And they have a factor of truth and lesson in them. And so is the…
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Another Race Institute at UVa
by James C. Sherlock Fund it and they will come. The Daily Progress reports that thanks to a $4.9 million gift from an anonymous philanthropist, a new “Institute” has been launched at UVa’s School of Law. The new organization, the Education Rights Institute, plans to “find ways to improve K-12 education and help educators address…
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Virginians Sail Towards Gaza
by James C. Sherlock The U.S. Navy has sailed towards the sounds of battle for more than 200 years. This time it is responding to the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, already in the Mediterranean Sea as part of…
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Stop All Aid to Palestinians and Other Terrorists. Every Bit of It
by Kerry Dougherty On Saturday morning Hamas terrorists unleashed Hell on innocent Israelis. As Israel’s ambassador to the US pointed out, given the population of Israel 600 dead Israelis is the equivalent of 20,000 dead Americans. This was Israel’s 9-11. Their Pearl Harbor. Some say it was the most deadly day in history for the…
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Eternal Betting
by Jon Baliles Two weeks ago, you probably heard the news about the vote promise scam from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the casino advocates that they would put 2/3 of the annual casino tax revenue towards early childcare for kids in Southside. This week, you might have heard about the press conference that the…