Category: Business and Economy
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Politicians Back Interest-Heavy Fuel Debt Payoff
By Steve Haner Several Virginia legislators have encouraged the State Corporation Commission to allow Dominion Energy Virginia to convert a $1.3 billion unpaid fuel debt into a ten-year revenue stream for the utility, adding up to $370 million in additional costs onto its customers. The SCC will open a hearing Tuesday on the utility’s pending…
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Schools Shouldn’t Open Before Labor Day
by Kerry Dougherty Better sit down, youngsters. Did you know you’ll only get OUT of school two days earlier than last year? Yep, your last day of classes is June 14, 2024. Last June you finished up on June 16th. Joke’s on you. Oh, and the teachers who pushed for the new schedule believing they’d…
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Democrats Cannot Hide From Vote to Ban Gas Cars
By Steve Haner Yes, Virginia, the Democrats are coming for your gasoline and diesel powered cars. The only way to decouple Virginia from the California Air Resources Board’s relentless drive toward electric vehicles only on new car lots is to change the political landscape in Richmond and reverse a 2021 bill. A Republican candidate for…
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The Enduring Value of Arlington’s Endangered Monument to Reconciliation
by Donald Smith Jim Webb, former U.S. Senator from Virginia, former Navy Secretary, and certified badass (Navy Cross, Silver Star and two Purple Hearts from his service as a Marine officer in Vietnam) grabbed quite a bit of attention last week. On August 18 he called for the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery to be…
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Which Virginia Taxes Have Grown and How Much
By Steve Haner What a difference just four years has made in Virginia’s financial condition, with the state’s General Fund tax revenue having increased 31% during the period and its Commonwealth Transportation Fund revenue increasing by almost 36%. This is comparing the annual results for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2023, just released, and…
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Deja Vu, All Over Again
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Today’s Washington Post has an article about efforts to preserve farmland in Loudoun County. That headline instantly took me back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when there was a flurry of activity regarding the need to preserve farmland and provide landowners incentives to keep their farmland from being developed. Loudoun…
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Virginia’s Schools Really Do Need More Money
by Suzanne Munson Recent General Assembly debates about state budgets open a cornucopia of questions about the future of education in Virginia — charter schools, lab schools, vouchers, funding for religious schools? Now might be a good time to examine some background about public education in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson proposed the state’s first legislation in…
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Dominion Plan to Maintain Gas Attacked at SCC
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The front line in the war against fossil fuels in Virginia has now shifted back to the State Corporation Commission, and as usual only one side has fielded an army and brought heavy weapons to the battlefield. Those who might…
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Cruise Subsidy More Important Than Tax Relief?
The Richmond Times-Dispatch has obtained and released the most recent negotiating offer from Democrats in the Senate as the standoff between the two political parties over the state budget continues. It is contained in an on-line article that doesn’t appear to have made it into the print edition yet.
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Virginia’s New “The Stupid Party”
by Chris Braunlich From the ‘50s to the mid-‘70s, the Republican Party was known as “the stupid party” – locked in the past, making foolish decisions, promoting unwise and counterproductive policies. Today, in Virginia, “the stupid party” has returned. But it is no longer Republican. The current battle over Virginia’s budget and the prospects for…
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Impressions from a Weekend in Charlottesville
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes, things just force their way into your consciousness. My wife and I were in Charlottesville this weekend. We were not there to visit the University, but its continuing construction overwhelms both the senses and attempts to get from A to B. Most of the growth is vertical — very vertical —…
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Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need Program – A New Sheriff in Town
by James C. Sherlock Everywhere counterproductive to competition, innovation and cost, Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) program also has proven antithetical to quality and safety in nursing homes. A thorough 2022 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on improving nursing home quality had this to say about state Certificate of…
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NJ Democrats Tacking Away from Wind Power
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia is one of only two states that hold their major legislative elections this odd-numbered year, with the other being New Jersey. In New Jersey, the state’s offshore wind aspirations have become a major political issue, with even Democrats now…
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Dominion “Bill Relief” Disappears September 1
By Steve Haner Homeowners willing to cut back power usage when Dominion Energy Virginia asks them could earn rebates of up to $28 a year. So reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch, citing yet another final order from the State Corporation Commission. The Richmond paper is always bringing us such great news about the folks at the…
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Why Dominion Stays Calm in Wind Industry Storm
By Steve Haner First published by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. There is some overlap with a post from last week by another author, but with a slightly different focus. With growing turmoil in the offshore wind industry finally being reported, it would be nice to turn the clock back a year and revisit…