Category: Efficiency in Government
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In Failure, the GOP Has an Opportunity to Reinvent Itself
by James A. Bacon So, the Republicans have wrapped up their annual “Advance” — a retreat at the Omni Homestead resort in Bath County. And if reports of the two newspapers that covered the event are to be believed — one from the Washington Post and one from the Roanoke Times — GOP leaders have…
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Bad News at Richmond’s City Hall
Back in 2015, the City of Richmond was a managerial mess. Accusations flew of incompetence, conflicts of interest and revolving chair style management. One big problem was the deeply flawed installation of a financial computer system crucial to keeping the municipality functioning. Then-Mayor Dwight Jones’s solution was to hire a ringer, Selena Cuffee-Glenn, who had…
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Constitutional Officers–The Solutions
As I indicated in an earlier post, I will propose some alternatives to the elected constitutional officer system currently in place in Virginia. Commenters to that post have already suggested the same solutions I will set out, with the exception of one office. Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue—abolished, with each city and county authorized…
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Constitutional Officers–The Problem
Our recent discussion of the primary elections and an incidental comment by Steve Haner were the catalysts to get me to develop a posting that I had been mulling over for awhile. The system of elected administrative officers established in the Virginia Constitution for local governments needs to be abolished. These officers, called constitutional officers…
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Your State Government in Action: Fire Programs Edition
An audit of three public safety agencies — the Virginia State Police, the Department of Emergency Management, and the Department of Fire Programs — has revealed numerous shortcomings in internal control systems, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Today was not a good day for public safety [agencies],” acknowledged Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne, who attended the…
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Kamras Feeds a False Narrative
In a Sunday op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond city school Superintendent Jason Kamras opined on “institutional racism” in Virginia schools. In building his case for the existence of such injustice, he cited the supposed disparity in funding, writing: According to the National Center on Education Statistics, Virginia’s highest poverty school divisions — which serve large…
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Whatever happened to Terry McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive venture?
Seems like yesterday. In late 2012 Terry McAuliffe was the only Democrat running for Virginia governor in the upcoming 2013 election. One of his central campaign themes was that he was an entrepreneur who would bring jobs to Virginia. He was also an investor and recently resigned Chairman of a venture called GreenTech, a would…
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A Model Transfer Program That Should Be Copied
Under prodding from the General Assembly that goes back years, Virginia’s four-year institutions are finally developing an easier path from community college to a bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately for students, it is spreading slowly. Unfortunately for anybody obstructing the process, there is one place where the full potential is being realized and proving the concept. The…
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The Va. Political Class in Action: Tidewater Edition
From the Daily Press: Federal prosecutors say they have evidence of congressional candidate Shaun Brown, a Democrat running as an independent, of “lying to an investor and falsifying campaign finance information to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).” Brown currently faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and causing false records, wire fraud, theft of government…
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Uh, Oh, New Richmond School Has Unusable Gymnasium
The most politically contentious issue in the City of Richmond these days is what to do about the public school system’s shamefully decrepit school buildings, some of which, if they were privately owned tenement houses, would provide grounds for throwing the book at the landlord. Mayor Levar Stoney has proposed hiking the meal’s tax by…
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Petersburg Now Has a Plan. Does It Have the Will?
The Robert Bobb Group, a consulting firm hired to straighten out the city of Petersburg’s finances, has outlined a five-year plan to keep the city on the fiscal straight and narrow. Among the 15 recommendations is creation of a Financial Advisory Board tasked to make monthly reports on the budget and ensure that financial policies…
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How to Dismantle the Poverty-Industrial Complex
Richmond’s new mayor is young, energetic and bursting with ideas. At 36 years old, the James Madison University-educated Levar Stoney represents a new generation of African-American political leadership. He has one foot in the minority community and one in the creative class. His top priority to date has been to restore competence to a city administration…
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Study Expects More Productivity from Higher Ed
A new report by the National Commission on Financing 21st Century Education, an initiative of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, contains some pleasant surprises. I was expecting the worst: a call for mo’ money from the federal government, state government, and probably the private sector, too. You know the logic: There’s no problem in higher…
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A Public Sector Success Story
When Richmond-area jurisdictions decided to collaborate in purchasing a region-wide radio communications system for police, fire and rescue, the project was estimated to cost about $165 million — with a chance of overruns. The final price tag: $114.7 million. Henrico County led the procurement effort, leveraging “group pricing” with other jurisdictions to negotiate a lower…
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Medicaid, the Blob that Ate the Budget
Details on that runaway Medicaid budget… Spending per Medicaid enrollee has been relatively flat the past five years, having increased less than 0.4% annually (adjusted for inflation) between FY 2011 and FY 2015. The cost driver has been enrollment, which increased 16.5% over the same period, according to a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission…