Category: General Assembly
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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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Yes, Virginia Democrats Really Do Want Abortion Up to 40 Weeks (and Beyond)
by Shaun Kenney This November in Ohio, a referendum measure will be on the ballot that will not only enshrine abortion as a state constitutional right — the measure will eliminate parental notification and parental consent on any and all decisions about sexuality and gender in language so broad that it encompasses not just abortion…
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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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All Hat, No Cattle
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In Texas, the phrase, “all hat, no cattle” refers to someone who is all talk with little substance. Governor Glenn Youngkin is in the running for one of those hats. The latest “Team Youngkin” fund-raising scare e-mail deals with fentanyl. It starts off by recounting the number of fatal overdoses in Virginia…
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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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Virginia’s Balance Sheet is Embarrassingly Strong
By Steve Haner “Our balance sheet couldn’t be stronger…this is our moment to soar.” So said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Wednesday. Every year, our governors come to the legislature to report on the end of the fiscal year financial result, and often they say something like that. They always prefer to bring a happy message over one…
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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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Leftist Media Canonizes Another Killer
by Kerry Dougherty Ronald Albert Barnes. That was the name of the Southampton County Correctional Center guard who died in March of 1975 after being beaten and stomped by two inmates, including convicted rapist Tony Lewis. If you read Sunday’s Virginian-Pilot, maybe you were moved by the front-page valentine to “Tony The Tiger,” as he…
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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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Fear and Loathing in Loudoun
by Ian Prior For several years, parents in Loudoun County, Virginia have been clamoring for accountability, transparency, higher standards, and safety in their schools. They haven’t been getting it, and that’s why new leadership is needed. The brunt of the parents’ grievances has been largely directed toward the Loudoun County School Board, which has been…
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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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Washington Post Gotcha’s Another GOP Candidate
by Victoria Snitsar Churchill Despite The Washington Post‘s attempts to paint him as an anti-woman radical, Republican nominee for the House of Delegates 21st District John Stirrup of Prince William County makes a compelling case for his District to elect him to the open seat this November. According to The Washington Post, “Stirrup told a…
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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…