Category: General Assembly
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The “Occasional” Butchery of Children
By James C. Sherlock The New York Post wrote recently: At 12 years old, Chloe Cole decided she was transgender. At 13, she was put on puberty blockers and prescribed testosterone. At 15, she underwent a double mastectomy. Less than a year later, she realized she’d made a mistake. Note the gracious acceptance of agency…
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A Senseless Fight
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Sometimes I shake my head in dismay at the Democrats in the General Assembly. They sometimes seem so eager to score points against Governor Youngkin that they end up shooting themselves in the foot. Current case in point is Budget Amendment No. 9 sent down by the Governor. Rather than summarize it,…
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Update: Richmond Could Still Close Gas Works
by Steve Haner The Senate of Virginia, after long avoiding a vote, has now approved a bill that would require a Virginia local government to try to sell its municipal natural gas utility before simply closing it. The watered down conference report was all that remained of a more robust bill protecting the natural gas…
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Sen. McClellan Charges Racism as Va. Health Commissioner works to Improve Health of Black Mothers and Babies
By James C. Sherlock The left will not be swayed from invoking racism in every situation, everywhere. They deploy that charge especially disgracefully when conservatives attempt to help poor people be healthier, better educated, safer and more successful. Because those actually are not the objectives of the left. They simply don’t care about such things.…
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Only Part of the Gas Tax Would Be Suspended
by Steve Haner The gas tax in Virginia today is 33.8 cents per gallon and the diesel tax is 34.7 cents per gallon. The fresh proposal from Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) for a 90-day suspension of those taxes does not eliminate Virginia’s full fuel tax bite. The oft-ignored wholesale tax will remain while only the…
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The Continuing Transformation of Virginia Politics
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Toscano, David. Bellwether: Virginia’s Political Transformation, 2006-2020. Lanham: Hamilton Books, 2022 In this book, David Toscano, whose prior work was Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives (2021), turns his focus on Virginia. The author is a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2006-2020) from…
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You Just Paid More RGGI Tax, Virginians
by Steve Haner Last week Virginia collected another $76 million in carbon tax dollars through the ongoing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative allowance auction. That was the sixth such sale since Virginia joined RGGI, and the state’s total tax take is now $378 million in 18 months. Do not for one minute allow yourself to be…
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The Inner Circle Shrinks
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In recent years, 13 or 14 Virginia delegates and senators have held extraordinary power and have been the envy of their colleagues. (The total number and the size of the delegation from each house varied over the years.) They were the conferees on the budget bill and they had the power to…
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School Choice Tax Credits Reduced in New Budget
by Steve Haner The famous phrase about no one’s life, liberty or property being safe while the legislature sits probably arose after somebody got burned by an out-of-control conference committee. It just happened again to Virginia’s private schools, who had a popular scholarship tax credit program chopped Wednesday. The Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit (EISTC)…
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Youngkin Signs Bill to Limit His Own Power
by Kerry Dougherty I was at dinner earlier this week with a cousin from out-of-state. We passed a pleasant night without talking politics, but he did want to know what I liked about Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Where to start? I pointed out that the new governor of Virginia is serious about getting the commonwealth’s public…
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Sales Tax On Groceries With Us Through Christmas
by Steve Haner Everybody eats. With all the money sloshing around the Virginia treasury for the General Assembly to play with, it is hard to see the logic in continuing the state sales tax on groceries an additional six months, delaying that particular tax cut until January 1. The inflation on everything at the grocery…
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Home Price Volatility and Virginia Property Taxes
by James C. Sherlock Housing prices have more than doubled since 2012, reflecting shortages of supply and the resulting speculation. The increasing slope of those curves above is not comforting. Prices have soared over 20% in a year. Mortgage rates are up. What could possibly happen next? Most can figure that out. But this article is…
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Progress: Standard Deduction Up 166% since 2018
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Do not be surprised if, by the time the next Virginia General Assembly elections roll around, the Democrats who are now complaining about the level of tax relief in the pending budget compromise switch positions, and campaign as champions of the…
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Who Needs the General Assembly? Let the Budget Conferees Do It.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Although legislating through the budget, a practice that used to be frowned upon, is not new, this year’s budget conferees are taking the practice to a new dimension. The amendments released by the budget conferees include the following new provisions in the “General Provisions” section. In most cases, the Code of Virginia…
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A Gun Owner’s Suggestion for Virginia Gun Laws
By James C. Sherlock I was a career military man. I am a conservative and a gun owner. As a younger man, I won competitive awards for marksmanship with both rifle and pistol. I own a semi-automatic Glock for home protection. I train regularly and at almost 77 can still hit what I aim at.…