Category: General Assembly
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Businesses Taxed For Somebody Else’s Layoffs?
by Steve Haner So many Virginia employers faltered or failed during 2020, the remaining companies may be charged a special tax of $95 on each of their own employees in 2022. It will cover the unemployment benefits paid to workers somebody else laid off, the highest so called “pool tax” ever imposed, more than double…
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Virginia Local Ability-to-Pay Calculation and State Contributions to Public Schools — Some Surprises
by James C. Sherlock Some things are very important that the average citizen knows little to nothing about. For example, a complex state computation, the Composite Index of Local Ability to Pay, determines how much state money per student goes to your school district to maintain an overall state ratio of 55% state and 45%…
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Clean Virginia Dissed Again, Dem Takes Dom Cash
by Steve Haner Prince William Democrat Hala Ayala, who had pledged not to accept campaign contributions from Dominion Energy Virginia and took money instead from its opponents, has now accepted $100,000 from the regulated monopoly. Heads are exploding. The anti-Dominion activist group Clean Virginia had given her $25,000 in her bid for the Democratic nomination…
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Democrats Fight Back as Boss Bills Cracks Whip
by Steve Haner Two Virginia Democrats who have been loyal soldiers in the army to turn Virginia green as well as blue are under attack in the June 8 primary for the sin of accepting campaign donations from Dominion Energy. It doesn’t matter to the attacker – our old friend Clean Virginia — that Dominion…
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Protect Taxpaying Virginians From Coming Inflation
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. One of big financial winners with the May 1 Virginia minimum wage increase is the state itself, because the entire raise is subject to a 5% state income tax. With its low standard deduction and personal exemption amounts, Virginia squeezes…
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State Tax Harvest Under Northam Expands Again
by Steve Haner With the release today of the April 2021 Virginia state revenue report, a correction in an earlier post becomes necessary. Overall general fund state tax collections are not up 26% so far compared to four years ago, they are up almost 30 percent. Corporate income tax collections are not up 68%, but…
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Seven GOP House Primaries on June 8
by Steve Haner Virginia Republicans in seven of the 100 House of Delegate districts still have House nominees to pick in the June 8 primary. The focus on last Saturday’s unassembled convention for statewide candidates has overshadowed these races. They will also be overshadowed by the Democratic nomination contests on the same date. But some…
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TCI Debate Rages in Comments on Proposed Rule
by Steve Haner The political wannabes in both parties and the state’s media are continuing to ignore it, but the argument over the proposed motor fuel carbon tax called the Transportation and Climate Initiative rages in comments on the proposal flowing into its advocates. The Thomas Jefferson Institute has also launched a short video (above),…
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Virginia Needs a Constitutional Amendment to Elect the Board of Education
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) is by far the most powerful and consequential public board in Virginia. It is the only one whose Powers and Duties are defined in the Virginia Constitution. It was a mistake not to make the members of the Board with such vast and unconstrained powers…
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Virginia’s Updated “Regulations Governing Educational Services for Gifted Students” Has Temporarily Disappeared
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes you just need to go to the documents to see what the Virginia Department of Education is up to. This example will tell you everything you want to know. Each agency proposing a new or revised regulation is required by Virginia law to post a “Proposed Agency Background Document” on…
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Fall Elections Threaten Northam’s Radical Education Team
by James C. Sherlock Politics is a contact sport, and the two people in the Northam administration most likely to be blindsided are Secretary of Education Atif Qarni and Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane. I say blindsided — they won’t see it coming — because the hits will come from their own team. This…
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Virginia Taxes New Firms Higher, NC the Opposite
by Steve Haner Virginia is far more tax friendly to established businesses than it is to new ones. That’s one major conclusion of a major state-by-state business tax comparison released today (here) by the Tax Foundation and KPMG LLC. In neighboring North Carolina, on the other hand, the tax structure encourages new investment with…
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End the Emergency Orders. Now. Every One.
by Steve Haner There is no more COVID emergency. Every single emergency order issued by Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam should be lifted immediately. Not relaxed or revised, ended. For the millions of Virginians now vaccinated, this is all just virtue signaling, “pandemic theater.” For the millions of Virginians who have made conscious decisions not to…
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More Positive Notes on General Assembly Members
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I appreciate Jim Sherlock providing a positive view of two members of the General Assembly. He is right that we often dwell on the negative aspects or members of the legislature and neglect the good ones. In that vein, I am offering a supplementary list of legislators who are conscientious and smart…