Category: Government Finance
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Ready for Taxes on Netflix, NFL Sunday Ticket?
By Steve Haner After a month of unproductive political theater, Virginia’s leaders will finally sit down like adults and negotiate the budget. Better late than never. The message is “everything is back on the table,” which leaves the door wide open for the tax increase central to the Democrat’s demands. That deserves a quick no. At…
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Diamonds Aren’t Forever
by Jon Baliles The entire saga of the development of the Diamond District project in Richmond has come full circle in the last 18 months, as Mayor Levar Stoney, desperate for an economic development win after the failure of his Navy Hill boondoggle and two failed casino referendums, has rounded the bases trying to get…
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Will Democrats Shut Down State Over Tax Hike?
By Steve Haner The fight that is about to occur at the Assembly’s reconvened session on Wednesday is entirely about taxes, not about spending. An analysis of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposed compromise budget – done by the Democrats’ favorite financial bean counters, not by conservatives – confirms his budget comes extremely close to the spending…
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Fairfax Spends More, Teaches Less
by Arthur Purves (Editor’s note: Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, addressed the Fairfax County School Board on Feb. 13, 2024. His remarks, with updated numbers, are posted below.) At church I get to ask students and parents around Vienna about our schools. The feedback is positive, and we appreciate your dedicated teachers…
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Jefferson Institute’s Hit List Bills Mostly Gone
By Derrick Max Monday was not just the near total solar eclipse in Virginia, but also the deadline for Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to act on the budget and the remaining bills on his desk. As our Steve Haner wrote, in “Governor’s Budget Compromise Eclipses Fears of Stalemate,” we are generally positive about the approximately…
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Compromise Budget Can Eclipse Stalemate
By Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is offering a compromise on the disputed state budget that gives Virginia’s Democratic legislators most of the spending they were initially demanding, especially for local schools and early childhood education. The Governor is also offering a quick path to a resolution that avoids additional months of budget stalemate…
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Time for a Fairfax County Salary Freeze
by Arthur Purves Local government compensation is better than private sector. On April 30 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote on next year’s (FY2025) tax increase. The supervisors have advertised a 7% increase in real estate and car taxes to help pay for $360 million in raises for 38,000 school and county employees.…
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Call the Governor a Spoiled Brat? That’ll Work!
By Steve Haner A senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee just called the Governor of Virginia a spoiled brat, which of course became a headline. Is everybody getting the nonsense out of their systems? It is time for the grown-ups to intervene or we will be stuck in a stupid loop until July. The…
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Complex Digital Sales Tax Worthy of Veto
By Steve Haner Pick any member of the General Assembly at random, stop them in the grocery store for a chat, and quiz them about the digital sales tax they approved a week ago Saturday. It will quickly become clear that most had no idea what they were voting for when they approved it.
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Jefferson Institute Lists Bills Youngkin Should Veto
By Derrick Max We have reached sine die of the 2024 General Assembly legislative session. During this session, over a thousand individual bills and a nearly 500-page biennial budget were sent to the Governor. All of this must be reviewed and acted upon by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) before the April 17 reconvened session. There may be hundreds…
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Governor’s Budget Transformed
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In my almost 50 years of working around, and following, the General Assembly, I do not think I have ever seen the legislature take apart a governor’s budget bill to the extent that this General Assembly just demolished Gov. Youngkin’s budget. The change that had the most impact was the jettisoning of…
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Added Pay Won’t Make Teachers Want to Stay in Bad Teaching Environments
by Nancy Almasi Abby Zwerner, the Newport News teacher shot by a 6-year-old student a year ago, doubts she will ever return to teaching. In addition to her lingering injuries and psychological trauma, Zwerner is suing the Newport News School District for ignoring multiple warnings that the student had a gun and was prone to violence. The…
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Killing the Digital Goose for Its Golden Egg
By Steve Haner The last time the General Assembly made a similar mistake with the Virginia tax code was 20 years ago. It was 2004, and the complaints that business was not “paying its fair share” came from Republicans in the House. They introduced and quickly pushed through a bill that stripped sales tax exemptions…
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Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money
By Chris Braunlich Some years back, I ran into a friend, a Virginia Education Association unit chair, outside the General Assembly building, there to lobby on behalf of a state-wide teacher salary increase.
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The Camel in the Tent
In 2022, the General Assembly disregarded two long-standing principles of funding transportation projects in the Commonwealth. Republican Gov. Youngkin followed down that path this year. The General Assembly has dedicated sources of revenue to be used for transportation, with general government functions being financed by general income and sales taxes and other special funds. The…