Category: Government Finance
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Hidden Deficits: Richmond Streets Edition
The condition of Richmond city roads is getting worse. Sixty-five percent of the city’s streets and roads are rated “fair to poor” or “poor or below,” Bobby Vincent, director of public works, told City Council Monday. Only 35% of streets and roads were rated “good,” according to Virginia Department of Transportation standards. That’s down from…
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Proffers: They’re Baaaaack!
Gentlemen may prefer blondes but localities prefer proffers. A proffer is an arrangement between a locality and a land developer whereby the developer offers something of value in order to get a rezoning request approved. Why do developers want land rezoned? For residential development they want to build more homes on the land than the…
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Why Does King William Need a $11 Million Cash Reserve?
by Bob Shannon We often listen to Pols cite the “gouging” we poor rubes are being subjected to. Members of Congress & our state legislative bodies –even local Pols get in on the game — tell us that big banks, big insurance companies, big brokerage firms, big pharmaceutical companies, big this or that are gouging…
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How to Look Fiscally Responsible While Being Fiscally Irresponsible
Governor Ralph Northam wants to boost the retiree health credit for state police, law officers, sheriffs and their deputies. He has included $8.1 million in his proposed FY 2020 budget to pay for a $2-per-year of service increase for state police and a $1.50- to $5-per year increase for sheriffs and deputies. While the increase…
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Pushing the Limits of Virginia’s Debt Capacity
by Richard W. Hall-Sizemore The Commonwealth has been on a borrowing/building spree for the past few years and, as a result, its options for dealing with capital needs in the future may be constrained. Since 1991, Virginia has voluntarily limited itself to the amount of tax-supported debt it would incur for capital projects. This “debt…
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Bacon Bits: Rider U Screws U Know Who
Now that the State Corporation Commission has finally approved Dominion Energy Virginia’s Rider U, mandated by the General Assembly to force us all to pay for underground lines serving just a few customers, let me explain how perfectly this scheme put the company ahead of its customers. (For case details, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has this…
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Northam Budget Priorities: Financial Reserves, Medicaid
Thanks to economic growth and windfall tax revenues, Governor Ralph Northam expects Virginia to spend $2.1 billion more in its next biennial General Assembly budget. He proposes setting aside 44% in financial reserves and spending the rest. He does not propose giving anything back to Virginia taxpayers, according to documents released by the Department of…
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Will Yellow Jackets Come To Richmond?
I keep wondering when the new French fashion rage, the yellow safety vest or gilet jaune, finds its way across the Atlantic. The next few weeks may provide some motivation in Virginia, because the General Assembly returns with financial pressures high and consensus in short supply. Tuesday morning the 2019 General Assembly sees its opening…
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State Basic Aid for Schools Still Below Recession Level
Virginia spent about $6 billion in FY 2018 to fund the state’s constitutionally mandated K-12 standards of quality (SOQ), representing an increase in both total spending and spending per student every year since 2011, according to data published by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). However, while the state now spends more money…
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(Fiscal) Winter Is Coming
Let me set the scene by reviewing a few numbers. The federal deficit is on course to hit $1 trillion annually by Fiscal Year 2020. With retiring Baby Boomers swelling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security expenditures, deficits will increase inexorably for decades. The U.S. national debt stands at $21.7 trillion. As deficits pile up and…
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Fairfax Supervisors Face County’s Monster Pension Crunch
Once upon a time, way back in the year 2000, Fairfax County’s general-employee pension plan was amply funded at 109% of projected needs. But the funding ratio dropped severely during the last recession and has been hovering around 70% in recent years. Today unfunded pension liabilities for Virginia’s largest local government are roughly comparable in…
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Whispers of the “R” Word
With the stock market taking a beating, all of a sudden economists are uttering the “R” word — recession. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has put the odds of a U.S. recession beginning within 12 months at one in three — up from an 8% probability a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. Central Banks…
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Medicaid Is The Story With State Budget
The General Assembly’s key money committees gathered in their annual end-of-year financial retreats last week to talk about Medicaid. Sure, the state’s multi-billion-dollar budget delves into plenty of other areas that were mentioned, and the Amazon location announcement grabbed headlines, but the meetings were about Medicaid. The explosive and uncontrolled growth of Medicaid is all…
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A Performance Rating for Virginia Local Governments
Goochland County offers the most bang for the buck of the localities in the Richmond metropolitan region, according to a local government rating system devised by the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation. The rating system compares fiscal indicators such as property tax rates and collections, per capita indebtedness, school spending per capita, and unfunded pension…
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Blue Wave Does Not Change Do-Nothing Consensus
The 2018 Congressional elections have been dubbed by some as “the most important mid-term elections in history,” but that’s mostly partisan blather. Democrats did indeed re-take control of the House of Representatives. But two more years of hyper-partisan gridlock will not change the nation’s perilous fiscal trajectory. While many bemoan the lack of consensus in…