Category: Government Finance
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McAuliffe Adminstration Gives P3s a Second Chance
by James A. Bacon The McAuliffe administration has spent much of its first two years unwinding the legacy of botched and controversial public private partnerships inked by the McDonnell administration: radically truncating the plan to to build a U.S. connector between Petersburg and Suffolk, and revising significantly the tolling for Norfolk’s Midtown-Downtown tunnel project. Now, after the enactment of…
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How Not to Run a City
The bad news just keeps getting worse for the City of Richmond: An audit released yesterday of 98,000 transactions valued at $2 billion found significant delays to vendors, insufficient and inconsistent documentation and unrecorded wire transfers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. That report was presented alongside a second report, an assessment of Richmond’s fiscal sustainability that…
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FY 2016 Budget Outlook: Surprisingly Fragile
The stock market correction has frightened the bejeebers out of investors large and small — and it ought to frighten the bejeebers out of state and local governments, too. As John Rubino, publisher of DollarCollapse.com, noted yesterday, falling stock prices will reduce the capital gains that have been fueling rising income tax revenues for state…
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More Sequestration Pain for Virginia
by James A. Bacon The pain of federal budget sequestration cuts in Virginia is not yet over. Look what The Washington Post reports today: According to the Defense Department research, things are likely to worsen over the next four years. From 2010 to 2012, Virginia experienced $9.8 billion in defense cuts, with the vast majority…
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Alpha Natural Resources: Running Wrong
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka Four years ago, coal titan Alpha Natural Resources, one of Virginia’s biggest political donors, was riding high. It was spending $7.1 billion to buy Massey Energy, a renegade coal firm based in Richmond that had compiled an extraordinary record for safety and environmental violations and fines. Its management practices culminated in a…
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Renewable Energy: A Tale of Two Virginias
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By Peter Galuszka Call it a tale of two Virginias – at least when it comes to renewable energy. One is the state’s traditional political and business elite, including Dominion Resources and large manufacturers, the State Corporation Commission and others. They insist that the state must stick with big, base-loaded electricity generating plants like nuclear…
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The Ironies of Virginia's Growing Diversity
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Suddenly immigration is popping up as a major issue in Virginia and the nation. Virginia Beach has been dubbed a “sanctuary city” for undocumented aliens by Fox News and conservative Websites. GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is scarfing up poll number hikes by calling Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. illegally “rapists”…
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The Ironies of Virginia’s Growing Diversity
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Suddenly immigration is popping up as a major issue in Virginia and the nation. Virginia Beach has been dubbed a “sanctuary city” for undocumented aliens by Fox News and conservative Websites. GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is scarfing up poll number hikes by calling Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. illegally “rapists”…
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Higher Ed as Engine of Social Injustice
by James A. Bacon College tuitions have soared over the past several decades, and so have federal grants and subsidized student loans. Many observers of the higher ed scene believe that easy credit has been a driving force behind the tuition hikes: The more Uncle Sam subsidizes student participation in higher education, the greater the pricing…
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Capitalism Triumphs Again!
By Peter Galuszka If there were any questions about just how capitalism has failed, one need look no farther than Wise County, where, this week, hundreds, if not thousands, of people will line up for free medical care. The event is ably noted in The Washington Post this Sunday by a young opinion writer named…
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Another Idol Has Fallen: Virginia's Fiscal Condition Not So Great
by James A. Bacon Once upon a time, Virginia was widely regarded as the Best State to Do Business. No longer. That reality is slowly making an impression in government and economic development circles, and I sense a growing awareness that Virginia can’t continue doing things the same way it always has. Virginia also has…
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Another Idol Has Fallen: Virginia’s Fiscal Condition Not So Great
by James A. Bacon Once upon a time, Virginia was widely regarded as the Best State to Do Business. No longer. That reality is slowly making an impression in government and economic development circles, and I sense a growing awareness that Virginia can’t continue doing things the same way it always has. Virginia also has…
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Memories of a Klan Rally
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Electoral process, Energy, Federal issues, Government Finance, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka I was looking through a some old clips today and spotted this Golden Oldie that ran in the Jan. 30, 2000 edition of BusinessWeek magazine where I worked for about 15 years. Bloomberg now owns rights to it and I hope they don’t mind me re-running it. Mindful of the lofty rhetoric…
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Disgraceful
by James A. Bacon Fiscal Year 2015 in Virginia came to a close yesterday but the City of Richmond still had not filed its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for FY 2014, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The report provides an audited overview of revenues, spending, assets and debts critical to appraising a locality’s financial condition. The City of Richmond is one…
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What's the Deal with Dominion and Coal Ash?
By Peter Galuszka So what’s the deal with dumping coal ash and Dominion Virginia Power? A story in the Associated Press that is getting wide attention suggests that the utility may be consolidating five coal ash dumping ponds at its Possum Point generating plant into one that may or may not be properly lined. If…