Category: Government Finance
-
How Good Is Chmura’s Economics Data?
By Peter Galuszka In the 40 months since Robert F. McDonnell has been in office, the launch of many of the governor’s policy initiatives seems to be accompanied by a press release touting the supportive findings of a small, Richmond-based research firm named Chmura Economics & Analytics. When McDonnell was pushing his transportation plan to…
-
McAuliffe’s Offshore Drilling Flip-Flop
By Peter Galuszka Terry McAuliffe’s flip-flop on opposing offshore oil drilling in Virginia is unsettling given that the last time the Democrat ran for governor in 2009, he seemed skeptical of drilling for oil although he thought searching for natural gas might be beneficial. He apparently changed his position because he’s been with fresh legislation…
-
The Fiscal Benefits of Smart Growth
by James A. Bacon Compared to conventional suburban development, smart growth development can save 38% in up-front infrastructure costs and 10% of the cost of supporting police, ambulance, fire and other public services, according to a new report by Smart Growth America (SGA). At the same time, concludes “Building Better Budgets,” smart growth generates 10…
-
Whatever Happened to Boomergeddon?
By Peter Galuszka And now for something completely different. I read with great interest James A. Bacon Jr.s “Boomergeddon” work a couple of years ago. It printed a very bleak picture of our financial future and Jim says, “We need to cut hundreds of billions of dollars” from the federal budget. But something has been…
-
The Cooch’s Freak Show Dream Team
—
by
in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Ken Cuccinelli just can’t keep away from the bizarre, but perhaps that’s what makes him what he is. He stages a convention instead of a primary to neuter Bill Bolling. And since a convention is smaller, it draws more GOP hard-righters than June bugs on a humid night and they succeed in…
-
Traffic Management Contract to Save $47 Million
by James A. Bacon Outsourcing management of Virginia’s five traffic operations centers will save about $47 million over the life of the six-year contract and accelerate the adoption of state-of-the-art technology and best management practices. So says Dean Gustafson, state operations engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation. In a presentation yesterday, Gustafson briefed the…
-
GiftGate: “If I Were a Rich Man . . .!”
By Peter Galuszka Richmond’s “Giftgate” scandal just gets worse. On Friday, Atty. Gen. and presumed GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli announced that he was amending his required disclosures of gifts to show that he took more goodies from Star Scientific plus previously undisclosed gifts of a $7,750 trip in 2010 to Southwest Virginia from coal…
-
Corruption? This is Virginia!
By Peter Galuszka An old adage in journalism has it that good stories just keep getting better. And so it is with the saga of Jonnie Williams Sr. and the family of Robert F. McDonnell, the governor. First we learn, courtesy of The Washington Post, that the head of Star Scientific gave McDonnell’s daughter $15,000…
-
Congestion Tolls Coming to Hampton Roads?
by James A. Bacon Hampton Roads transportation planning officials are giving serious thought to putting tolls on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel as a tool to reduce congestion during periods of peak demand. Under the conceptual plan presented Wednesday to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), the toll would be set…
-
McAuliffe: Can a Schmoozer Transform?
—
by
in Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka On Easter Sunday, I was driving in a cold rain to Charlottesville for a family event. My cell phone started beeping with messages from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe. He said he was on his way to his own family brunch but wanted to tap me for $5. I got similar messages…
-
Under-Funding Street Repair in Richmond
I’ve been ragging recently about how Virginia state and local governments are doing a poor job of taking full life-cycle costs into account when making infrastructure-investment decisions, and how some are doing an equally poor job of setting side money to replace their assets when they wear out. A perfect example of such blinkered thinking…
-
Virginia Pension Shortfall Still Horrendous
by James A. Bacon Last July I argued that, despite the significant pension reforms enacted in the 2012 session of the General Assembly, Virginia had only partially restored the actuarial integrity of state and local government pensions. (See”Virginia’s Pension Bomb Is Still Ticking.“) The debate at the time: whether the Virginia Retirement System should assume…
-
Re-engineering Criminal Justice in Richmond
by James A. Bacon The average cost for housing an inmate in Virginia’s jails and prisons runs roughly $25,000 a year. Add to that the fact that some jails are antiquated, overcrowded and need replacing. The Richmond City Jail, for instance, designed in the 1960s to hold 856 inmates, is routinely crammed with a number…
-
Missing: Three Baby Pianos
How do you misplace a $10,000 incinerator or three baby grand pianos, asks Kathryn Wilson with Virginia Watchdog. Virginia State University managed to do so, along with sculptures, laptops, lawnmowers, copiers and a tractor. A request under the Freedom of Information Act identified $8 million in taxpayer-funded fixed assets that had gone lost, missing or…
-
McAuliffe Pitches Jobs vs. Ideology
By Peter Galuszka “Fantastic,” says Terry McAuliffe as he listens to officials at the Culpeper, Va., campus of Germanna Community College talk about projects ranging from designing machine controls to a weight-loss competition. The tall, curly-haired McLean businessman — a Democrat who wants to be Virginia’s next governor — walks through a campus building while…