Category: Government Finance
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Don’t Mess with Down Home
By Peter Galuszka Steamy and sticky in the late-summer humidity, U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk has the milieu of the Deep South with its rusting peanut processing plants, red brick small towns and the straight-as-an-arrow mainline of the Norfolk Southern slicing through occasional roads with warning lights at the sides. These days, curious little roadside…
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Two Unsatisying Conventions
By Peter Galuszka Thankfully, we’re done with two underwhelming, policy-idea-deficient political conventions that, save for a couple of speeches, offer limited hope for the November election from either party. The best part of the Democrat-confab at Charlotte was Bill Clinton’s rousing speech, as well as Michelle Obama’s class-act performance, but they gave Barrack Obama a…
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Time to End the Demon-Fuel Mandate
Gov. Bob McDonnell joined six other governors earlier this week in asking President Obama to waive the ethanol quotes mandated by the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). His letter to the Environmental Protection Agency earlier in the month follows a similar plea from Virginia senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb earlier this month. The RFS…
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Hey, While We’re at It, Could We Make the Gekko Virginia’s State Lizard?
Looks like the Virginia Department of Transportation will finally start generating some serious sponsorship revenue to help support its 43 Interstate rest stops. CRH Catering Co., Inc., of Connellsville, Pa., will pay the commonwealth $2 million annually to help offset the rest stops’ $21 million in annual operating costs. As part of the deal GEICO…
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A Riposte to Rippert
by James A. Bacon Blog contributor Don Rippert and I have been engaging in an invigorating tit-for-tat in the comments section of the blog. I thought the subject matter of sufficient interest to elevate it to the level of a full-fledged blog post. The topic: Should Northern Virginia be compensated for the failure of downstate…
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Stupid Politician Tricks
In recent years Virginia legislators have relied increasingly upon “an array of budget gimmicks, accounting sleights of hand, and one-time deals” to balance the budget, contends the Commonwealth Institute in a new paper, “Shell Game: Virginia Balances its Budget with Cuts and Accounting Sleights of Hand.” Authors Sara Okos and Michael Cassidy have made the…
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“Value Capture” as Rail-to-Dulles Financing Tool
The decision of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to fund its $270 million share of the Rail-to-Dulles project by taxing landowners around its two METRO stations could create a prototype for financing transportation projects in the future, argues Jay Corbalis, regional coordinator of LOCUS at Smart Growth America. “The importance of the vote —…
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Forbes on Cutting Virginia’s Defense Sector
By Peter Galuszka A couple of days ago I went to my mailbox next to the brightly-bloomed crepe myrtles and there was a four-color brochure from my Congressman, Randy Forbes, whose district stretches from the military-saturated cities of South Hampton Roads to the southern part of Chesterfield County where I live. Randy Forbes is a…
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Australians May Dump Pocahontas Parkway
By Peter Galuszka This just in from Australia! Transurban, the Aussie company that owns public-private partnered Pocahontas Parkway near Richmond, is considering selling the toll road because it has become a White Kangaroo. If so, this is incredibly bad news for PPP3 advocates everywhere, including various moderates and conservatives such as Gov. Robert F. McDonnell…
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Boomergeddon in Virginia: Yes, It Can Happen Here, Too
Over the past five “Boomergeddon in Virginia” posts, I have systematically laid out the findings of the “Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force” as they pertain to the Old Dominion. It’s a dismal picture. The tax base is eroding. Medicaid spending it out of control. Cutbacks in federal spending will slam both Virginia’s…
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Boomergeddon in Virginia: Retirement Benefits
When the editorial writers and talking heads speak of the looming retirement crisis in state government, they usually are referring to massive unfunded pension liabilities. This is a major concern and should by no means be underestimated. But the problem is actually bigger than pensions. Most of the 50 states have what’s known in actuary…
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Hottest July on Record!
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in Business and Economy, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Taxes, Water-waste water‘Nuff said. — PAG
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Boomergeddon in Virginia: Federal Cutbacks
If there’s one thing that pundits of all ideological stripes agree upon, it’s that the federal government cannot continue running $1 trillion-a-year deficits without inducing a Boomergeddon-style fiscal and economic melt-down. The only question worth asking is how we avoid the worst-case scenario: through spending cuts, tax increases or a combination of the two. (It…
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Beware Hedge Fund Traders Bearing Gifts
By Peter Galuszka As noted in previous postings, I have always been curious as to the role in the Teresa Sullivan flap of big money hedge fund traders who are University of Virginia alumni and live in a world beyond most of us. Of special curiosity is the role allegedly played by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones…