Category: Government Finance
-
Boomergeddon in Virginia: Medicaid Spending
Budget analysts have warned for years that state Medicaid spending eventually would grow so big that it would crowd out other budget priorities such as K-12 education. They don’t need to sound the warning anymore. That day is here. Unfortunately, the crowding out will get worse. As the authors of the “Report of the State…
-
Boomgergeddon in Virginia: Our Eroding Tax Base
by James A. Bacon While the federal government is hurtling towards a Boomergeddon melt-down, the prospects of state and local governments don’t look much better. According to the “Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force,” states’ major revenue sources are eroding and increasingly volatile. Despite its AAA bond rating, Virginia is no exception to…
-
Boomergeddon in Virginia: the Volker Analysis
In case you took heart from Virginia’s paltry budget surplus from FY 2012, a new study, “Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force,” should dispel the delusion that Virginia state and local governments face anything but years of grinding austerity ahead. “The ability of the states to meet their obligations to public employees, to…
-
Virginia Ekes Out Budget Surplus
Virginia eked out a $129 million surplus for its $41 billion budget in Fiscal Year 2o12, Governor Bob McDonnell reported in a press release this afternoon. It’s the third straight year with a surplus, although the sum is smaller than the $228 million recorded in FY 2010 and $403 million in FY 2011. There won’t…
-
Virginia’s Pension Bomb Is Still Ticking
by James A. Bacon Back in February the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and Gov. Bob McDonnell were disputing what rate of return to assume on the VRS’s $54 billion in assets –8% as McDonnell wanted, or 7%, as the more conservative VRS board preferred. By assuming that the VRS will make more money on its…
-
Hey, It’s Worth a Look
The McDonnell administration has discovered $5.4 billion in “surplus” bond proceeds to help pay for Dulles Rail. Unfortunately, that’s all there is to pay for Dulles Toll Road improvements over the next four decades.
-
Another Cry for Virginia Tax Reform
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s revenue problems run much deeper than the Great Recession, argues the Commonwealth Institute in a new report, “Frozen in Time: Virginia’s Revenue System Can’t Pull Its Weight.” Chronic revenue shortfalls are the fault of the Old Dominion’s antiquated tax structure. Virginia has grappled with budget shortfalls in 10 of the…
-
The Dangerous Online Education Craze
By Peter Galuszka Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell sure seems to love lobbyists. When it came time select someone to be co-chairman of a “summit” on education in August, he chose James W. Dyke Jr., a former state secretary of education who is now a registered lobbyist for the big-time online, for-profit companies as The…
-
The Desperate Need for Financial Regulation
By Peter Galuszka Regulation is the perpetual bug-a-boo among Baconauts, Boomergeddons and Blowhards of many ilk. Drop back to 2008 when our economy nearly crashed and the banking system all but collapsed. These folk will blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for giving out home mortgages to unqualified “under class” types. They conveniently forget that…
-
Virginia’s Slipping “Best To Do Business” Rating
—
by
in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Old Dominion politicians and economic boosters love to tout the state’s typically high ranking in various surveys of the “best states to do business.” But the latest such ranking, by CNBC, shows Virginia dropping from first place to third. One reason is roads. “Infrastructure – specifically the state’s perpetually clogged highways –…
-
The Coming Medicaid Battle
The Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare now presents Virginia with a huge decision. While most attention has focused on the legality of the Obamacare “mandate,” the Supremes also determined that Congress cannot compel the states to participate in the expansion of Medicaid. Thus, the General Assembly will have to decide whether or not Virginia will…
-
How Badly Will Federal Spending Cuts Hurt? Not as Much as You Might Think.
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s economic growth in recent years has been fueled by a surge in federal government spending, and that surge soon will come to an end, warns William M. Shobe in the May issue of the Virginia Newsletter, “Beyond the Great Recession: Preparing Virginia for Expected Cuts in Federal Spending.” Writes Shobe:…
-
A Tale of Two Speeches
By Peter Galuszka Call it a Tale of Two Speeches. One was a clear and resounding defense of one of America’s most prized possessions: its university system. The other was Corporate-Speak – a kind of muddle of platitudes and lofty thoughts with little point that is so common among chief executive officers and company presidents…
-
The Fiscal Fix
A former planning director proposes analyzing development projects on the basis of how much revenue they generate per acre. The results will astound you.
-
Maybe It’s Not “The Vision Thing” At All
By Peter Galuszka The sad demise of Teresa Sullivan as president of the University of Virginia poses many questions regarding what happened to her and how and why the Board of Visitors did what it did. Given the board’s lack of transparency and non-communicative nature at this prestigious, public university, much opinion and supposition have…