Category: Government Finance
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Penny Pinching Is Fine. But Virginia Needs to Think Big.
James A. Bacon Gov. Bob McDonnell has the right instincts: When it comes to preparing the next two-year budget, Virginia needs to brace for the worst. The governor has asked state agencies to submit proposals for achieving budget reductions of 2, 4 and 6 percent of their General Fund appropriations. And they have responded, flooding…
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Social Security Psychosis
by James A. Bacon Calling politics in Washington, D.C., “dysfunctional” severely understates the incompetence, hypocrisy, intellectual dishonesty and cavalier disregard for the national well being that predominates in the nation’s capital. A better term would be “psychotic,” as in divorced from reality. Or even “schizophrenic,” characterized by a disintegration of the thought process and emotional…
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Failed States Train Wreck Averted… for Now
A year ago, I approvingly cited research by Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney who predicted a wave of municipal bond defaults by state and local governments. (See “The Next Train Wreck: Failed States.”) There have been a handful of spectacular flame-outs — most notably the city of Harrisburg, Pa., and Jefferson County, Ala. — but…
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Virginia: $12.5 Billion in Tax Preferences
by James A. Bacon Republicans and Democrats alike are focusing on tax expenditures — exemptions, credits, deductions and other tax loopholes — in the federal government. It’s about time that someone took at comprehensive look at tax expenditures in the state budget. Thanks to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, we now know that…
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Elephants Triumphant
by James A. Bacon It was a long, hard fight but the Elephant Clan seemingly has won control over all the levers of power of state government — adding a tenuous control of the state Senate and a bigger majority in the House of Delegates to its three statewide offices. Awaiting vote recounts, the elephants…
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Italy’s Fiscal Event Horizon — and Ours
by James A. Bacon To understand America’s fiscal future, it is instructive to look at Italy. The land of la dolce vita has the 8th largest economy in the world and, by some measures, the 8th highest standard of living. The country also has one of the largest government debt loads in comparison to the…
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The Wonk Salon, November 9, 2011
Linking Databases to Spur Educational Reform Education Sector By linking school, college and workforce databases, the federal Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems initiative has awarded $515 million to help states divine how well schools are preparing graduates for college and the workforce. Income Tax as Tool of Crony Capitalism John Locke Foundation North Carolina’s corporate tax…
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What’s McDonnell Up To With Transportation?
By Peter Galuszka The McDonnell Administration is taking a chain saw to policies that promote smarter, more efficient growth by axing reforms to make neighborhoods connected and pushing design contracts that fast-track road construction and discourage public input. Such are the conclusions drawn from two blog postings by David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington and…
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The Wonk Salon, November 5, 2011
Health Exchanges Violate State Sovereignty Goldwater Institute Obamacare promises to give states flexibility in implementing state health exchanges. In reality, the feds control the providers who get to participate, control the plans and benefits and force states to enforce the individual mandate. Report on the World’s First Social Investment Bonds Rand Corporation The United Kingdom…
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More Crazy Boomergeddon Talk
James A. Bacon Imagine this scenario: Investors in U.S. Treasuries are so nervous about the country’s credit worthiness that they pile into notes with short-term maturities. Thirty percent of the national debt rolls over each year. To cover its routine borrowing, equal to 10% of the economy, and to keep the debt treadmill rolling, the…
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Occupy Bacon’s Rebellion!
By Peter Galuszka It’s tear gas and bean bags in Oakland. Cops in Atlanta. And now, the time has come to OCCUPY BACON’S REBELLION! We must do this to protest the indulgences and sense of entitlement that the libertarians who write here present. They are strict and pure capitalists — the worst kind. They must…
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Obama’s Undeniable Foreign Policy Successes
By Peter Galuszka You can say what you want about embattled President Barack Obama, but the fact is that he’s had a number of foreign policy successes. Here are a few: After years of failure, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was finally surrounded and killed by U.S. special forces — something the Bush Administration…
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Virginians Driving Even Less in 2011
A week ago I questioned a fundamental premise of the argument that Virginia needs to raise taxes in order to build more roads: the fact that Virginians aren’t driving more, they’re driving less. Citing DMV figures, I noted that total Vehicle Miles Driven in the Old Dominion declined in 2009 and 2010. (See “Is Congestion…
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McDonnell’s Energy Pep Rally
By Peter Galuszka One conceit of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is that he magically wants to transform Virginia into “The Energy Capital of the East Coast.” The idea smacks of Alice in Wonderland. An example is “The Governor’s Conference on Energy,” that began in Richmond on Monday. I dropped by today and noted that the…
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Women and Children First!
by James A. Bacon Boomergeddon is running right on schedule. The Congressional Budget Office released a report earlier this month disclosing that the federal budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2011, which closed September 31, was $1.3 trillion — equal to 8.6% of GDP. Two years into the economy recovery, the United States still racked up…