You’ve been eating too much, drinking too much, going to too many parties, staying up too late, and racking up too much debt on your credit cards. Thankfully, holiday season is in a lull right now until the final blast hits on New Year’s Day. It’s the perfect time to sit down in front of…

A Virginian-Pilot editorial quotes a recent study by the Center for Responsible Lending in support of a proposal to cap payday loans at annualized interest rates of 36 percent. That study takes on the argument of the payday industry that the vast majority of payday loans are used only for emergencies. That fact is, states…

While a number of people still celebrate Christmas for the nativity of Jesus, most regard it as an occasion for partying, over-indulgence, the ritual exchange of gifts and mass overconsumption. The gift-exchange aspect of Christmas becomes ever more prominent as the holiday spreads beyond its Christian origins and insinuates itself into cultures all around the…

Many Virginians still think of Virginia’s six coalfield counties in far Southwest Virginia as a bastion of unemployment and poverty in an otherwise robust state economy. The stereotype was true as recently as 10 years ago, but it no longer applies. As Rex Bowman writes for the Times-Dispatch, unemployment levels have reached lows not seen…

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result – for example, building more roadways and expecting traffic congestion to go away – is often cited as a threshold test for insanity. There is a second test that is useful to apply in the Blogosphere. This test is: Attempting to describe, discuss…

The escalating war of words between GOP legislators and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine over Kaine’s proposed budget is getting some attention in the press. Garren Shipley at the Northern Virginia Daily and the editorial writers at Washington Examiner focus on the $180 million in transportation spending that Kaine wants to defer. The issues don’t appear…

We wonder why this Blog was overrun with folks praising the citizens of Oregon for passing Measure 37 in 2004, but Not a peep when Measure 49 rolled back most of the provisions in 2007? Turns out Measure 37 was in fact paid for by speculative owners outside the logical location of the Clear Edge.…

Mayor L. Douglas Wilder may have little nice to say about the Richmond School Board or educational bureaucracy, but he is fulsome in his praise of individual educators. In his recent newsletter he lauds Dr. Irene L. Williams, principal of the Fairfield Court Elementary School, located in one of Richmond’s most notorious, poverty- and crime-ridden…

You can’t accuse Donald P. Morgan and Michael R. Strain of being on the payroll of the payday lending industry. They are staff economists of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s why we need to pay attention when they conclude in a November report, “Payday Holiday: How Households Fare after Payday Credit Bans,”…

Like his budget or hate it, give Gov. Timothy M. Kaine credit for one thing: It’s nearly pork free. As Tyler Whitley notes in the Times-Dispatch today, the budget the Governor proposes for FY 2009-2010 includes only $5,755,000 for museums, cultural institutions and other non-state entities — down from $37 million in the current two-year…

Once upon a time not long ago, in 2001 to be exact, Virginia’s pension fund obligations were fully funded — 106 percent funded. No longer. According to a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts Center on the States, Virginia’s obligations for state employees is only 81 percent funded, or about $10 billion short. Additionally,…

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has done a yeoman’s job squeezing spending out of the state government administration (see previous post), and he’s entitled to reallocate those savings — more than $350 million a year, if I understand correctly — to new priorities. Kaine also deserves a small measure of praise for showing relative spending restraint.…

Before I launch into a criticism of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s latest budget proposals in the next post, let me pause to say something nice about the governor. Not only has he increased budgetary transparency (see my previous post), he has labored diligently behind the scenes to improve government efficiency and accountability. The challenge of…

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has improved the presentation of the FY 2009-2010 budget, making it easier for members of the public to analyze. The old format scattered information for (1) expenditures, (2) number of employee positions and (3) capital outlays. The new format combines them on a single web page. You can view any secretariat,…

Virginia’s major business lobbies appear to have modest legislative agendas as the 2008 General Assembly nears, and most items at the top of their lists are defensive. Businesses are bracing for a rash of legislation relating to illegal immigration, reports Greg Edwards with the Times-Dispatch. The big three associations — the Virginia Chamber of Commerce,…