Tag: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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A Look at Two Boards of Visitors
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The boards of visitors of the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities have been taking some hits on these pages. To read these posts, one would come to the conclusion that the boards of visitors are comprised of mediocre “woke” personalities who have few leadership or business skills. One correspondent of Jim Bacon’s even…
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There Will Never Be Enough
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Those of us at the state Department of Planning and Budget (DPB) who worked closely with the capital budget used to marvel at the submissions from higher ed institutions. It did not matter how much had been approved and funded in the recent past; each year there were more and bigger requests.…
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To Get Respect, Show Respect
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There are frequent posts on this blog citing the low morale of police officers and officers quitting or retiring as a result. (For one example, see the post from earlier today.) However, for some reason, those posts often fail to report on the continued bad behavior of police. Early last month, a…
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Bill LaVecchia: Model Public Servant
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Bill LaVecchia died recently at the age of 95. He was an example of the best in professional public employees. He was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, and, subsequently, a master’s in municipal engineering and…
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Redistricting: Partisan Fighting Continues
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The diabolical person who came up with the framework for the state constitutional amendment establishing a redistricting commission was not content with designing it so that it would fail due to partisan wrangling. He also injected partisan politics into the phase in which the state Supreme Court must come up with the…
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Infrastructure Vote? Oh No, That’s Their Bill
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has long been a consensus that America needs to pay more attention to its infrastructure. Last week, the House of Representatives passed President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package and sent it to the President for his signature. Of the total amount, $550 billion was new money; the remainder was funding normally…
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Election Integrity? Not a Problem Now. We Won.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Now that the election is over, it is a good time to look at the integrity of the results. Over the last two years, Democratic majorities in the General Assembly eased voter ID requirements, established the longest early election period in the country, and instituted “no excuse” absentee voting. Republicans were alarmed.…
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Schools, Floods, Roads, Monuments, Gambling, Oh My!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Local referenda, while important locally, are often overlooked in the media coverage of elections. However, the results of those elections may provide some insight into the mood of the electorate, at least in some areas of the state. Following is a summary of the results of the local referenda on the ballot…
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Local Collective Bargaining Off to Slow Start
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Although the alarm bells have sounded repeatedly on this blog, there has not been a rush to establish public employee bargaining in Virginia. Today, about a year and a half after the General Assembly enacted the authorizing law, and six months after it went into effect, only three jurisdictions have enacted ordinances…
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Youngkin for Education Dictator?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Republicans, the advocates for smaller governor and for not having Richmond dictate to localities, seem to be running a would-be dictator for governor. In Halifax County recently, Glenn Youngkin announced, “We will not teach Critical Race Theory in our schools” and, according to the South Boston News and Record, “on day one…
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Redistricting: Fairness is in the Eye of the Partisan
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Redistricting Commission has hit another wall. This one, over Congressional districts, is good, old-fashioned partisan politics, dressed up as differing perceptions of fairness. Last week, the Commission decided to keep Congressional districts Three and Four intact, with only those changes needed to bring their populations in line with what was…
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Redistricting: Breakdown!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The redistricting process has broken down here on the eve of the deadline of the Virginia Redistricting Commission to report to the General Assembly. The divisions and distrust are so deep that the members could not agree even on which maps to use as a starting point in session on Friday. When…
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Redistricting: Incumbents, Open Seats, and Partisanship
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Most General Assembly incumbents are resting easier. The Democrat and Republican map drawers took their guidance from the Virginia Redistricting Commission seriously and drew district lines putting most incumbents in districts with no other incumbents. As discussed in an earlier post, the Commission members interpreted Virginia Code language as requiring it to…
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Redistricting: Impasse?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Redistricting Commission started its meeting on Saturday with the goal of reaching a preliminary agreement on one draft map for the House of Delegates and one draft map for the Senate in anticipation of public hearings scheduled to begin on Monday. Six hours later, the meeting was adjourned with the…
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Redistricting: Incumbents, Race, and Prisoners
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The most recent meeting of the Virginia Redistricting Commission was marked by tension over the two most sensitive issues—incumbency and race. The meeting was supposed to be dedicated to viewing efforts of the two sets of partisan map drawers to come up with a single map for the Senate districts upon which…