Tag: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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A Spending Boost We Don’t Need
Here are a couple of items in the Governor’s proposed budget that the Commonwealth could do without. Both are in the Office of the Governor, each with a budget request of $599,192 for each year. That is a total of $2.4 million for the biennium. The description of the purpose of each budget amendment comes…
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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
As the Richmond Times-Dispatch recently reported and summarized, the Northam administration has introduced a comprehensive bill covering a wide range of transportation issues. The proposal is being carried in the House by S[eaker Eileen Fuller-Corn (HB 1414) and in the Senate by Sen. Saslaw of Fairfax (SB 890). This bill (the introduced House and Senate…
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Prison Space Fiscal Impacts
In 1993, the late, great Delegate Chip Woodrum of Roanoke introduced a bill, which was subsequently enacted into law, to hold the General Assembly fiscally accountable for any legislation it passed that would add to the Commonwealth’s prison population. The statute has been tweaked several times since its original enactment, but the overall purpose remains…
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Be Careful What You Wish For
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For the participants on this blog who have longed for the lifting of the yoke of the Dillon Rule from the necks of local governments, major relief is in sight. However, you may not like the area in which it is being contemplated: taxation. Generally, Virginia counties have less authority than cities…
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Dems Da Rules
As the late Sen. Edward Willey of Richmond used to say, “The rules are written by those with the votes.” Leading up to the convening of the new GA session, there was some speculation that the House Democrats, newly in the majority, might make significant changes in the House Rules. In the end, they largely…
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How Much Will This Bill Cost?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore With the 2020 General Assembly opening this week, it seems like a good time to talk about fiscal impact statements (FIS). Admittedly, FIS are a more mundane subject than the hysteria over gun laws, but they are important in understanding many introduced bills. This post will cover FIS for general legislation. There…
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Another Tool in the Search for Affordable Housing
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This is going to be an interesting session; probably a nightmare for Republicans. Much of the public attention has been on gun legislation, but there are other areas in which Democratic initiatives have been bottled up in the past and now will have a much better chance of being enacted. One of…
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Time to Go
Two Virginia members of Congress have proposed replacing the statue of Robert E. Lee representing Virginia in the U.S. Capitol. I applaud this move. Being a lifetime Virginian who grew up immersed in the legacy of the Confederacy and the glory of Lee and Virginia, I think it is time for Virginia to move beyond…
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Merry Christmas, General Assembly
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The most surprising item in Governor Northam’s proposed budget is the $200 million Christmas present to the General Assembly. It comes in the form of an annual $100 million appropriation in the Central Accounts section of the budget bill for “uncommitted contingencies.” It is not unusual for that budget Item to contain…
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Keep the Inspections
Tucked into the Governor’s transportation package is a relatively little item that is shortsighted. He is proposing to eliminate the requirement for an annual vehicle inspection. This idea has been floated before, but defeated. One justification offered is financial. The argument seems to be that the elimination of this requirement will result in savings for…
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Early Budget News: Some K-12 Moderation
Well, it looks like the many forecasts of doom and budget profligacy on this blog were in vain. According to this morning’s RTD, Governor Northam will be asking for an additional $1.2 billion over two years for K-12. That is about half of the total cost of earlier projections of SOQ benchmarking costs and the…
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Crazy about Guns
by Dick Hall-Sizemore It’s going to be a fun G.A. session. Here are some quotes from the rally yesterday at the Capitol in opposition to Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw’s bill to outlaw assault weapons: Retired engineer from Fairfax County: “And without semi-automatic rifles, there is no way, not a chance in the world, that…
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Time to look at the Tobacco Commission again
The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) has again demonstrated that the legislature needs to re-examine its operations and, perhaps, overhaul it altogether. First, a little background. TRRC was established in 1999 to revitalize Virginia’s tobacco region and compensate tobacco farmers for the decline in tobacco production. Funding for these activities was to come from the…
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Raise My Tax, Please
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The voters in one of the most conservative and rural parts of the state recently acted contrary to stereotype and voted to raise their taxes. Furthermore, that action was made possible by legislation sponsored by their Republican delegate in the General Assembly Halifax County has been wrestling for several years with the…
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Tuition-free college?
It seems that the Northam administration is poised to propose actions that will address two of the concerns expressed in this blog—lessen the cost of higher education and help the middle class In the tradition of well-timed leaks on budget proposals, the RTD reports today that the administration is considering some form of a tuition-free…