Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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Permanent COVID Reg Called “The Fifth Dragon”
By Steve Haner Most Virginia employers probably have not read, let alone fully complied with, the emergency temporary standard on protecting their employees from COVID-19 adopted back in July. Yet the public comment period on the permanent version of the rules, which can carry major sanctions, closes this Friday. Only twenty comments had been filed…
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Special Interests Behind the Anti-Interest Candidate
By Steve Haner Welcome to the current state of politics, where an incumbent preens as being free from special interest funding and their sworn enemy, all while the special interests spend millions seeking to tear down the challenger. House Bill 827, approved by the 2020 General Assembly, did not really provide additional employment protection for…
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Assembly May Add Unpaid Power Bills to Yours
By Steve Haner The General Assembly is moving toward a second method of transferring money from electricity customers who can pay their bills to those who cannot. A Senate bill up today will allow Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power to simply add yet another “rider” to everybody’s monthly bill for their uncollected accounts receivable.…
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“Quarantine Leave” Bill Exempts State Employees
By Steve Haner Employees caught in this pandemic with no paid time off for health issues have been in a deep bind, and many of those with reasonable leave available have probably burned it all. It is one of several problems exacerbated by this government-led economic crash. Congress, in a bipartisan response supported by President…
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Job Recovery Is Not the Special Session’s Focus
By Steve Haner With the Virginia General Assembly’s “Cops and COVID” special session moving into its third week, it seems likely to impede rather than assist the state’s economic recovery from the pandemic. It may also greatly expand COVID-19’s financial burdens in the years to come. The highly publicized issues of unpaid rents and utility…
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It Matters Where You Seek COVID Data
By Steve Haner Even when there is no intent to twist the data, it still matters where you look if you want to see Virginia’s status in dealing with Our Permanent Pandemic. The chart on the daily death count, for example, looks dramatically different on the Virginia Department of Health’s website when compared to the…
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Told You: You Will Cover Those Unpaid Power Bills.
By Steve Haner If the Virginia General Assembly orders Dominion Energy Virginia to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in “excess profits” to cover unpaid family utility bills, who is really paying? We all are, of course. Don’t say you were not warned. That apparently is the latest approach to help folks behind on…
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Voters Oppose Contracts That Protect Bad Cops
By Steve Haner As yet another bitter conflict over a police officer’s use of deadly force divides America, this time a case in Wisconsin, Virginia’s General Assembly forges ahead with opening up the state to the police unions that usually rush to protect their members from discipline or dismissal. The Kenosha Professional Police Association was…
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The Trash Tax Returns; Energy Price Hikes Ignored
By Steve Haner Proving once again how rare are the new ideas, Governor Ralph Northam’s proposed Special Session budget amendments resurrect a possible state-collected solid waste tipping fee, which crashed and burned in 2002 after being successfully tagged a “trash tax.” The proposal calls for a study to be completed by November 1, laying the…
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I Miss The GOP That Welcomed Bob Calhoun
Former State Senator Bob Calhoun’s death on August 6 at age 83 is apparently only Alexandria local news so far, but he was such a colorful and useful member of the Senate that his passing needs more notice. The family is delaying any formal memorial services. Calhoun was funny, one very smart lawyer and an…
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We Underpaid Dominion in 2019? Not Really.
By Steve Haner You will be shocked to learn that we customers of Dominion Energy Virginia did not pay it enough money in 2019. The shareholders did not get the profit margin they were due, the utility reported to the State Corporation Commission, which subsequently reported it to us on August 18. We’ve entered the…
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Northam Asks Legislators: Resist Urge to Spend
By Steve Haner Perhaps the most important point about Governor Ralph Northam’s latest Virginia state budget proposal is what he did not recommend. He did not recommend dipping into the state’s current cash reserves to restore spending items which had been frozen. No additional taxes are proposed. In fact, Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne told…
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Shhh. COVID Deaths Drop. Keep It Quiet.
Isn’t this always the way? Just as the Virginia General Assembly arrives in Richmond to save us from COVID-19, Virginia’s number are getting way better.The 7-day average for deaths in the Northern Virginia region tracked by the Virginia Department of Health is zero. Zero. It has recorded zero deaths in August so far. The statewide…
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Meters Keep Spinning On Unpaid Utility Bills
By Steve Haner During the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginians piled up $184 million or more in unpaid bills with several Virginia utilities, and that was before the worst of the heat arrived in July. The figure comes from a short letter from the State Corporation Commission to General Assembly leaders dated…
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August 14: VJ Day Celebrated In Honolulu
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named… There is one more major World War II milestone to note, and this short video does that well. In recent weeks, as the anniversaries of the nuclear bombs passed, we were subjected to the usual 20-20 hindsight…