Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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State Cap on Deductions Added To Tax Bill
The compromise income tax bill hailed for preventing a tax policy train wreck in Virginia includes one new provision not included in earlier bills, not mentioned in any of the Republican press releases and not yet included in any fiscal impact statements. Democrats wanted it. It is yet another departure from the new federal Tax…
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Senator Confesses to Post: 72 Years of Blackface
To: Nomination committee, 2019 Pulitzer Prizes. I know somebody will be winning your prestigious award for the deep and insightful reporting we’ve all seen in Virginia over the past week. To finish out the most amazing week in my 35 General Assembly sessions, I have enjoyed the following example of the fine trade of journalism, which…
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RGGI Debate Continues With New Comment Period
The clock is ticking toward a March 6 deadline if you are burning with a desire to comment on the latest version of Virginia’s proposed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative regulation. Perusing the hundreds of comments from the 2018 round of comments, there may not be much to add. If you liked the first version, you’ll…
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ACP Cost Bill Passes House With Bipartisan Vote
Five House Democrats joined 35 House Republicans in voting against the legislation reinforcing the State Corporation Commission’s authority to decide just how much captive electricity customers must pay once the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is supplying Dominion Energy Virginia generators. Delegate Lee Ware’s House Bill 1718 passed Tuesday with 57 positive votes, 42 from Democrats and…
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TCJA Remains A Big Revenue Gain for State
The tax relief proposals advancing in both the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate return at most half of the estimated additional state revenue created by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) over six years. As Virginia leaders have debated what to do about the situation, all have been working off an…
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Can We Step Back And Ask, Why Not Forgive?
I want to believe Ralph Northam, but I don’t know which statement to believe. I want our political discourse to recognize everybody has made mistakes, everybody has at least one clay foot and most of us two, all who judge shall themselves be judged. But the American political arena now resembles the blood-soaked sand of…
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Updates: ACP Customer Charge, M&T, Competition
The following updates three pieces of legislation previous featured on Bacon’s Rebellion. Each headline links to the previous posts for background. SCC Review of Customer Pipeline Costs Two legislators flipped their votes from subcommittee and voted no in the full House Commerce and Labor Committee, but legislation to reinforce State Corporation Commission authority to review…
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SCC: RGGI To Cost Dominion Customers Billions
Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would require the state’s utilities to pay a carbon tax on their fossil fuel power plants and to reduce operation of those plants, might cost the ratepayers of Dominion Energy Virginia $3.3 to $5.9 billion over the first decade, according to a State Corporation Commission…
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House, Senate Tax Policy Shootout Starts
The numbers to remember as the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate start voting on income tax conformity bills, perhaps beginning tomorrow, have nothing to do with the hundreds of millions of dollars on the table or the millions of taxpayers waiting to file returns. The key numbers are 32 and 80. With an…
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20th Century Tax Meets 21st Century Economy
Both chambers of the General Assembly are on the verge of passing bills expanding the duty to collect state sales tax to internet retailers selling into Virginia, a once controversial idea that is generating far less heat than before but is still hitting resistance. Senate Bill 1083 and House Bill 1722 still have a few…
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RVA Affirms Bike Lanes, Opens City to Scooters
The sidewalk scooter fad now coming to Richmond was in full swing in San Antonio during a visit over the holidays, providing a good preview of Things to Come. Downtown Richmond is not now and probably never will be as packed as downtown San Antonio during the Alamo Bowl, and it was clear from their…
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A Rack Of Increases Coming To Your Electric Bill
Here they go again, using your electric bill to pay for government spending programs and blurring the distinction between utility costs and taxes. Everybody heard Thursday about that new coal ash management program adding to the pantheon of rate adjustment clauses (RACs) driving up electricity bills. Later in the day, with far less notice, a…
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M&T Fix: A Chance To Win at Whack-A-Mole
Everybody knows (and hates) the car tax, right? Imagine you bought a six-year-old used car, but when the county sent you the tax bill it based the tax on the brand-new-off-the-lot price paid by the original owner. Imagine if the Tax Man then smiled and said, this is your annual assessment for the rest of…
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SCC Authority Over ACP Costs Reinforced In Bill
Sit down for this shocking news, but for the first time in recent memory a key energy subcommittee at the General Assembly has voted for the ratepayers, for the authority of the State Corporation Commission, and against protecting the stockholders of Dominion Energy Virginia. The energy subcommittee of House Commerce and Labor Committee has approved…
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One Hour in Senate Finance Is An Education
Concealed handguns. Corporate economic development cash payments of $110 million. Confirming voter identities by checking Social Security numbers. A new tax subtraction for taxable gains on property taken by eminent domain. Those are just some of the issues considered in the first hour of Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, and it was a…