Tag: Stephen D. Haner
-
Comformity Boosts Key Business Tax 40 Percent
A decision by the Virginia General Assembly to fully conform state tax rules with recent changes in federal tax law could result in major increases in state corporate income tax collections, totaling an additional $1.4 billion over six years, an outside consultant has concluded. Virginia’s corporate income tax under current rules is projected to collect…
-
Has Momentum Shifted in Pipeline Battles?
The drums and whistles overpowered traffic noise at Eighth and Main this morning as a group of protesters opposing Virginia’s two natural gas pipeline projects moved away from Department of Environmental Quality headquarters, perhaps coming from a State Water Control Board hearing down the street. With both the Atlantic Coast (ACP) and Mountain Valley (MVP)…
-
Weak Growth Makes Conformity Revenue Tempting
I called it correctly back in June: Conformity to federal tax reform produces a major boost in state revenue which the state’s leadership on both side of the aisle is strongly tempted to keep because the state remains strapped for cash. The signs of economic stress are all over Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne’s August…
-
Full Conformity Raises $3.6B In First Five Years
Assuming the Virginia General Assembly conforms the state’s tax rules to the IRS code as it exists now, adopting intact the recent federal changes, the state will reap an additional $3.6 billion in revenue over the next five years. Almost $2.5 billion of that will come from personal income taxes, with an additional $1.1 billion…
-
Oh, The Tangled Webs We Weave
Let’s not and say we did. If I had a dollar for every time I said that to some over-enthusiastic campaign worker for my candidate or some other one with some wild idea to screw with the other side…. Perhaps GOP Congressman Scott Taylor should have used the phrase, or my other favorite: Don’t do…
-
The Truth Is Out There (To Be Revealed Friday)
So it’s going to be politics, not economics. Perhaps it was inevitable. On Friday Governor Ralph Northam and Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne will be presenting to the House and Senate money committees, part of their report looking back (at the completed fiscal year), but the key parts of their message looking forward. Both are…
-
Trailing Spouse Benefit Proving of Minimal Impact
Virginia’s unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund continues to show improved balances despite dropping tax rates, reflecting a strengthening economy. The most recent semi-annual report, released at a legislative meeting yesterday, projects half as many initial claims during 2018 as there were five years ago: 134,000 this year versus the earlier 276,000. It the trend holds…
-
Love Is A Juicy Tomato, A Ripe Melon
“We as a country have fallen out of love with healthy fruits and vegetables.” Dominic Barrett said that while sitting at a picnic table a few feet from an acre of healthy fruits and vegetables, a new urban garden in the heart of Northside Richmond created by Shalom Farms. The location is in my neighborhood…
-
Specific Updates: Lobbyists, Lottery, Tuition
A few updates, clearing the decks before I disappear next week (I’m not quite as dedicated as Bacon, although I will take the laptop to Duck.) My son who blogs on University of Virginia sports is going to give me some tips. (StLouisHoo or something like that…) Specifics on Who is Not Specific The Virginia…
-
Somebody Must Think We’re Stupid
David Poole and his team at VPAP have provided another illustration of how the reporting requirements placed on lobbyists at the state Capitol are intentionally vague and useless. The chart above deals with the reports on lobbyist compensation. This is usually the figure at the heart of the occasional stories about the amount spent by…
-
Will Dominion Appeal Latest Loss At SCC?
Michael Martz has a good report in this morning’s Times-Dispatch on the State Corporation Commission’s opinion trimming Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed transmission charge. The SCC ordered the proposed Rider T going into effect next month reduced to reflect the lower federal income tax rates. It also rejected the utility’s argument that a payment it was…
-
Sport of Kings Needs Peasants Playing Slots
The Sport of Kings apparently cannot survive today unless between races the peasants are pumping their copper into slots. “The new law acknowledges what several other horse racing states already have concluded: that the new economic realities to sustain a viable horse racing industry require an alternative form of gaming to offset the high cost…
-
Working? A Republican Anti-Poverty Plan Works?
“The federal EITC, together with the Child Tax Credit, lifted nearly 200,000 Virginians out of poverty each year from 2011 to 2013, including nearly 100,000 children.” Lifted out of poverty. Let that sink in a minute. The writer of that sentence is admitting that the federal Earned Income Tax Credit lifts people out of poverty. …
-
Lobbyist Forms Not Mentioned At Council Meeting
The state’s Conflicts of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council met Tuesday making no mention of my column published in July 21’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, pressing for specific bill numbers, budget item numbers and other details on the state’s lobbyist disclosure forms. I had been told in advance the issue wouldn’t be added to the agenda. In fact…
-
The Underground Saga Continues: I-66
The saga of expensive underground transmission continues: Now comes the Dominion Energy Virginia 230-KV line along I-66 which is needed for an Amazon facility and the growing data center industry. The State Corporation Commission has signed off and reports in the order a cost of $170 million or more to build it. Every step in…