Month: October 2019
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Northam Opposes Coming Retail Choice Bill?
By Steve Haner Governor Ralph Northam is quoted in a Standard and Poor’s Market Intelligence news article Friday as opposing any efforts to change Virginia’s electricity regulations, which presumably would include the 2020 retail choice proposal gathering steam in the background. Reporter Michael Copley wrote about Friday’s state solar and wind power purchase agreements and…
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Do Financial Literacy Classes Do Any Good?
by James A. Bacon It’s not often that I speak kindly of government programs of any kind. But a few days ago, I praised a financial literacy initiative recently announced by the City of Richmond with the goal of empowering citizens, especially lower-income citizens, with the knowledge to make better consumer decisions. The program not only…
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Dominion Refinances Capital Structure, and What It Means to Virginia
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy Inc. will sell a 25% interest in its Cove Point liquid natural gas-exporting facility to Brookfield Super-Core Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure fund, for $2 billion, the company announced this morning. Said Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II: “The agreement highlights the compelling intrinsic value of Cove Point and allows…
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SOQ Examination
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been a lot of commentary in recent posts over the state Board of Education’s proposed changes in the Standards of Quality, with a $950 million price tag. Rather than focusing on the total price tag and one component of the proposal (equity fund), it seems to me a more productive…
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The Social Promotion Scam and Its Consequences
by James A. Bacon How widespread is social promotion in Virginia schools, and how deleterious are the consequences? Those are critical questions to ask as the Mo’ Money crowd beats the drums for more state support for K-12 education, more programs to address social “inequity,” and a slew of other initiatives all premised upon the…
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Housing Prices and Homebuilder Oligopoly
by James A. Bacon What is driving up housing prices in Virginia, especially Northern Virginia? In the simplest terms, the increase can be explained by a sustained imbalance in supply and demand. Between population growth and rising incomes, the demand for new dwellings is outpacing the supply of new dwellings built. Then the question becomes,…
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Tax-and-Spend Pressure Builds Inexorably
by James A. Bacon There are two items in the news today indicating that pressure for more spending and taxes will be remorseless in the 2019 General Assembly session: (1) The Virginia Retirement System board of trustees has lowered the expected rate of return on its $82.3 billion investment portfolio, requiring $215.6 million-per-year additional contributions…
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Electric Vehicles Are Punishingly Overtaxed in Virginia
by Alleyn Harned In an October 15th post, James Bacon asked the question: How should we tax electric vehicles? Bacon’s bottom line is reasonable, and it is worth noting that electric vehicles (EVs) and clean fuels already pay more than their fair share in Virginia with equivalent or excessive taxes, according to Consumer Reports. It…
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Hey, Sultan, Your Mother Swims out to Troop Ships!
This is apropos of nothing in Virginia, and I’m not trying to make a political statement of any kind, but… With Turkey and Ukraine much in the news these days, a famous 19th-century Russian painting is making the rounds on the Internet: a rendering by Ilya Repin of free-wheeling Cossacks composing a ribald and insulting…
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Board of Education Wants $950 Million Mo’ Money
by James A. Bacon Elections have consequences, as former President Obama famously said. In Virginia, where the Democratic Party displays enormous momentum in the 2019 election for control of the state Senate and House of Delegates, you can get an idea of what those consequences will be in this article today in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.…
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Is Massive Dem Fund Raising Lead a One-Off or Sign of Fundamental Change?
by James A. Bacon The latest Virginia Public Access Project data for the 2019 electoral cycle shows a surge in campaign donations to Democratic Party candidates. The gap is dramatic — and unprecedented in recent Virginia politics. The big question: Are we seeing a fundamental realignment of politics parties and voting blocs in Virginia, or…
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Go, Nats, Go!
by Bill Tracy Virginia’s own Thomas Jefferson along with his friends Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, George Washington are very happy today. In case you did not notice, there is big news in NoVA: The Washington Nationals are National League Champions for the first time in franchise history! Unexpectedly, many wholesome life lessons appear to be…
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Finally, an Anti-Poverty Program that Actually Might Reduce Poverty
by James A. Bacon Most anti-poverty programs are double-edged swords. They alleviate the symptoms of poverty — insufficient money for housing, food, health care — but do nothing to induce poor people to change their behavior and improve their condition. But this program is different: With funding from the the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund…
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Hey, Governor, How About the Rest of Us?
by James A. Bacon Having expanded Medicaid coverage for more than 325,000 Virginians, Governor Ralph Northam now has issued an executive order directing actions to increase the number of Virginians enrolled in “quality, affordable health care coverage.” Secretary of Health and Human Resources Daniel Carey will explore ways to expand Medicaid enrollment, reduce insurance premiums,…
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Demolishing Oxfam’s Laughable Ranking
by Chris Saxman Some things just have to be challenged at the outset before they gain traction and become an untrue reality. Gaining traction among too many candidates for the General Assembly is a ranking, released by a British organization, Oxfam, that graded American states and the District of Columbia on best states for workers.…