Category: Government Finance
-
Still Clueless
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In a break from the practices of previous governors, Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed an outsider totally unfamiliar with state government in general and Virginia in particular to be his Secretary of Finance. Before his appointment, Steve Cummings had held several high-level positions in investment banking. After two and a half years on the job,…
-
Good Luck With That, Lame Duck
by James A. Bacon The Joint Tax Subcommittee of the General Assembly is convening in Richmond today to discuss how to make Virginia’s tax code more “fair and equitable,” reports Michael Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. When the Democrat-controlled legislature says it wants to make taxes more “fair and equitable,” it’s time to reach for…
-
Fiscal Train Wreck
by James A. Bacon Think of the Washington Metro as a harbinger of the fiscal fate in store for the United States: it’s just a matter of time before the wheels fall off the subway car. Today The Washington Post reminds us that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is running out of money.…
-
Map of the Day: Fiscal Stress
The Commission on Local Government has released its report ranking the “fiscal stress” of Virginia’s local governments. Fiscal stress measures a locality’s ability to generate additional local revenues from its current tax base. As shown in the map above, the most severely stressed localities in Virginia fall into two buckets: cities and chronically depressed coalfield counties.…
-
The New Virginia Way
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Friday that Virginia closed out FY 2024 with $1.2 billion more revenues than forecast. Needless to say, every dollar of surplus is spoken for, and none of it is going to taxpayers. The money will fund a list of “contingent” spending priorities — clean water projects, college…
-
Money Burning a Hole in their Pockets
by Dick Hall-Sizemore If anyone needs concrete evidence that the 2024 General Assembly had more money for the 2024-2026 biennial budget that it could responsibly spend, he need only to examine one little-known item in the budget: capital maintenance reserve (MR). In an earlier article, I examined this budget item and identified five agencies that…
-
All of the Camel is Almost in the Tent
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For more decades than one can remember, the policy of the Commonwealth, with one exception, has been to pay for road construction with money raised by gasoline and other transportation-related taxes. Money in the state’s general fund, consisting of revenue from income, sales, and other miscellaneous taxes, was not available for road…
-
Senator Lucas’ “Big Gamble”
by Kayla Owen Virginia state Senator and Chair of the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, Louise Lucas, is known for her love of casinos, skill games, and other gambling enterprises. Her greatest political gamble may be unfolding before our eyes this week. When Virginia’s biennial 2024-2026 budget was signed on May 13, 2024, just…
-
Defending Jon Baliles: An Answer to the Lost Cause of Dick Hall-Sizemore
by Paul Goldman Does Bacon’s Rebellion recognize the validity of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States? I’m not sure and here’s why. Had Dick Hall-Sizemore written his response to Jon Baliles’ column, “Bonding With (or Against) the People,” prior to the Civil War, he would have caught Jon with his constitutional…
-
An Answer for Jon Baliles: It’s the Constitution
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Shame on Jon Baliles for not knowing why cities and counties are treated differently in the Code of Virginia regarding the issuance of general obligation debt. The answer is simple; the state constitution requires the different treatment. Article VII, section 10, of the state constitution deals with the issuing of debt by…
-
Bonding With (or Against) the People
by Jon Baliles There has been a lot of activity across the region recently about bond ratings and localities issuing bonds. It is a timely comparison of priorities of local leaders, a glimpse of a possible future and what happens if you have people in charge who worry more about getting the big, shiny project…
-
Bond Rating and Back Slapping
by Jon Baliles Mayor Levar Stoney reportedly pulled a back muscle two weeks ago from slapping himself on the back after he announced the city received a AAA bond rating from the Fitch Rating Agency. It is the first time the city has ever received the designation, although the other two main rating agencies, S&P…
-
The Cost of DEI? That’s the Easy Part.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This whole argument over the cost of DEI at UVa. is a tempest in a teapot in budget terms. Even if one accepts the inflated figure of $20 million put forth by Open the Books, that is less than one percent of UVa.’s adopted budget of $2.40 billion for the academic division…
-
Up, Up, and Away
by James A. Bacon Brace yourselves for another blast of UVA-centric articles, Baconoids and Baconauts. The University of Virginia Board of Visitors meets this week, and I’ll be covering the deliberations. If you’re not interested in all things Wahoo, this might be a good time to take a vacation. On the other hand, if you…
-
Lack of Credit, RVA Edition
by Jon Baliles City Hall has spent the last few months trying to fix the meals tax fiasco where they were charging restaurants thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in penalties and interest which accrued that the restaurants never knew about and about which the city never made any attempt to contact them, so…