Bacon's Rebellion

  • An Overdue SOL Assessment Reform Bill

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Todd Truitt

    Virginia’s assessments for its Standards of Learning (SOL) could soon get a muchVirginia’s assessments for its Standards of Learning (SOL) will soon hopefully be getting a much-needed revamp. Senator Schuyler Van Valkenburg, D-Henrico County, and Delegate Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, have proposed a bill to significantly upgrade our assessment system.

    The bill advanced this past Thursday out of the Senate Education and Health Committee on a unanimous vote.

    At the Senate Public Education Subcommittee hearing on January 16th, VanValkenburg summarized their bill as improving:

    Delegate Dan Helmer
    1. Quality and transparency of SOL exams
    2. Quality of local exams used as an alternative to SOL exams
    3. Test scores and instructional time

    VanValkenburg Defends Standardized Testing

    VanValkenburg is a defender of testing and high academic standards.

    He stated that this bill is not anti-testing, but is “test agnostic”—not touching the politically sensitive issue of changing the number of tests. Thus, the bill likely does not remove the much-maligned through-year growth testing language for such reason, which was strongly disliked by parents and educators and is no longer being used.

    (more…)

  • Nothing in the Water

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    There’s something in the water — Bing Image Creator

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Looks like the Virginia Beach City Council grew a pair.

    Finally.

    After months of being played by the organizers of Pharrell Williams’ illusive Something In The Water Festival, the city is pulling the plug on the 2025 weekend event that was never going to happen.

    The history of the hip hop festival dates back to 2019 when Beach native Pharrell Williams joined the city to turn the most crime-filled weekend of the year – April’s annual Beach College Weekend – into something positive.

    It was a success.

    Never to be repeated, as it turned out.

    In fact, after that first year the event seemed cursed.

    First there were the covid years when the then-governor  – an idiot – banned outdoor gatherings. Next came a souring on Virginia Beach by Pharrell after his cousin was shot to death by a police officer. Then commenced a game of cat and mouse between city officials trying to woo the superstar back home.

    The festival moved from spring to fall in 2024, but just as tickets went on sale for the October event, Williams abruptly cancelled. Cpntinue reading.

  • Tax-Free Tips Bill Fails First Vote, Standard Deduction May Grow

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Thank you, Delegate Watts

    If it were my job to pass the bill to eliminate income tax on tips, my first move would be to fill the room where a committee was voting with men and women who depend on tips and who would benefit from the bill. I’d have the legislators considering a no vote looking out at motivated constituents. With some nice signs, maybe, and some speeches at the podium.

    But Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to create that tax break for Virginia taxes was rejected Monday afternoon in front of mainly lobbyists. It was “passed by for the day” by House Finance Committee Subcommittee #3, but that includes most of the senior Democrats on the full panel.

    Language to eliminate tip income from the list of taxable items is also buried in the Republican Governor’s budget bill. It is too soon to totally write off the idea, given the ebbs and flows of a session and given that at some point it may become federal tax law. 

    The bill in question, House Bill 1965 offered by Delegate Anne Tata, R-Virginia Beach, initially included two big tax proposals that helped propel Donald Trump into the White House, the tip provision and a provision to eliminate tax on overtime. She reduced the bill to focus only on tips in a substitute. Eliminating taxes on overtime would blow a major hole in the state’s revenue, per the impact statement. 

    Another, more significant tax cut advanced, however. The subcommittee unanimously endorsed both increasing the state’s standard deduction and to automatically increase it for inflation in future years. That was offered by Delegate Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, who has long spoken in favor of indexing tax provisions, a taxpayer protection that has long been in federal tax law.  

    (more…)

  • Build, Baby, Build

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Who would have guessed? An apartment boom in Austin has knocked down rents for 19 straight months.

    There’s an ongoing debate in the comments of Bacon’s Rebellion on how to address the housing affordability crisis in Virginia. My answer is simple: Build more housing. Doesn’t matter if it’s geared to higher-income buyers and tenants. When higher-income residents move into expensive digs, they create a vacancy lower in the housing chain, and when that dwelling is occupied, it creates a vacancy further on down.

    Some commenters have poo-pooed such logic as trickle-down economics, They find something unpalatable with the idea of developers building housing mainly for the well-to-do, as if that somehow harms the poor. Despite ample evidence that government projects are among the worst housing anywhere in the U.S., some readers have insisted that state/local government should ensure the construction of cheaper housing targeted to lower-income families directly.

    For doubters in market-driven solutions, I present the case of Austin, TX. The reason for the drop in rents, says Governing magazine, is simple: a boom in apartment construction.

    The chief reason behind Austin’s falling rents, real estate experts and housing advocates said, is a massive apartment building boom unmatched by any other major city in Texas or in the rest of the country. Apartment builders in the Austin area kicked into overdrive during the pandemic, resulting in tens of thousands of new apartments hitting the market.

    (more…)

  • Organized Labor? We’re Not Organized, We’re Academics!

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: UCW-VA by way of The Commonwealth Times

    by James A. Bacon

    It’s a shame that the United Campus Workers of Virginia (UCW-VA) are such insufferable leftists. I could almost sympathize with their aims. Universities in the United States treat their graduate students and adjunct faculty abominably. Thousands of these employees lead an insecure, ill-paid existence and probably could benefit from a union capable of negotiating with university administrators.

    I quickly sour, however, when I see the union lobbying for patently political causes such as solidarity with Palestinians, opposition to “militarism” in higher education, and supporting “social justice” movements. These people are just neo-Marxists who want a bigger paycheck.

    If the Campus Workers dropped their militant leftism and stuck to bargaining for better pay, benefits and working conditions, I expect they would recruit a lot more members. But political activism is their schtick, and they could not give that up any more than zebras can change their stripes.

    (more…)

  • Four Anti-School Choice Myths Exploded

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    by

    Steve Haner

    By Chris Braunlich

    Chris Braunlich

    When Governor Glenn Youngkin proposed an Education Opportunity Scholarship Grant – similar to what exists in 28 other states – providing $5,000 in private school scholarships to 10,000 low-moderate income public school K-12 students, the reaction was instantaneous, underscoring America’s partisan divide: Republicans endorsed it. Democrats opposed it.

    Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mt. Vernon), called it “unconstitutional.” Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, the powerful Senate Finance Committee Chair immediately declared that “it’s not going to happen.” Senator Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, charged that such aid “widens disparities,” claiming the funds are insufficient and wouldn’t cover the financial gap for private schools.

    Whatever happens to the Youngkin proposal, it is part of the annual conflict over whether or not low-income parents should be empowered to make the same kind of decisions for their children that wealthy parents can, similar to those debates we saw over the Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit.

    It’s old non-news. But we learned long ago that if we don’t steer the narrative to the truth, the lies will take over.

    (more…)

  • I’ve Got It! Let’s Just Change the Rules!

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, (D-Henrico)

    Because it could not legally stop the establishment of a historical horse racing facility within its boundaries, Henrico County is asking the General Assembly to change the rules.

    This issue was covered before in Bacon’s Rebellion. In summary, Henrico voters approved the establishment of off-track-betting facilities in the county. In 2018, the General Assembly approved the establishment of historical horse racing (HHR) facilities. After HHR was approved, the Rosie’s Gaming Emporium company approached Henrico officials about locating a HHR facility in the county. The Rosie’s officials promised that they would not locate in an area not agreeable to the county. Over several years, Rosie’s suggested several locations, all of which the county objected to. The county finally gave Rosie’s a list of sites it would approve, but one of those that Rosie’s felt would be suitable did not work out in the end due to lack of surface parking. In 2023, Rosie’s, under new ownership, Churchill Downs, acquired a large empty space in a shopping center in the county and announced that it would locate a HHR facility in that space. The zoning for the shopping center allowed, by right, such use.

    Alarmed that the new owners were no longer abiding by the assurances of the former owner, county officials set in motion the steps needed to change the zoning ordinance so as to require any HHR or similar operation to acquire a provisional use permit. Rosie’s won the race to the courthouse and filed its plans before the Board of Supervisors could meet to enact the amendment to the ordinance.

    Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg D-Henrico, has introduced legislation (SB 1223) to punish Rosie’s and change the rules. The bill would apply only to Henrico and would cut by more than half the amount of the wagering pool a HHR facility could keep if it had not been approved in a referendum held after July 1, 2018. According to the Henrico Citizen, these provisions could cost Rosie’s $17 million, or perhaps more, annually. (more…)

  • The Nationalization of Virginia Politics Is Now Complete

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    On Friday the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee discussed Governor Glenn Youngkin’s slate of appointees to state boards and commissions listed in multiple bills. Senate Democrats had amended the bills to strike the names of nine nominees, including four to George Mason University, two to the Virginia Military Institute, and three others. (In my previous reporting I referred to only the six nominees mentioned in Senate Bill 275.)

    Knowing that the Democrats would win narrowly in a straight party-line vote, Senate Republicans asked to delay the final vote until Monday in the hope of finding a way to salvage the nominees. They appealed to years of bipartisan Senate tradition, saying that their simple request would have been honored in the past — an assertion that no one disputed.

    Although legislators maintained a civil tone — they referred to one another as “my friend the senator from Franklin County,” and the like — the answer was a hard no. The reason stated by Senator Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, had nothing to do with the intrinsic merits of the appointments. He blamed President Donald Trump.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • The Real Cost of the RPS Mandate? $609 Million, Money for Nothing

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Dominion’s predictions of the added customer cost of compliance with several VCEA provisions.

    In a recent debate at the Virginia General Assembly over the growing consumer cost of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a senior Democratic delegate dismissed concerns over the renewable energy requirement as only involving perhaps $2 per month on a residential customer.

    The actual amount is $4.69, or about $56 per year, if that customer averages 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. Dominion Energy Virginia has an application pending at the State Corporation Commission to raise the cost for purchased renewable energy certificates up 65% to $7.68 per 1,000 kwh, or $92.16 per year on that residential customer. 

    It wants to collect $609 million from customers between September 1 of 2025 and August 31 of 2026, the next “rate year.” About $250 million of that is “true up” payment for previous years to cover costs not picked up by earlier versions of the charge, known as Rider RPS.

    That is money Dominion Energy Virginia will use to buy the renewable energy certificates (RECs) it needs because it is failing to hit the green energy targets of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA).  There is an entirely separate charge to customers to cover all the construction or lease costs of solar and battery assets which Dominion is acquiring to comply with VCEA (Rider CE), and yet a third segregated charge to pay for the construction of its offshore wind facility (Rider OSW). 

    According to a chart included in another Dominion regulatory filing, reproduced with this post, the combined cost of compliance with VCEA’s renewable portfolio standard is $17.89 per 1,000 kwh in 2025, or $215 per year.  Dominion projects that will be $282 annually by 2030 and $626 annually by 2035.  That is using Dominion’s preferred projection method. 

    (more…)

  • Just Read the Bill

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Gov. Glenn Younger has been reading Kerry Dougherty’s columns too much. He announced that he will veto SB 1031, dealing with religious exemption from sending one’s children to school.

    “I am a strong supporter of homeschooling and will always support the rights of parents to homeschool their children,” he declared. He needs to read the bill.

    Under current law, parents may choose not to send their kids to school on the basis of their “bona fide religious training or belief.” A parent may also choose to educate his child at home for other reasons. If the parents choose to homeschool their child, they must provide evidence that one of them is qualified to teach or evidence that an on-line learning program will be used. In addition, parents must provide to the local superintendent a list of the subjects that will be taught and, at the end of the year, evidence that an “adequate level of progress” has been made. The evidence of progress can be a score on a standardized test or a letter from a certified teacher or someone with a master’s degree of higher who has knowledge of the child.

    The proposed legislation would require that parents who have a religious objection to sending their children to school meet the same requirements that apply to parents who choose to homeschool their children for other reasons.

    No one is being denied the right to homeschool their children under the provisions of the bill. If the governor is opposed to the bill, he, in effect, is saying that he supports parents being able to keep their kids out of school on religious grounds and provide them no education whatsoever.

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Youngkin Takes Off Gloves, Puts on Brass Knuckles

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin, not known for his political pugilism, punched back today against Senate Democrats who nixed six of his nominees for the boards of George Mason University, the Virginia Military Institute and the state School Board.

    For his first three years in office, Youngkin eschewed contentious rhetoric — at least regarding the issues that I was tracking. Perhaps he’s concluded that adopting a temperate political tone has gotten him absolutely nowhere.

    “For three years, my administration has stood for excellence by appointing outstanding leaders to Virginia’s university and state boards,” he said in a press release issued late this afternoon. “And yet today, Senate Democrats rejected highly qualified, nationally recognized individuals who have already been serving with distinction on a volunteer basis. What reasons did they offer for their actions other than their own extreme partisanship? None. Repeatedly, they could not articulate a single substantive reason to reject them.”

    (more…)

  • Dems Delete Six Youngkin Appointees

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Last August, Governor Glenn Youngkin submitted the names of hundreds of appointees to state government boards and commissions for confirmation by the General Assembly. Traditionally, legislators accommodate the wishes of the chief executive, but occasionally they flex their political muscles by nixing someone they especially dislike.

    This year the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections pushed the delete button for two nominees to the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, three to the George Mason University board, and one to the Board of Education.

    Unless Senate Joint Resolution 275 is amended to add new names, Youngkin’s other appointees to Virginia’s public colleges and universities — and that includes five appointees to the University of Virginia board — likely will survive the legislative session intact.

    Senate Dems gave only the vaguest of reasons for deep-sixing the six board members, all of whom have been actively serving pending their confirmation or rejection.

    “We found their nomination to be inconsistent with the expectations, goals and values we hold for those boards,” said Senator Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria of the rejected nominees. When pressed repeatedly by Republican members of the subcommittee, Ebbin repeated the same phrase without further elucidation.

    (more…)

  • Virginia’s New Jersey Problem

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    by

    sherlockj

    Virginia’s New Jersey Problem

    Updated Jan 27 @ 16:30

    by James C. Sherlock

    New-found evidence points to New Jersey-operated business plans that may result in severe threats to patient health and safety in up to 56 Virginia nursing homes. At least one person has already died.

    Current government allegations in the wrongful death scandal surrounding Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) specify that a patient, lying helpless with cerebral palsy and diabetes, was criminally neglected at Colonial Heights (Medicare view) resulting in her death. She died in late October last year after prolonged suffering from sepsis alleged to be a result of that neglect. Criminal charges were filed in December against 18 members of Colonial Heights staff.  

    This month a physician with responsibilities at that hell hole has been arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult.

    Strong evidence in both cases points to deliberate operating decisions made by the New Jersey private-equity firm and owners that control Colonial Heights. Colonial Heights is the harbinger of a much broader problem.  

    Those 56 facilities are operated by small New Jersey groups using a business model that maximizes profits by severe understaffing.  

    • Affiliated entities (chains) and their investors/owners in the towns of Lakewood and nearby Brick in central New Jersey control 37 including Colonial Heights;  
    • another chain headquartered and owned in Lakewood controls four; and
    • yet another with managers and owners in Montvale and Clifton controls fifteen more.

    Virginia has 291 nursing homes certified for Medicare and Medicaid. Those guys control almost 20% of our total state portfolio.  

    They run absolutely awful nursing homes in Virginia and elsewhere.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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