Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon’s Rebellion published an earlier edition of Mike Thompson’s column, “How to Fund Transportation Without Really Trying” based on a preliminary draft. The published version omitted several important changes made by the author. We have since replaced it with the proper version. We apologize both to Mike and to our readers for the error.

Were it not for my friend Steve Nash, a University of Richmond journalism professor who has written extensively on the subject, I would know next to nothing about invasive species. But, trust me, the subject is really important. The consequences of introducing of alien species into environments where local flora and fauna have not evolved defenses against them can be devastating. You don’t have to be a tree hugger to be concerned. Nationally, invasive species cause billions of dollars of damage every year.

As a case in point, consider a story buried in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today: Virginia has hired a private firm to eradicate the only known infestation of zebra mussels within the commonwealth. The mussel, writes Kelley, “can clog industrial water-intake pipes, soil beaches and drive out native shellfish.” The price tag for removing them from a single quarry in Northern Virginia: $365,000.

O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!” Pardon my chortling, but it’s not often that I espy unadulterated good news coming from the General Assembly. According to Jeffrey Kelley at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a bill to encourage cable-TV competition sailed through the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee yesterday in an undisputed decision.

As Kelley explains:

Verizon Communications Inc. is laying a network in more than a dozen states, including Virginia, that will allow the phone giant to provide video and compete with satellite and cable-TV providers. But the New York-based telecommunications company wants to sidestep what it believes is too long a process to gain cable-licensing deals from every city or county it plans to serve.

Real competition is long overdue. Verizon, as I understand it, wants to extend fiber-optic cable directly into the home, at least in selected neighborhoods. That would provide a lot more bandwidth than can be pumped through a coaxial cable.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but the quality of my Comcast, “high speed” Internet access has diminished steadily over the nearly four years that I have been subscribing to it. It still works intermittently as billed, but much of the time it’s no faster than dial-up service. For that I need to pay $49.95 per month (plus taxes)?

Bring it on, Verizon, bring it on!

The American Journalism Review has published Marc Fisher’s feature on the Virginia blogosphere. Fisher, a Washington Post columnist, did a great job of capturing the vibrancy of blogging in the Old Dominion. Not Larry Sabato, Commonwealth Conservative, Waldo Jaquith, Raising Kaine, 750 Volts, Change Servant, Bacon’s Rebellion and Road to Ruin all garner mentions.

According to Fisher, Virginia has one of the most vibrant political blogging communities in the country. Bloggers have been a factor in national politics for a few years now, but Virginia bloggers are the first in the nation to become a major factor in a gubernatorial election.

In Virginia, one of only two states that hold gubernatorial elections the year after a presidential race, blogs became important enough that some campaign managers neglected their daily duties to obsess over the latest blogospheric gossip, state regulators began watching the blogs for compliance with campaign finance laws, lawmakers started grumbling about how to regulate speech on the blogs, and bloggers themselves began talking about setting standards and figuring out just how much coordination makes sense in a fraternity of extreme individualists.

Overall, it’s a thoughtful, well balanced piece, well worth reading. Not a bad job, coming from an unrepentent member of the MSM!

Waldo Jaquith has posted on the column already, as has Will Vehrs at Commonwealth Conservative.

In my most recent column, distributed at noon today, I outlined the advantages of outsourcing road and highway maintenance, a strategy that could conceivably generate efficiencies of $200 million a year — money that could go to new construction and offset some of the proposed tax increases being considered by the General Assembly. As I have argued ad nauseum on this blog, there is no silver bullet for Virginia’s congestion “crisis,” and wringing efficiencies from VDOT operations is only one of many needed reforms. But it sure beats raising taxes.

As I get reader response from the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine, I will post it here on the Bacon’s Rebellion blog.

(As an aside, for a high-altitude overview of why I’m opposed to raising taxes for transportation right now, click here. This cites a number of columns I’ve penned and articles that Bob Burke has written for the Road to Ruin project. For an even more comprehensive treatment that emphasizes the need to reform Virginia’s dysfunctional human settlement patterns, there’s no substitute for perusing Ed Risse’s back columns.)

No need for riots in the steet or hurling molotov cocktails. The thinking man’s insurrection has arrived. Just sink into that ergonomically incorrect chair in front of your PC and peruse the Jan. 30, 2006, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion. Articles include:

The Waste in Maintenance
If the General Assembly doesn’t tackle the $200 million-a-year waste in road maintenance, lawmakers can’t even pretend to be serious about curtailing state spending.
by James A. Bacon

Transportation Hold ’em
Most of the cards on the General Assembly’s transportation table are lying face up. But it’s still too early to know who’s got the winning hand.
by Doug Koelemay

Kaine’s Plan Doesn’t Cut It
Tim Kaine’s transportation plan will cost more money – and it won’t work.
by Patrick McSweeney

Rethinking Education Policy
The problem with Virginia schools isn’t a lack of money — it’s the rigid, bureaucratic policies that dictate how the money is being spent.
by Patrick McSweeney

The Big, Bad Warner
Mark Warner is touring the country telling fables about his fiscal conservatism, i.e. ramming through a tax hike in a red state. Why, Governor, what big lies you have.
by Steven Sisson

Not Again (Sigh)
Once again, the General Assembly is talking about taxes for transportation. You’d never know that a global revolution in highway privatization and financing has taken place.
by Geoffrey Segal

How to Fund Transportation without Really Trying
These six strategies will stretch Virginia transportation dollars by billions of dollars — and put off the need for tax increases for years.
by Michael Thompson

Tax Fever
Just like the flu, a tax-increase fever is afflicting our legislators in Richmond. Unlike the flu, there is no vaccine to protect Virginia families from this malady.
by Philip Rodokanakis

Nice & Curious Questions:
The Petersburg Pluton and Volcanoes in Virginia
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Sen. John Watkins, R-Powtahan, makes the case for nuclear power in today’s Times-Dispatch, endorsing Nuclear Regulatory Commission initiatives to reduce the regulatory barriers to the construction of new nuclear power-generating units. Electricity consumption is projected to increase nearly 50 percent nationally between 2002 and 2005, he notes, and nuclear energy has proven to be more cost effective than the alternatives. Nukes don’t generate gases that contribute to the “greenhouse effect,” and there is no shortage of nuclear fuel.

“Virginia,” Watkins writes, “must include in its strategic energy policy efforts toward facilitating future nuclear energy development.” Surprisingly, he offers no specifics as to what Virginia migh do.

An opposing view is presented by Michele Boyd, legislative director for the energy program for Public Citizen, a group that has filed a petition against Dominion’s early site permit application for new nuclear units. Her most cogent objection is the difficulty of disposing of nuclear waste. As an alternative to nuclear fuel, she suggests development of newable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

I think wind and solar power are wonderful, but I’m skeptical that they’ll provide any more than a small fraction of Virginia’s increased demand for electricity. Virginians could do far more to conserve energy, an option that Boyd unaccountably overlooked. But in the end, I’m an advocate of that quaint old idea of letting the market decide. Let entrepreneurs compete to provide the most cost-effective best energy/conservation alternatives and let consumers choose the solutions that are best for them.

As for the problem of nuclear-waste disposal, they are real. And the cost of disposal should be built into the cost of electricity, not passed on to taxpayers. But the problems strike me as more political than technological. The French generate some 80 percent of their electricity with nuclear power (as my feeble memory recalls from watching CNN), and they have never had a serious nuclear incident. If the French can figure it out, we should be able to as well.

“Anonymous” postings are akin to profane graffiti. Spray it on and then go and hide.
I am particularly incensed by “Anonymous 3:10” posting following my comment on Jim Bacons “BB&T Ahead of the Curve” posting of yesterday. His/her suggestion that I would feel differently about balancing private rights and public responsibilities if the property in question was my house is below the belt.

In 1951 my mother and father bought a small parcel inside the Clear Edge around West Glacier / Belton, Montana. Over the next six years we built a three bedroom home, storage area, garage, septic system and cistern and landscaping on the property. The home incorporated a 1909 cedar log structure originally constructed in Apgar and then moved log by log on a stone boat over the snow to the site two miles away.

In 1970 the house and land were condemned for public use by the State of Montana. I know exactly how it feels to drive down a road on a trip back to ones home town to show ones children were you lived when you grew up and see only an empty field with a service station beyond.

In my professional practice I have also seen the collective best interests of the citizens of dooryards, clusters, neighborhoods, villages, communities and even regions thwarted by the selfish private interests.

An overzealous protection of private “rights” is exactly the sort of “traditional value” that Jared Diamond examines in “Collapse.” As we point out in “Collapse, an Appreciation,” 8 August 2005 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com Diamond believes that the failure to reexamine these traditional values is one of the two root causes of a society to fail. Our posting of this AM (“Who Really Profits”) places the need to create functional human settlement patterns in context.

Note to readers of “Who Really Profits”: If anyone has seen in that post (or any other place) a suggestion by us that a private owner should not be compensated for the full value of property taken for public use or that the new, imporved system we advocte to deterim the value that meets the Federal Constitution’s private property right guarantee be less than fair and equitable please let us know where such a statement can be found in our work.

EMR

There is a very good profile of who really profits from knee-jerk, political pandering over the New London case on the front page of WaPo today. “The Last Handshake Deal: Southeast’s Old-School Landlords Make their Exit–and Money–as Developers Swoop In.”

Also in today’s WaPo there are stories on the front page of Business (“Deal Would Swap Land for Hotel Site”) and on page three of Metro (“Alexandria Buys 2 Waterfront Properties”) about attempts to upgrade urban fabric where the public’s cost is significantly increased by the shadow of New London case over reaction.

There are thousands of acres of land in the Virginia and hundreds of thousands of acres in the United States within the Clear Edges of New Urban Regions where transition to new uses would benefit exiting and future owners as well as the general public. Raising the price of these transactions benefits primarily lawyers, agents and denizens of places like the Nexus Gold Club strip joint.

No one in their right mind would argue that the existing municipal governance structure does not need Fundamental Change if there is to be fair, open and equitable use of eminent domain. Let us focus on making those changes: Move the level of decision to the level of impact; Create open processes within a governance structure that reflects contemporary human settlement patterns.

Knee jerk political pandering and property rights uber alles vis a vis the public interest obviously just makes matters worse.

It is just that many good opportunities to evolve functional settlement patterns are lost? No.

Is it just a matter of dollars and the need to raise taxes to pay for lining the wrong pockets to achieve positive change? No. (Recall that Southeast revitalization did not start by itself, it required hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it direct or indirect public expenditures that tax payers will foot the bill for.)

There is a bigger (regional) reality: For every acre within a half mile of a shared-vehicle transport system station that is converted from parking lots and boarded up buildings (see WaPo photos) we do not need to develop 200 acres of Countryside and build five miles of roadways.

That is not all. When gasoline hits $7.00 a gallon, the human settlement patterns that result will still be functional: Citizens and their governments can achieve mobility and access; Shelter will be affordable and accessible.

If we make the transition of vacant and underutilized land to viable settlement patterns (ones that constitute Balanced Communities in sustainable New Urban Regions) easy, fast and fair, the cost of dwellings and economic opportunity space will not be just accessible, it will also be less expensive. (See “Wild Abandonment,” 8 September 2003 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com

EMR

I’ve had a very good run here at Bacon’s Rebellion, but I’ve decided to strike out in a new direction. I have agreed to join Chad Dotson full-time over at Commonwealth Conservative. This is my last post as one of Jim Bacon’s “wonks.” That word–“wonk”– may be at the crux of my decision. I’m more of a commentator on the passing scene than a “wonk.” I believe my style is better suited to Chad’s blog. I’ll try to enhance what he already does so well.

Jim Bacon has been great to me and I want to express my thanks for all the help and support he has extended me over the years. Jim has been a visionary in both print and online media in Virginia and beyond. This blog is a unique resource because of his vision.

My Rebellion colleagues and readers have also been great. I’ve learned so much from all of you, even when you got me hot under the collar.

I know I’ll be linking to the good stuff that appears here and I’ll continue to roam the comments section.

Thanks to all … and, to paraphrase Professor Sabato, “blogging is a good thing.”

Today’s WaPo has a story on the front page of the Metro section about population change over the past five years. Virginia is the 7th fastest growing state, several Virginia counties are among the fastest growing in the United States. The story is a landmark in one sense, a continuing disaster in another.

For the first time in memory WaPo focuses on population growth and not on percentage population growth. That is a real and important landmark.

On the other hand WaPo quotes those who reinforce the unfounded myth that more people means more congestion. More population means more transport congestion only if the newcomers are forced to make bad location decisions by government policy and by the distorted, subsidized market that drives “Business-As-Usual.” See “Five Critical Realities That Shape the Future” at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com.

Virginia and the National Capital Subregion need to use the surge in jobs and population to evolve Balanced Communities in sustainable New Urban Regions. Current trends disaggregate settlement patterns and enhance dysfunction in mobility, access and shelter.

The problem is not a lack of space for more people inside the Clear Edge, at least not at the levels projected for the next 50 years. The problem is that when the current binge is over there will be no economic leverage to reconfigure human settlement patterns. Citizens, enterprises and agencies will not be able to afford – economically, socially or physically – the resulting dysfunction.

EMR

While Virginia’s General Assembly and some three dozen other state legislatures wrestle with the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. New London, BB&T, the bank with No. 2 market share in Virginia, is taking action on its own. The Winston-Salem, N.C., bank has announced that it “will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.”

The Supreme Court ruling expanded eminent domain authority historically used primarily for utilities, rights of way and other public facilities.

“The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it’s just plain wrong,” said BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison. “One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won’t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.”

Now, let’s see if Virginia’s lawmakers have as much respect for property rights as BB&T.

A bill submitted by Sen. Ken T. Cuccinelli, R-Centreville, would limit the use of eminent domain to public utilities and specifically exclude broader applications such as or private development, or an increase in the tax base, tax revenues, employment, or general economic health.

Speaking of the VA Cost Cutting Blog (see previous post), here’s a topic I wish the contributors would address: Virginia’s Standards of Quality. The little-understood SOQs are so complex they make most peoples’ eyes glaze over. The press writes next to nothing about them, and legislators are apparently terrified to touch them. Yet SOQs are one of the most aggressive drivers of government spending in Virginia — and legislators have little control over them.

In a nutshell: The SOQs set the formula that distributes about 90 percent of all state contributions to local education. This “input” driven model sets the staffing standards for the number, ratio and compensation of teachers, aides, guidance counselors, administrators, etc. in Virginia schools, as well as other educational costs. Not only does this statist, top-down system eliminate any staffing flexibility on the part of local school systems, it “re-benchmarks” the standards every two years, adding huge new costs — more than $1 billion each biennium — that must be borne by the state.

This monstrosity runs on auto-pilot. A handful of bureaucrats who understand the SOQ formula crank out the new standards every two years, and legislators are compelled to find the money to meet them. As a consequence, the Governor of Virginia and the General Assembly have little latitude in launching new educational initiatives because the SOQ standards have the first call on any new educational dollars.

I’ve written about SOQs in my latest column, “The ABCs of SOQs.”

For a detailed critique of the SOQs, readers should consult an excellent report by Lil Tuttle with the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, “Education Funding in Virginia: Aligning Dollars to Achievement Priorities.”

The VA Cost Cutting blog is gaining a good head of steam with commentary focused on a subject near and dear to our hearts at the Bacon’s Rebellion blog: cutting government waste and inefficiency. If you like the subject matter we address here, you’ll like the VA Cost Cutting Blog.

It’s not often that the politics of agency appointments find their way into the news, but Daily Press columnist Wil LaVeist has written two fascinating pieces about behind the scenes maneuvering at the Department of Minority Business Enterprise (DMBE).

In his first column, LaVeist wrote of the unceremonious departure of Ed Hamm, DMBE Director in the Warner Administration:

Some black politicians and community advocates in Hampton Roads believe the 60-year-old Hamm, who is CEO of E.L. Hamm & Associates in Virginia Beach, a consulting and engineering company, was disrespected by the “Richmond Connection.”

There’s lots of juicy gossip and speculation.

In a follow-up column, LaVeist puts more pieces of the puzzle together, reporting on possible candidates for the job, including one who was named Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade instead. Instead of the “Richmond Connection,” there is mention of shadowy “Richmond folks.” He criticizes the Kaine Transition team for its handling of the situation.

Why is this important? The state is expending an enormous amount of money and effort as it tries to swing more state contracts toward woman and minority-owned businesses, but results have not been impressive. Incoming Secretary of Administration Viola Baskerville was a huge advocate for more minority contracting when she was in the House of Delegates. Now she is in a position where the problem is her “baby.” Others have also been persistant advocates, including Bacon’s Rebellion‘s own CG2.

Will there be more spending to try and raise minority contracting numbers, or will new leadership try different approaches?