Bacon's Rebellion

When I went to the The Washington Post website this morning, a huge pop-up ad for West Virginia busted through my pop-up blocker and covered my screen: “More Bonding Than the Federal Reserve.” Oh, please.

Virginia is for Lovers. Don’t ever be annoying like that.

In its final quarterly report for Fiscal 2005, the Virginia Department of Transportation noted that the number of VDOT employees had declined from 10,001 employees to 9, 126 — even while improving performance on key metrics such as completing construction and maintenance jobs on time and on budget. (See the Virginian-Pilot article here.)

That’s an impressive performance — probably the most impressive performance of any state agency under the Warner administration. The increase in productivity and quality excels even in comparison to the private sector. Here’s my question: How does that compare to other state agencies? We don’t know. The reason we don’t know, I suspect, is that other agencies aren’t tracking their performance the same way. If they are, they aren’t talking about it. Otherwise, they surely would be trumpeting their achievements.

According to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Virginia state government overall has been adding to payroll, not cutting it over the past year. Average state employment for the first four months of 2005 was 182,675, compared to 181,650 the year before. Remember, those aggregate numbers include VDOT’s cuts of nearly 900 employees, implying a growth of nearly 2,000 employees for non-VDOT agencies. (Disclaimer: These numbers are not authoritative. The BLS does not classify jobs the same way the state does. But the figure do indicate a trend.)

Conclusion: State agencies aren’t exactly on a hiring binge, but the era of budget-crisis parsimony appears to be over. For certain, taxpayers aren’t seeing the hoped-for gains in state enterprise productivity they have every right to expect.

Tim Kaine may have offered “None. Zip. Nada.” in the way of new spending initiatives at the Greenbrier debate, but apparently he does have new spending plans. On a day where Jerry Kilgore was endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business, Kaine conducted a “town hall” meeting at Capital One in Goochland, covered by Tyler Whitley of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. His campaign put out a press release saying, “Kaine has proposed a $500-per-employee tax credit to small businesses to offset health-insurance costs.”

Now this seems like a budget buster on par with Kilgore’s $500 tax credit to parents for tutoring, but getting health insurance to more Virginians is an important issue. Kaine has done a lot of good work exploring health insurance options for small business and a debate about how to do it is worth having, although business issues certainly don’t capture the imagination like the old, tried and true endless debate on abortion.

As proof that Kaine is not wedded to higher taxes, he did not ask Capital One employees, “What’s in your wallet?”

In a Richmond Times-Dispatch front page story on the increase in Virginians seeking post-secondary education, the Chancellor of the Virginia Commmunity College System had this to say:

[Glenn] DuBois said he’s pursuing increased state financing but also contemplating innovative ways of raising money through public-private partnerships, local government contributions and even regional taxes agreed to in referendums (emphasis mine).

Remember what Russ Potts has told us over and over again: “Referendum is spelled C-O-W-A-R-D.”

Not exactly big news, but it confirms what we already know: The real estate and construction industry is by far the largest donor to Virginia political campaigns this year. Sayeth an Associated Press article today:

The group, dominated by developers, general contractors and real estate agents in particular, amassed contributions exceeding $6.2 million to candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, according to an Associated Press analysis of reports compiled into a database by the Virginia Public Access Project.

It is much larger than the No. 2 source of cash, the $3.9 million transferred among political parties, political action committees and candidates, and is more than double the $3 million law firms contributed.

What are the implications? I’m glad you asked:

Large gifts by the people who plan, finance, build and sell homes, office parks, shopping plazas and entertainment complexes … represents an enormous investment in politicians who will have an enormous influence on state tax, transportation and urban policies as the teeming suburbs of northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond struggle to keep services current with developments that seem to leapfrog one another.

Thanks AP, I couldn’t have said it better.

From the official transcript, Tim Kaine on new spending: Kaine made no reference to new spending during the debate. None. Zip. Nada.

From the official transcript, Jerry Kilgore on new spending:

“My better pay for better teachers plan will bring performance pay in the public education system.” (pg.14)

“I am committed to giving parents tax credits—up to $500 per child—to empower them to purchase tutoring or other educational supplies.” (pg. 14)

(Note: 2001-2002 Virginia public school enrollment: 1,144,770 students @ $500.00 each = $572,385,000.00 = something over half a BILLION dollars @ no new taxes = Neat Trick!)

“I am going to reward our teachers with bonuses…’ (pg. 18)

“I have a transportation plan that will work, will bring more dollars into the transportation system by using general fund dollars—those dollars that come from you income and sales taxes.”(pg. 22)

“I will work with the Bar and the Supreme Court to increase funding, the hourly rate that we do pay those who represent indigent defendants—I think that is an important step forward for our future.” (pg.69)

From the official transcript, Jerry Kilgore on how he will pay for these spendings:

“We can move Virginia forward in the future without raising taxes.” (pg. 49)

“I believe we can lower our taxes and fulfill our promise to fully phase out the car tax…” (pg. 56)

Did Tim Kaine truly club Jerry Kilgore, in the inestimable words of Barnie Day, “like a baby seal” in Saturday’s gubernatorial debate? Don’t heed the spin-meisters, make up your own mind based on the documentary evidence. The Bacon’s Rebellion blog presents the Virginia Bar Association transcript of the debate.

(Thanks go to Steve Haner for tracking this down and passing it along.)

WaPo does it again. In a Business Section front page story today (“Assessing Fort Belvoir’s Problems and Prospects: Increased Traffic Is No.1 Official Concern”) not a single mention of the real solution: Create a Balanced Community, not another focus of excess jobs like Tysons Corner.

The southeastern part of Fairfax County has needed a community focus for over 40 years. One was called for in the 1950s County Comprehensive Plan. That plan had four. “New towns” were planned for Wiehle (Reston), Centreville (still not a real community) and Burke (Burke Centre is one village of such a place) and southeastern Fairfax. Specifically, the land that became Lorton Reformatory was to be a satellite planned new community.

That never happened and when the prison went away another opportunity was lost. Now there is a chance to rethink the southwestern part of the County and develop a real Balanced Community. METRO is not far away, the federal government owns a lot of land… See “METRO Ills and Base Closings,” 20 June 2005 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com.

It seems no one wants to talk about the real solution, not the military, not the smart growth types, not the governance practitioners, no one.

Just one caution: Do not assume putting federal facilities in a isolated “campus” will make the workers or their work secure from terrorists.

EMR

House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and other senior House Republicans have committed to passing legislation in the 2006 General Assembly to restrict the condemnation and private property taking – or eminent domain – powers of governments in Virginia. The protection of private property rights has become a pressing public issue since the U.S. Supreme Court decided last month that seizing private property for the purpose of augmenting the tax base constituted a public benefit.

“Homeowners, entrepreneurs, churches and non-profits across Virginia are rightly dismayed by the potential of having their private property rights severely diminished – or their homes and small businesses confiscated outright,” said Howell at a press conference this afternoon. “Citizens need to know that the majority they’ve elected to lead the House of Delegates not only shares their concerns and opposes the Court’s 5 to 4 ruling, but that we will do what is necessary to ensure that property rights in Virginia are protected from the effects of this misguided change in public policy.

“Here in the birthplace of America’s government,” he continued, “we are committed to ensuring that ‘public use’ shall continue to mean what it says: a clearly understood, strictly limited definition that has served us well since our Nation’s founders approved the Bill of Rights over 225 years ago.”

This summer has been hotter than the hinges of hell, yet here in Richmond I don’t think we’ve had any ozone alert days.

Have all our environmental and pollution prevention efforts paid off? Or are ozone alerts a function of chance atomospheric conditions that just aren’t present this summer?

We now have a firm date for the apocalypse.

Sen. Russ Potts, reported by Hugh Lessig of the Daily Press: “He predicted that Kilgore’s refusal to include him will backfire and that by Oct. 15 it will be a Potts-Kaine race.”

SYNERGY/Planning, Inc. did not dispatch any vehicles near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge last weekend. A lot of other people did not drive there and so the massive tie-up did not occur.

This brings to mind the result of the past education programs: The 1984 Olympics in Los Angles, the 1976 Centennial celebration in the Federal District of Columbia. There are many other examples.

Here is a modest proposal: Instead of spending $40-Billion over the next 10 years condemning rights-of-way, grading and laying asphalt, lets spend $.5-Billion over the next five so citizens will understand the root causes of traffic congestion. A comprehensive program for elementary, high school and adult education/community college programs plus intensive governance practitioner re-training would cost that much but “think of all the money we would save…”

If citizens understood that “we cannot build our way out of congestion” and that it is unrealistic to expect government to provide mobility with dysfunctional human settlement patterns a lot of the problem would go away. If citizens understood the Private Vehicle Mobility Myth, the Big Yard Myth and the Skycar Myth, Virginians would see results of more intelligent location decisions in less time that it would take to start building the roads and rails that only make settlement patterns more dysfunctional and congestion worse.

For a summary of the basis for a comprehensive curriculum see “Interstate Crime,” 28 February 2005, “The Commuting Problem,” 17 January 2005 and “From Myth to Law,” 29 November 2004 and the material cited in these three columns at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com.

EMR

Michael Hardy reports in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch that the state’s “rainy-day fund” is rapidly filling up. Writes Hardy: “Exected big deposits into the fund — it’s expected to hold about $670 million now — would push its total to an all-time high, according to a new analysis by the staff of the House budget panel.”

With the budget surplus expected to amount to $500 million or more this year, an extra $300 million to $400 million would be earmarked for the fund. However, the state Constitution caps the fund at 10 percent of the average tax collections of the past three years, or roughly $1 billion. Once the rainy day fund is full, writes Hardy, “the extra dollars could then be used to finance core state services from education to law enforcement.”

Or rebated to taxpayers for the 2004 tax increase that we never needed. With the rainy-day fund nearly full, there’s more reason than ever to roll back taxes.

Although not on par with the citizen board financial and oversight shenanigans of the Bay Bridge Commission, DGIF, and VRS, the Western Virginia Workforce Investment Board is in the news for a membership purge that all but eliminated “diversity” of membership. The chairman reduced the size of the board from 40 to 14 and the resulting group had no minority representation. Naturally, this has caused the predictable sturm and drang.

Fixing the diversity issue will be easy, but there’s a bigger problem:

The little-known board is federally mandated by a 1998 law. The Roanoke-area board receives more than $1 million a year from the federal government to fund local work force training programs. It’s one of 17 work force boards in the state and represents eight localities.

But state officials believe the boards are not as effective as they could be.

That’s an understatement. Does anyone have any experience with these boards in their communities? Can anyone point to something tangible they’ve done to help dislocated workers get real jobs?