Bacon's Rebellion

by Will Vehrs

Will Car Tax Can the Comity?



Back in December, Gordon Morse worried in the Daily Press that that the Governor and General Assembly might be too “lovey-dovey.”

Just last week, Virginian-Pilot columnist Margaret Edds noted that “camaraderie reigns” and wondered, “Can the good will last?”

After House Republicans unveiled a new plan for ending the car tax, the answer, Margaret, is “No.”

The car tax sets teeth on edge like no other issue and Gordon Morse was the first major pundit to signal, albeit indirectly, that the comity is dead. In the Washington Post, Morse wrote, “The folks pushing this deal don’t give a hoot about the numbers so long as they can once more sing ‘end the car tax’ into November.” Questioning the motives of your opponents is guaranteed to interrupt any tranquility that has taken hold in the General Assembly. More.

by Nikki Rovner and Mary Heinricht

Development is rapidly consuming Virginia’s farmland and forests. The Commonwealth needs to invest more in preservation of open space.

“It shall be the Commonwealth’s policy to protect its atmosphere, lands and waters from pollution, impairment or destruction for the benefit, enjoyment and general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth.”

–Article XI, Constitution of Virginia

Experts predict that if current trends continue, over the next 25 years Virginia will develop an area equal to that developed since the Commonwealth was settled by Europeans. The rate of loss is accelerating and is now more than two times faster than our population growth. Vitally important resources like prime farmlands are being lost at the greatest rate, with forestland loss close behind. More.

by Michael Thompson



The General Assembly is considering several bills that would improve the efficiency of state government. We’ll find out soon how serious legislators are about getting them passed.

This year’s session of the General Assembly, with a little luck, will continue moving Virginia toward the formation of a better, more accountable and more business-like state government. We’ll know a lot more in a few weeks when this year’s session ends. Right now there is lot to be excited about. More.

by Steven Sisson



The Blue Dog walks Chap Petersen and Leslie Byrne through the burning issues of the day, from transportation funding to state budge surpluses.

Del. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, and former state senator Leslie Byrne, both mounting candidacies for the Democratic nomination to run for lieutenant governor in the fall, recently interviewed with the Blue Dog about their prospective campaigns. More.

by Steven Sisson



Stop whining. If Tim Kaine is raising big bucks from out-of-state contributors, go out and find your own money. Or fix the campaign finance law.



It’s big news in the state. Tim Kaine is the “Five Million Dollar Man.”

Rumors had been floating around about a huge contribution windfall earmarked for Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign, which is looking more and more like the frontrunner in the race.

Contribution-wise, that is. More.

by Phillip Rodokanakis



State senator Russ Potts… for his memorable portrayal as a tax-and-spend liberal in the 2004 legislature, when he proposed $2 billion in new state spending.

Ronald Reagan is universally given credit for having reincarnated the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, a lot of he what he stood for is being widely ignored by a number of current Republican office holders. This is particularly true in the Virginia State Senate where the tax-and-spend Republicans outnumber the few fiscal conservative Senators by about 18 to six. More.

by EM Risse



Want better education for Virginia’s children? Then help change the size, location and funding of our schools.



Transportation is “the canary in the mine field” of scattered, low-density and unbalanced development. Typically, traffic gridlock is the first symptom of profoundly dysfunctional land use. Education is a close second as an indicator. Few factors affect the quality of education more than the size and location of school facilities, both of which are influenced by prevailing land use patterns. More.

by Trip Pollard



Public-private “partnerships” for transportation projects raise little private equity capital and undermine normal planning processes. The enabling legislation desperately needs to be updated.



Virginians need and deserve innovative solutions to their transportation problems. A more balanced and efficient approach is required to address gridlock and longer commutes, as well as the heavy toll that road-building and accompanying sprawl takes on our pocketbooks, health, farmland, and environment. More.

by Patrick McSweeney



The architectural standards of Virginia’s capital area have gone downhill ever since Thomas Jefferson designed the state capitol. It’s time to give the public more involved in planning.

The only thing uglier than some of the modern structures clustered around the Capitol in Richmond is the decision-making process that led to their approval.

As with most ugly practices, the decision-making about what will be demolished and what will take its place at the seat of government is carried out, for the most part, in secrecy–or at least beyond the view of average citizens and taxpayers. It’s time to let a little sunshine in. More.

by Patrick McSweeney



Steve Baril’s proposal to crank up borrowing and spending to build more roads would saddle Virginians with untold debt and do nothing to improve traffic congestion.



This is not the time or place to take sides in one of the Republican statewide nomination contests, but a recent proposal by Steve Baril, a candidate for attorney general, warrants a strong response. Baril’s Marshall Plan for Transportation is so ill-conceived that it should be buried without delay. More.

by Douglas Koelemay



Virginians like spending the tax revenues generated by Northern Virginia’s booming economy. But if they don’t invest in the region’s prosperity, the cash cow may run dry.

Correcting an overdependence on federal dollars and underinvestment in boomtown Northern Virginia are twin challenges for the Virginia economy in 2005.

Much attention this time of year is focused on the General Assembly meeting in Richmond through February 26 and rightly so. State government will enjoy double-digit growth in tax revenues in these first months of 2005 compared to 2004. The state budget won’t be nearly as penurious as in recent years past. Unfortunately, these positive developments hide vulnerabilities the Virginia economy faces in the years ahead, including the growing dependence of the state’s economy on federal government spending, and Virginia’s continuing under-investment in the Northern Virginia economy. More.

by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman



Chartered status at Virginia’s elite universities will broaden access to higher education. Although general tuitions will rise, schools will set aside more money for financial aid for the needy.



The Virginia General Assembly has taken up the “chartered university” proposal that could restructure the relationship between the state and its public colleges and universities. Chartered universities would be able to make many important decisions on campus instead of waiting for decisions in Richmond. Most importantly, chartered institutions would control tuition. More.

by Barnie Day



Bill Howell can’t get traction on any of his other issues, so he’s trotted out a frightful oldie–completing the phase-out of the car tax.

In what has to be the most desperate reach for political relevance in recent memory, the House Republican leadership on Wednesday rolled out… (drumroll, please)… the car tax issue!

For real. I’m not making this up

This one is the policy equivalent of a blow-up doll. Let’s call her “Gilmore’s Ghost.” What’s she look like? Well, that depends on the lighting. Frightful, even scary, in the daylight. Not bad in the dark. A little long in the tooth, and so lame she’s reduced now to crutches, still, a wig, a little lipstick and… Whatayaknow!… Bill Howell’s finally got an issue he can squire about in public! More.

by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Elvis was born far from the hills of southwestern Virginia in Tupelo, Miss. But researcher Brent Kennedy, a college administrator in Wise, theorizes that the King, as well as Abraham Lincoln and Ava Gardner, might trace their ancestors to the mysterious Melungeons. These dark-skinned, blue-eyed people were first documented in Virginia’s Blue Ridge in the late 1700s. Over the years, various myths about their origin arose. Some believed they were either survivors from the Lost Colony of Roanoke or Portuguese shipwrecks. Others suggested they were descendents of one of the lost tribes of Israel or of early Carthaginian or Phoenician seamen. More.

by James A. Bacon



Richmond’s creative class is hot, hot, hot. Pioneering new ways to collaborate and inspire one another, commercial artists are becoming a driving economic force in the region.



Were it not for the “Euro” décor of polished metal and sleek furniture, the corporate culture of Rainmaker Studios would seem only one step removed from that of a college dormitory. Musicians leave electric guitars propped against the sofa. Take-out pizzas are delivered with the pepperonis arranged in four-letter words. Pranksters play bizarre music tracks — Iranian gangsta rap, or Harry Connick Jr.-style crooning of the Red Hot Chili Peppers — to phone callers stuck on hold. More.