By Steve Haner
Dominion Energy Virginia insists that its decision to sell a half-interest in the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project “won’t impact ratepayers.” The problem is, perhaps it should. Perhaps Dominion is creating additional value for its shareholders that instead should benefit ratepayers. (more…)
by Joe Fitzgerald
Dartmouth’s basketball team voted this week to unionize. It’s a shame Harrisonburg’s police officers can’t.
The basketball players will join the SEIU, Service Employees International Union, a kind of super union for people who don’t qualify for other unions. SEIU strongly supports health care and a higher minimum wage, making it a strong supporter of Democratic candidates.
The five Democrats on Harrisonburg’s City Council say police can’t even talk to them about collective bargaining. It would be too expensive. This from a council that approved the pig-in-a-poke, bait-and-switch Bluestone Town Center and is spending money to make the city more homeless-friendly. Priorities, I suppose. (more…)
It takes tuition payments from nearly 1,000 undergraduates just to pay their base salaries!
Bacon’s Rebellion is reposting this article published by Open the Books, a nonprofit group dedicated to transparency in government spending, and republished on the Jefferson Council blog. Open the Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski will speak at the Jefferson Council 3rd annual meeting April 9. Register now to attend. — JAB
The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million. That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30 percent for the annual cost of their benefits.
In contrast, last Friday, the University of Florida dismissed its DEI bureaucracy, saving students and taxpayers $5 million per year. The university terminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative faculty appointments. Those funds have been re-programmed into a “faculty recruitment fund” to attract better people who actually teach students.
No such luck for learning at Virginia’s flagship university – founded by Thomas Jefferson no less. UVA has a much deeper DEI infrastructure. (more…)
by Don Rippert
The journey of marijuana decriminalization and legalization in Virginia is a saga marked by halting progress, legislative inertia, and moments of enlightened reform, encapsulating the Virginia General Assembly’s oscillation between inaction and gradual, albeit grudging, acceptance of societal shifts. This narrative reflects a broader struggle within the state’s legislative body, often perceived as lacking both the foresight and the competence necessary to navigate complex social issues promptly and effectively.
Virginia’s relationship with cannabis began with a cautious foray into medical marijuana in 1979, allowing recommendations for glaucoma or chemotherapy side effects, though this law became largely symbolic due to federal restrictions and a lack of implementation mechanisms. Subsequent tightening of regulations and slight expansions did little to establish a functioning medical cannabis program until significant reforms in the 2010s, culminating in the establishment of medical cannabis dispensaries in 2018 and the relaxation of doctor registration requirements in 2023.
The road to decriminalization and legalization has been equally tortuous. The General Assembly, showing a characteristic hesitancy to embrace reform, rejected decriminalization efforts as recently as 2015. However, the 2019 elections, which saw Democrats gain control of both houses, marked a turning point. Attorney General Mark Herring’s call for legalization and a subsequent summit set the stage for decriminalization in 2020, turning possession of less than an ounce of marijuana into a civil offense with a $25 fine, a move that significantly altered the state’s punitive stance on cannabis. (more…)
by Jon Baliles
The effort to save the old Richmond Community Hospital (RCH) from Virginia Union’s wrecking ball raises an interesting debate about recognizing history, remembering history, and benefitting by learning from history. Especially when one program is established that then becomes part of a bigger effort and very especially when it is used to overcome something as insidious as segregation. It is also an example of why saving monuments to black history is so important instead of sacrificing them for a revenue stream from 200 apartments.
This story, in a roundabout way, ties in with the opportunity Virginia Union has to create and model a historic preservation program like the successful program at Tuskegee University in Alabama — which is the only Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to have such a program. Doing something like that at VUU centered around the RCH as a starting point and building block could have an incalculable impact for generations of students to come.
The architecture program created at Tuskegee in 1893 (which led to the historic preservation program) was so lasting and impactful it quickly became a main contributor in educating almost 700,000 black children across the south for decades in what were known as The Rosenwald Schools. (more…)
By David Wojick
In formal comments, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the adverse impact of the giant Virginia offshore wind project on air and water quality. The issue is far-reaching because all big offshore wind facilities could have these adverse effects. (more…)
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
The 2024 General Assembly has taken care of a piece of unfinished business. It has passed a bill to set up a framework for the sale of marijuana.
The 2021 General Assembly made it legal for individuals to possess a small amount of marijuana. However, there was not enough time to craft consensus legislation to regulate its sale. That task was delayed until the next year.
That plan was upended when Republicans won a majority of seats in the House of Delegates for the 2022 and 2023 sessions. Any bill to establish a framework to regulate the sale of marijuana was killed.
The result was a strange state of limbo. It was legal to possess marijuana, but it was not legal to sell it. A black market flourished. A Cannabis Control Authority (the Authority), with a governing board, was created, but had nothing to regulate. (When the term “Authority” is used in this article, the term includes the administrative agency and the governing board.)
With Democrats back in the majority in both houses in 2024, one of their top priorities was to legalize the sale of marijuana and create a framework to regulate it and tax it. (more…)
by Matt Hurt
Chris Braunlich (Bait and Switch: Reform Reverts to Mo’ Money) brought up many good points about some bills that propose to increase teacher salaries. However, it seems necessary to add some additional context to help flesh out this conversation/debate. It appears that many don’t fully understand the gravity of the situation.
On paper, the teacher vacancy rates seems to have stabilized from 2023 to 2024 rather than increasing as they had in years prior. The data below were obtained from the Staffing and Vacancy Report Build-A-Table on the VDOE website, the dataset for which only dates back to 2022.
By Steve Haner
The last time the General Assembly made a similar mistake with the Virginia tax code was 20 years ago. It was 2004, and the complaints that business was not “paying its fair share” came from Republicans in the House. They introduced and quickly pushed through a bill that stripped sales tax exemptions from multiple categories of business. Sound familiar?
Twenty years later the only thing that has changed is that the bad idea is now coming from Senate Democrats. The anti-business rhetoric sounds the same. The sales or use taxes of up to 6-7% they seek to impose on business-to-business digital transactions (goods and services) will reach into every Virginia company, large and small. It will simply be passed along in higher prices. The only winners are their out-of-state competitors who have no such taxes in their states. (more…)
by Jon Baliles
Virginia Union University announced recently that it would utilize several parcels it owns just north of the main campus to build a new $40 million development with up to 200 apartments (some market and some lower income) and possibly some homes and commercial space for students or the public, which would create a revenue stream for the school and shared profits with the New York developer.
But the development project would come with the cost of demolishing the old Richmond Community Hospital (RCH), first opened in Jackson Ward in 1902 at the dawn of Jim Crow by black physicians to treat Richmonders who were not allowed to be treated in white hospitals. The building that now sits on VUU property on Overbrook Road was purchased and opened in 1932.
Eric Kolenich wrote in the Times-Dispatch that “across the street was a neighborhood of prominent black residents, called Frederick Douglass Court, that later was home to civil rights attorney and federal judge Spotswood Robinson.” The hospital moved to Church Hill in 1980 and the building has been vacant ever since. A VUU spokesperson said the school determined there was no way to save the building. But the local preservation nonprofit Historic Richmond weighed in and has suggested that because of its historical significance, it could be incorporated into a larger project and still produce revenue for the university.
Michael Paul Williams wrote an excellent piece noting that “We live in a city chock-full of adaptive reuses, including of the former Westhampton School building by Bon Secours. Shouldn’t we be as passionate about preserving our bricks-and-mortar black history while it’s still above ground?”
That is why a group of Richmonders dedicated to preserving the derelict structure have organized to try and save the building. They are asking VUU to incorporate the structure into its plans. VUU needs the revenue stream that the project would bring, but the group and others believe there are ways to do it and preserve the building and its history. (more…)
by Donald Smith
Does the Virginia GOP want the help and support of the Confederate heritage community? We should get a pretty good indicator this week.
Three bills just passed by the General Assembly will soon land on Governor Youngkin’s desk, if they haven’t already. They will remove the tax exemptions of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial House in Lexington, and stop further issuance of the General Robert E. Lee and Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates (but not recall existing ones). The governor will have only seven days to sign, veto, or let them become law without his signature.
That is plenty of time. Plenty of time for him to do the right thing, and veto them. (more…)
by James A. Bacon
During the University of Virginia Board of Visitors meeting Thursday, Provost Ian Baucom briefed board members on what the administration was doing to defuse tensions in the UVA community between Jews and the vocal pro-Palestinian faction over the Israel-Gaza war.
He mentioned “sustained academic programming” to illuminate sources of the decades-long conflict. He took note of the mental health services provided those experiencing mental anguish. He assured the Board that the University was working to bring opposing parties together in dialogue and to understand “the reality of Jewish, Muslim and other religious minorities.” UVA, he said, was committed to “deep engagement” and “freedom of expression.”
The Provost reiterated the administration’s support for free speech. UVA, he said, was a place where “people are free to disagree” but where “everyone belongs.” “We need to listen to people we disagree with,” he added, and concluded by thanking the Board for its “help and wisdom.”
But when board members began addressing the hostile environment for Jewish students at UVA, there was no sign that the Provost, President Jim Ryan, or Rector Robert Hardie were interested in “listening” to anyone who disagreed with them, much less in “engaging” with them on the most contentious issue to afflict the University in recent years. (more…)
by Jon Baliles
As noted, two weeks ago City Council approved the change to city code to make sure the city’s Finance Department only applies meals tax payments to the month for which the invoice is submitted. So, no more of the shady practice that had been applying a portion of say, May’s tax payment, to an outstanding balance from April’s bill. The reason that’s a bad idea is that the city could put any account in arrears but the business owner never knew because the city had a practice of not informing the business they were in arrears, which led to the crazy snowballing of interest and penalties that resulted in bills of $37,000, $50,000, and $68,000.
Samuel Veney, the owner of Philly Vegan, who was told by the city he owed $37,000 in penalties and interest, was eloquent and forceful at the City Council podium on February 12th. He implored Council not only to listen, but to hear what he way saying — he wanted to make sure they heard how he was missing time with his children and spending too much time dealing with the city’s screw-ups instead of working at his business. Said Veney:
What we are saying to y’all right now is to take the opportunity to make change happen. It shouldn’t have gotten this far and now that it has you actually have the opportunity to actually make change happen in a better way for our city. (more…)
By Chris Braunlich
Some years back, I ran into a friend, a Virginia Education Association unit chair, outside the General Assembly building, there to lobby on behalf of a state-wide teacher salary increase. (more…)
By Steve Haner
We’ve already voted, but my wife and I were in the Henrico County crowd today to hear Nikki Haley make her case for support in Tuesday’s Virginia GOP primary. Early voting continues through Saturday, but if you wait until Tuesday and come to Henrico’s Maybeury Elementary, I’ll be there asking which ballot you want. Identify yourself as a reader and I may sneak you two….
Remember, it is an open primary. No party registration is required, a fact that clearly irritates former President Donald Trump. He whined about it on WRVA this morning as he was interviewed by adoring host John Reid. But isn’t the point picking a candidate who can win in the general election, not just a party primary? Independents decide elections. (more…)
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.
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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