Judging by the headlines in Virginia’s newspapers, one might think that federal budget cuts are causing widespread devastation to government services and the economy. Here is a sampling from just the past couple of days:
I could go on… and on… but it would be tedious. The point is that Virginia’s wellbeing is funded to an extraordinary degree by the federal government — not just defense, entitlements, and payroll for government employees but innumerable programs underwriting everything from medical care and job training to daycare and housing for the poor.
The subsidy program to help low-income customers of Dominion Energy Virginia with their bills, funded by involuntary contributions from all the other customers, is beginning to show signs of growth. It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program, or PIPP.
In its most recent filing on the program with the State Corporation Commission, the utility reported that it had provided bill subsidy payments to almost 23,000 eligible customer households as of this past March. PIPP began helping people with bills in February 2024, almost four years after this new entitlement was included in the omnibus Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020.
The slow start was the subject of an earlier report on Bacon’s Rebellion. Having reached 22,822 enrollees by March 31 of this year, the program had provided about $14.5 million in benefits. The launch has been so slow the money being spent was already being held, because the utility began assessing the mandatory “universal service fee” on its customers in 2021, long before the first beneficiary enrollments and payouts.
Because of the accumulated balance, the universal service fee on all customer bills moved back down to zero for this year and Dominion has proposed to keep it at zero for the next phase of the program, which kicks off November 1. That request is now subject to the SCC’s review. Dominion projects that during the 12 months beginning November 1, annual bill subsidies will reach $20 million, with another $6 million in overhead costs split between the Department of Social Services and the utility itself.
Appalachian Power Company in the western part of Virginia is running the same program but has not filed a fresh report or application with the SCC. Last summer the SCC allowed it to charge its customers $1.32 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electric usage. Appalachian’s underlying bills are higher and perhaps its customer base is more economically stressed.
PIPP is designed to cap the amount of money low-income households must pay for electricity out of their monthly income. The cap is 10% in households using electricity to heat, and 6% in households using another heat source. About 3,300 of the Dominion customers who are being subsidized by PIPP heat with another source.
Another interesting tidbit in the report is that a fair chunk of the money being transferred from non-PIPP participants to PIPP participants (after the healthy overhead cut) is going to pay off their overdue bills. One way or another, the money all flows into Dominion’s coffers — for current billing, for overdue billing or for the administrative task of paying itself. The house always wins.
University of Virginia officials violated the University’s own document-retention policies when it preserved bodycam videos of a University Police Department (UPD) encounter with Board of Visitors member Bert Ellis in March 2023. The videos were posted online in a Washington Post article critical of the activist board member this March, two years later, in the run-up to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s firing of Ellis.
A University Police written directive states that video from “body worn cameras” are to be downloaded daily to www.Evidence.com, a law-enforcement cloud storage system. Unless needed for investigations, trials or training purposes, video is to be “automatically … purged 90 days within creation.”
Furthermore, the guidelines put tight controls on access to the videos, stating that “accessing, copying, or releasing files is strictly prohibited except as approved by the Chief of Police.” Officers who deviate from the guidelines set forth,” the document says, “may be subject to disciplinary action.”
Retaining video for the purpose of embarrassing a board member critical of the University administration is not one of the exemptions permitted by the guidelines.
The videos came to the public’s attention March 24 when the Washington Post broke the story that Youngkin wanted to remove Ellis, a board member he had previously appointed and had become a lightning rod for criticism. Ellis backed Youngkin’s goals to cut spending, pursue intellectual diversity, and dismantle the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion infrastructure, but the Governor found his style unbecoming of a UVA board member. Ellis had been organizing board opposition to policies enacted by President Jim Ryan and had clashed openly on at least once occasion with Ryan board ally, Rector Robert Hardie.
In the article, the WaPo recounted past quotes and actions that had embroiled Ellis in controversy. The only new material came from video footage from two bodycams of Ellis taken April 1, 2023, which amplified the message that Ellis was a hothead.
The pro-green energy activist group Clean Virginia has announced a live television attack advertisement in opposition to Shannon Taylor, one of two Democratic candidates seeking the nomination for Attorney General. The ad (see it here) was authorized by the other candidate, Jay Jones.
Taylor, currently Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney, accepted $300,000 in donations from the utility in the past few weeks. Jones, a former state delegate, has taken the pledge against Dominion bucks and was rewarded during the same period by Clean Virginia with $200,000 cash. Democrats are choosing their nominee in a primary, with the polls open June 17.
The in-kind donation of the advertising for Jones will show up in a future report, presumably. The ad will could also inject a healthy debate on energy costs into the 2025 campaign. The focus is on the utility’s pending rate increase request, and the role played by the Virginia Attorney General as the designated counsel for the state’s consumers in front of the State Corporation Commission. Clean Virginia believes the money is disqualifying.
During the same period, Dominion gave the current Consumer Counsel, Attorney General Jason Miyares, another $300,000 for his campaign for a second term. Clean Virginia will be attacking him later this year, one expects, but that will be harder to do if Taylor is his opponent. Did I mention this is a rate-increase year?
Now here is the story within the story. All this was kicked off by a very useful report on fresh campaign donation documents from the Virginia Public Access Project. That information has now disappeared from their website, poof it’s gone. The links at the end of the post are dead. Luckily one reporter, Brandon Jarvis of Virginia Scope, did a detailed report on the information while it was still live yesterday.
Dark clouds over Harvard. Image credit: Fights of Our Lives
by David J. Toscano
“Our colleges [have] become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” — Donald J. Trump, July 17, 2023
“We need to … aggressively attack the universities in this country; the professors are the enemy.” — J.D. Vance, November 2, 2021
Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has mounted the most aggressive and sustained assault on American universities in our history, targeting not only the values of intellectual freedom but also the institutions that drive innovation and economic growth. This campaign will shape the battle for democracy and could have grave consequences for the nation’s future.
Attacks on intellectuals are not new. Think of Galileo, whose endorsement of Copernican heliocentrism earned him an Inquisition and house arrest by the Catholic Church. Because intellectuals frequently raise difficult questions and challenge authority, those in power often make efforts to silence them. But rarely have institutions of intellectual life themselves come under such organized threat. Trump understands that undermining the economic vitality of universities can also choke off dissent and critical thought.
Americans hold sometimes conflicting views about higher education, especially our prestigious institutions. A college education is celebrated as a gateway to economic success and social mobility. But some schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and even the University of Virginia (UVA) are labeled elitist, often resented for their perceived liberalism, high costs, and admissions practices. This has made them vulnerable to political attack.
Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones pretends to support social justice while cozying up to fat-cat elitists who exploit the poor.
In the race for Virginia’s Attorney General, Democrat candidate Jay Jones pitches himself as a defender of justice, but his record paints a different picture — one of a politician rolling out the red carpet for corporate elites who exploit struggling Virginians. From casinos to predatory lenders to debt collectors, Jones shows he’s more comfortable with the powerful than protecting the little guy. His legislative history and affiliations raise a critical question: Whose side is he on?
Let’s start with the gambling industry, where Jones has shown genuine allyship with fat-cat casino developers.
In 2019, as a delegate, he voted to allow local communities to authorize casino gambling, despite evidence that it compounds economic inequality by preying on and profiting from low-income, elderly, and vulnerable populations, weakening family structures and exacerbating health problems.
Later that year, he championed a casino resort on Norfolk’s waterfront with a nearby Indian tribe, ignoring community concerns about the lack of an independent impact study and the tribe’s inexperience with casinos.
Skyrocketing “cap and trade” costs could be added to existing green energy mandates.
by Kevin Mooney
Virginia voters, taxpayers, and ratepayers should know that if Abigail Spanberger becomes their next governor, they will pay higher energy costs that will show up on their utility bills and everyday purchases.
Spanberger made that clear during a podcast last year when she told a political science professor that as governor she would have the state rejoin a climate change initiative built around “cap and trade” regulations and carbon taxes.
While Spanberger is committed to the carbon tax plan, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent, supported Gov. Youngkin’s decision to withdraw. Given how costly RGGI was to Virginia residents, and how costly it could become in the future, the candidates’ divergent positions could become a major campaign issue.
Glenn Youngkin, the incumbent Republican governor, withdrew Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2023 after describing the program as a “regressive tax on families and businesses.” A circuit court judge ruled last November that Youngkin’s actions were unlawful. But the state will remain outside of RGGI pending Youngkin’s appeal of that ruling. The outcome of this year’s gubernatorial election could also determine RGGI’s future in Virginia.
Democrats who run Maryland have passed major energy legislation calling for expanded electricity generation in the state, including potential fast track approvals of new natural gas plants. They are considered “dispatchable energy generation” under the new law’s definitions, and more than 3 gigawatts of new dispatchable generation is called for.
Maryland’s 2025 session was focused on the same set of issues that dominated the energy front in Virginia this past winter, but the outcome was quite different. Before Governor Wes Moore (D) signed the Next Generation Energy Act, critics were gearing up to start a referendum campaign against it, but so far that has not materialized.
The omnibus bill includes several compromises and tradeoffs, many highly popular with the environmental lobbyists. The larger bill includes provisions dealing with the growing energy demand created by the data center industry and changes in ratemaking rules. A second successful bill, the Renewable Energy Certainty Act, did what Virginia’s Democrats failed to do with their majority. It overrides local government zoning authority to block controversial solar projects.
Like Virginia, Maryland is imposing fines on utilities that fail to meet its carbon emissions targets, and the bill also takes $200 million from that pot of money to use for customer refunds.
Maryland is the bluest of blue states, with minor Republican representation in its Assembly. With zero background in Maryland’s laws, I cannot claim to understand the nuances of the 75-page package, but the tacit acceptance of added natural gas generation for the state stands in complete contrast to Virginia’s Clean Economy Act.
Governor Glenn Youngkin says he’s a team player. He desperately wants the Virginia GOP ticket to win this fall. That’s why his backers say he pointed out the risks of nominating John Reid for lieutenant governor. Without a lie detector test or some magical discovery, there’s no way to know whether this is true.
But if Youngkin truly, really, totally wants the GOP to win this year, there is one thing he can do that nobody else can do to definitely boost the GOP‘s chances: He can resign and let Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears become the governor. This, in turn, will allow Sears to be the first chief executive in the modern era in Virginia to run for reelection.
This kind of unique unexpected event is necessary to give the GOP ticket a fighting chance this year. Governor Sears would be, of course, an historic governor — the first Black woman in America to serve as Governor. Sears would surely agree to let Youngkin’s men and women stay in place so they won’t lose their jobs.
Yes, Democrats would call it a stunt. A political ploy. A cynical game of using elected offices for a game of musical chairs. All this would be true.
But in the end, if she’s doing a good job in the public mind, they’re not gonna care how she got there.
Thanks to The New York Review of Books, we have this 1994 observation by the late Yale historian Edmund S. Morgan:
“The distinguishing mark of American politics has been the absence of irreconcilable differences between the two parties that successively dominate the national government. Each party rests on a coalition of interests so diverse and inclusive as to prevent the formulation of any program that the other party will find intolerable.”
Intolerable is avoidable, in other words. We just have to apply that peculiar American genius for maneuver and resolution. We find our way to tolerable postures. We discover ways to live with each other. We steer clear of absolutes.
Morgan cites the Civil War as one occasion when we did otherwise.
In this regard, we should consider Virginia’s “Commission to Study the History of the Uprooting of Black Communities by Public Institutions of Higher Education in the Commonwealth [the Commission].”
With its enhanced mandate and recent infusion of additional financial support, the Commission may soon gain momentum.
But where is it headed? What outcomes does it seek? It’s already talking about “repairs.” What does that mean?
For the record, since the dying traditional media do not cover this, a brief note that Virginia’s motor fuel taxes will rise once again July 1. The increase will be automatic, based on consumer price inflation, because of legislation passed in 2020 and signed by Governor Ralph Northam.
Another example of the long reach of tax legislation passed under Northam is Fairfax County’s rulers just voted to impose a meals tax, something the county’s voters had rejected in a previous referendum. Before 2020’s law change, another vote of the people was required to impose the tax.
As reported about a year ago, the indexing rule coupled with a direct gas tax hike in that bill had increased the gasoline and diesel tax rates by 150% in the four years after the new law. Inflation was far lower (2.9%) in the last 12 months so the changes this time are slight, at about 1.2 cents per gallon.
It is still the case that Virginia has divided the tax into different buckets and hides the total cost imposed on drivers on its various websites. There is a retail fuel tax, a wholesale fuel tax, and a third small tax imposed to cover the cost of the program managing old underground storage tanks.
Perhaps that storage tank “fee” will be like the business license tax imposed by Virginia to fight the War of 1812 and never go away.
The combined state taxes will be 41.7 cents per gallon on gasoline and 42.7 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. The Highway User Fee collected as an alternate to gas taxes will also rise 2.9%.
A separate federal tax of 18 cent per gallon is also collected at the pump and hasn’t changed since President Ronald Reagan, if I recall correctly. Congress should just copy Virginia’s legislature and index its gas tax. Nobody notices or squawks about the incremental increases. Inflation is the government’s most powerful and opaque tax increase tool. It will work like a charm with tariffs, too.
This November, Virginia faces a clear choice between an attorney general who protects its citizens and a candidate who defends illegal aliens.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ fight against illegal alien crime contrasts starkly with Democrat challenger Jay Jones, who supports giving free benefits to illegal aliens and shielding them from deportation. Miyares has relentlessly prosecuted violent foreign gangs, partnered with the federal government todeport illegal aliens, and opposed redistributing Virginians’ tax dollars to foreign lawbreakers. Prosecuting Violent Immigrant Gangs
Jason Miyares
In contrast to Jones, who thinks Virginia law “criminalizes black and brown communities” and voted to limit law enforcement’s ability to detect illegal aliens, Miyares has made Virginia safer by empowering law enforcement and prosecuting members of violent foreign gangs.
Under Miyares, Operation Bold Blue Line, Operation Free Virginia, and Operation Ceasefire have contributed to a 34% decrease in murders, a 12% decrease in violent crimes, and the seizure of a full ton of narcotics, including 415 pounds of fentanyl.
The death of convicted felon and Minneapolis drug addict George Floyd five years ago at the hands of a police officer did more than trigger race riots across the nation, cause an estimated $1-2 billion in damage and take the life of at least one person, retired St. Louis Police Officer David Dorn, father of five.
After the death of Floyd angry leftists attempted to excise unpleasant chapters of American history by toppling statues and renaming schools and buildings.
Many historical figures associated with slavery, no matter their contributions to our young nation more than 200 years ago, were marginalized, vilified and erased.
Even Virginian John Tyler, one of the commonwealth’s most interesting — if controversial — figures.
I’m thinking about him today because his grandson — yes, you read that correctly the grandson of the 10th president, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, 96 — died last Sunday in the Westminster-Canterbury facility in Richmond.
The fact that a man born in 1790 still had a living grandson until this week is a testament to good genes, young wives and late marriages.
John Tyler served as governor of Virginia and a U.S. Senator before running for vice president. When President William Henry Harrison died after just 31 days in office, Tyler became the first man to become president without being elected to that office.
The Richmond-Times Dispatch wrote this week that Harrison’s cabinet loathed Tyler and referred to him as “His Accidency.”
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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