Bacon's Rebellion

  • Henrico Proposes Tax Relief

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Maybe Henrico County officials read my recent lament in Bacon’s Rebellion concerning the significant increase in my house’s assessed value. In any event, the county manager’s office announced this week that it was proposing to the Board of Supervisors a reduction of 2 cents in the real estate tax rate.

    Now many people will be quick to point out that I and other Henrico residents will still have to pay more in taxes this year than we did last year; therefore, it is not a tax cut. And they would be right up to a point. I tend to take a different perspective: I will not have to pay as much tax as I would have if the county had kept the tax rate the same. In that sense, my taxes will have been reduced from what they would have been otherwise.

    I don’t know how much the Board would need to reduce the rate in order to bring in the same amount of revenue as last year. The county is required to identify this “equalized rate” when it schedules a public hearing on the budget later this spring.

    To be fair, in the announcement on its website, the county did not claim it was providing a tax cut. It used the term “tax relief” and was careful in the body of the announcement to specify that it was cutting the tax rate. Of course, many residents may associate “tax relief” with a “tax cut” and many may assume that a reduction in the tax rate will result in their paying less tax.

    (more…)

  • The Bezos Speaketh

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Could this herald happier times for Virginia?

    Editorial writers’ hair on fire. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    by Gordon C. Morse

    The Washington Post’s editorial chief is out the door. Cue the indignation.

    Light the exit sign, too. In many quarters of the paper, this will not be received as happy news and may potentially cause departures.

    “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” The New York Times reports Mr. Bezos saying. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.”

    Heaven knows what that means (you should say such things only when accompanied by music), but a Post opinion page shake-up at least creates the possibility of being beneficial to Virginia. The editorial hostility that the Post routinely shows toward Virginia – its relentless demands to do this, that or the other thing – would not be missed.

    This assumes, of course, that the next occupant of that job -– editor of the editorial page — arrives more level-headed, thoughtful and informed about matters below the Potomac.

    I could give you many, many examples of the Post’s overbearing ways, but one immediately jumps to mind: Gov. Ralph Northam.

    (more…)

  • Kent Resigns. What’s Next for Ryan?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    President Jim Ryan (left) and UVA Health CEO Craig Kent. Photo credit: The Daily Progress

    by James A. Bacon

    K. Craig Kent, CEO of the University of Virginia Health System, resigned yesterday after the Board of Visitors met in closed session to hear the findings of an investigation into allegations of unsafe medical practices, fraudulent billing, and a culture of fear and retaliation.

    “Following the meeting, Dr. Craig Kent offered, and President Ryan accepted, his resignation,” according to a terse statement sent Tuesday night by Ryan and UVa Rector Robert Hardie to UVa Health and the School of Medicine. “The Board and the President thank Dr. Kent for his years of service to the University.”

    Kent’s resignation represents a major setback for Ryan, already embattled from other controversies, who declined to act on the complaints when they were brought to his attention last year. He stood by Kent when 128 physicians and faculty members published a letter accusing the hospital CEO and School of Medicine Dean Melina Kibbe of numerous abuses of power.

    The Board of Visitors initiated an investigation late last year to probe the allegations. On Kent and Kibbe’s watch, the letter alleged, the UVA Medical Center tampered with billing and patient records, suppressed reports of patient-safety concerns, engaged in upcoding to maximize reimbursements, showed blatant favoritism for some, and engaged in intimidation and retaliation against others.

    (more…)

  • Time to Come Clean on Clean Economy Act Costs to Customers

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    by

    Steve Haner

    How the VCEA-related riders used to appear on Dominion’s bills

    By Steve Haner

    Until October of last year, customers of Dominion Energy Virginia could see at least some of the higher costs created by the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) detailed on their electric bills. Look at the recent bill and all that transparency is gone and the VCEA costs are now hidden. 

    Compliance with the Democrats’ signature law to retire hydrocarbon generation and attempt to replace it with wind, solar and battery projects is starting to get noticeably expensive. Maybe that is why the utility stopped being so open about the costs.   

    During the recent General Assembly session, House Republicans offered an amendment to the state budget that would have mandated a return of those details to energy bills, with backup information provided on the utility’s public websites. It also would have applied to Appalachian Power Company which serves about 540,000 customer accounts in Western Virginia.   

    The language (rejected of course but set out below) should be revived and attached as an amendment to some germane bill Governor Glenn Youngkin might otherwise be willing to sign. There is absolutely no valid reason for a nay vote on this idea. Why would anybody oppose providing more information on cost to a utility’s captive ratepayers?   

    (more…)

  • Navigating Modern Language

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Should a thing’s name tell you what the thing is?

    Image credit: ChatGPT

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    Language is screwed.

    The purpose of language, communication, has been sacrificed on the altar of who-knows-what, in the interests of promoting your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine.

    My favorite current example is the Navigation Center at an unnamed city in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

    Public Works, perhaps. Making street signs more readable? There are of course rules – federal, state, vegetable, and mineral – about those signs. The fonts are detailed, perhaps not quite into the advanced section of the Microsoft Word fonts panel, but perhaps requiring a separate center to keep track of and navigate the rules? We’re using “perhaps” and the question mark a lot here. That’s because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with street signs, or fonts.

    Maybe it has something to do with coordinating the city’s computer systems with MapQuest. Those who’d argue that MapQuest has been supplanted by Google and Apple maps may be surprised to learn that it’s still around. Not that it matters, because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with maps.

    Buses, maybe? (We’ve switched from “perhaps” to “maybe” but the language mystery is no closer to being solved.) Navigation Center could be a facility to plan more efficient bus routes. Except it’s not.

    (more…)

  • Deliberations in Darkness

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    UVA Board of Visitors before entering closed session last week

    by James A. Bacon

    Last week the University of Virginia Board of Visitors met to discuss one of the most contentious public-policy issues roiling American politics today: the medical treatment of transgender youth. The meeting was closed to the public, and board members were enjoined not to reveal what was said.

    The justification for keeping the deliberations secret? The meeting, prompted by an executive order from President Trump, would disclose the advice of UVA legal counsel and supposedly reveal sensitive information about UVA Medical Center business operations.

    In another recent development, UVA announced that after a year-and-a-half of withholding taxpayer-funded reports on the 2022 slaying of three UVA football players, it was finally preparing to release the documents to the public. But first, it was sharing the report with the families of the murdered students to give them “the opportunity to read the reports” and meet with University officials.

    Happy Perry, mother of D’Sean Perry, one of the murder victims, told The Daily Progress the university needn’t have bothered. Redactions blacked out a majority of the report. “There’s nothing in there. They [have] taken everything out. … There’s nothing in it that we want to know.”

    (more…)

  • Medicaid Expansion Costs in Virginia – Who Should Pay?

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    by

    sherlockj

    Medicaid Expansion Costs in Virginia – Who Should Pay?

    by James C. Sherlock

    Update Feb 26 at 13:02:  See here for article on potential Medicaid cuts.

    Ronald Reagan was wrong, yet somewhere he is smiling.

    “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”

    Remember Obamacare and its Medicaid expansion?  It was signed in March of 2010.  Fifteen years ago.

    Medicare expansion covers adults younger than 65 who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level. About 636,000 people were covered in 2023 by Virginia’s Medicaid expansion.  

    The deal features 90% federal funding.  Below is what Medicaid expansion costs.

    Virginia Medicaid Expansion Costs courtesy Virginia Medicaid

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  • Federal Workers: No Place to Hide

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Do indignant federal workers who act as if it’s beneath their dignity to account for their work hours have any idea how petulant and entitled they seem to the rest of us?

    Click image to view video.

    Apparently not. This woman is griping that she has two days to knock out five bullet points about what she did last week. 

    Oh the pressure!

    Yet she somehow found time to get her makeup done so she could go on CNN and whine.

    Not feeling sorry for you, lady.

    Looks like working from home for years and collecting fat paychecks has insulated federal workers from the real world. Remember, the average federal wage right now is $106,462. Meanwhile, the average wage of American workers – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – is $65,470.

    Government workers would be wise to temper their tantrums.

    Continue reading.

  • Team Youngkin Flexes Muscles at UVA Board Meeting

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: ChatGPT

    by James A. Bacon

    In a special meeting called Friday, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors made it crystal clear who was in charge of setting university policy — the board, not the president. It was the most forceful assertion of board authority since the board under Rector Helen Dragas ousted former president Teresa Sullivan in 2012.

    The putative issue was how UVA should respond to an executive order from President Trump threatening the withdrawal of federal funds from institutions engaged in the “chemical and surgical mutilation” — alternatively referred to as “gender-affirming care” — of children under the age of 19. Shortly after, a federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the restrictions.

    In response to the executive order, UVA’s administrative leadership suspended the treatment of transgenders and then, in response to the judge’s order, reversed the suspension. The primary concern expressed in the BoV resolution was not the transgender policy itself but the administration’s usurpation of authority to decide university policy.

    The resolution claimed sweeping authority, not over just the final wording of high-level policies but the process by which policies are made, and even the appointment of members to committees and task forces formed to study and make recommendations (my emphasis):

    (more…)

  • End of Watch

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    We don’t pay police officers enough.

    Then again, there isn’t enough money in the world to fairly compensate these men and women who put on the uniform and wade into the cesspools of our cities — areas most of us avoid — so we can sleep soundly in our beds at night.

    Let me ask, exactly how much money would you need to earn to risk your life making a routine traffic stop?

    Officers Christopher Reese and Cameron Girvin were murdered Friday night by a convicted felon driving a car with expired tags. Initial reports suggest he shot each officer twice before fleeing the scene and killing himself.

    “Those officers fell to the ground,” Police Chief Paul Neudigate said at a Saturday press conference. “While on the ground, defenseless, he shot them each a separate time.” Continue reading.

  • Don’t Let LaRock Rock the Boat

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Dave LaRock

    By Ken Reid

    In “The Bull Elephant” blog last week, former State Delegate and defeated state senate candidate Dave LaRock explained why he wanted to run for Governor, noting, “I was approached by many conservatives from across the state who see the need for, perhaps, a different candidate” than Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears.”

    Now, there is a campaign to get him the 10,000 signatures by April 3 to challenge Sears in the Republican state primary on June 17.

    Without a doubt, a lot of Virginia Republicans are not happy with Sears being a holdout on supporting President Trump’s re-election – and her failure to quickly endorse him in February 2024 when he all-but-secured the GOP presidential nomination. A number of party regulars also wonder if she can raise the money and run a winning campaign to defeat former U.S. Rep Abigail Spanberger, the presumed Democrat nominee.

    I personally would have preferred A.G. Jason Miyares running for governor and Sears for Lt. governor.

    However, Dave LaRock is not the right alternative to Sears, largely because he broke the Republican Pledge – which we activists are required to sign – support all Republican nominees on the ballot. LaRock, out of sour grapes because he lost a primary for state senate in June 2023 to Timmy French (District 1), waged a write-in campaign for himself in the November 2023 election.

    (more…)

  • Biden Dumped 20,000 Unaccompanied Minors in Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Victoria Manning

    School districts across the Commonwealth are sanctuaries for illegal aliens. They openly defy Virginia law that requires schools to notify law enforcement when any person enrolling a pupil fails “to present a certified copy of the pupil’s birth record.” The number of English language learners has skyrocketed in Virginia schools—including nearly half of the student population in two school districts.

    Every student in Virginia must provide proof of age by presenting a certified birth certificate upon enrollment in school. Otherwise, they must provide an affidavit explaining the inability to produce the birth record. Those affidavits must be promptly turned over to law enforcement, but it appears districts around the state have chosen not to follow that law.

    The number in Virginia have exploded.

    The number of English language learners in each school district is astounding—a statewide increase of more than 25,000 from 2021 to 2024. Even though nearly half of Harrisonburg’s students are English language learners, they have provided no reports to law enforcement regarding students not having certified birth certificates. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 41 percent of babies born in developing countries go unregistered and therefore cannot get a birth certificate.

    2023, the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost track of over 85,000 unaccompanied minors. Out of that group, 70 percent were males ages 15 or older. Many of the so-called minors crossing the border are considered adults in their own nations, and some are hardened criminals. In El Salvador, the term adult is defined as someone who has reached puberty. In Honduras, the age of criminal responsibility is 12.

    In June 2024, the Biden administration admitted they do not seek criminal history information on minors under 18.

    Continue reading.

  • Data Centers Escape Assembly Session Unscathed

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Microsoft data center in Boydton

    Despite great public angst and political theater, the data center industry has emerged from the 2025 General Assembly unscathed. Virginians will continue to compete with Internet and cloud customers from all over the country and the world for electricity, as the data centers continue to proliferate here.  

    One bill dealing with the land use considerations of siting future plants did pass, House Bill 1601. The final substitute version is focused on a site assessment the utility will have to provide localities before adding a new data center with a 100-megawatt peak demand. Plenty of existing and planned projects will not meet that high threshold. It is a paper tiger bill, with a Senate companion paper tiger.

    A second successful bill merely directs the State Corporation Commission to do something it already has the power to do and was probably already planning to undertake. The approved version of House Bill 2084 reads:

    …no later than July 1, 2027, the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) shall, under its existing authority, determine whether the Phase I or Phase II Utility is using rates, tolls, charges, or schedules that contain reasonable classifications of customers. In making this determination, the Commission shall consider whether new or separate customer classifications are reasonable. (Appalachian Power is “Phase I” and Dominion “Phase II”).

    A third bill that sailed through the Assembly with far too little attention was one the data center industry must like, House Bill 2644 and Senate Bill 1197. They probably should be on the “veto bait” list of bad energy bills discussed Friday. They allow member-owned electric cooperatives to make deals with a data center with more than 90 megawatts of demand on an unregulated basis.

    (more…)

  • Gaza Gala: This Sunday at UVa

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Let’s speak plainly today, shall we?

    Charlottesville — and the once-great university there, UVa — is preparing to host a Palestinian-fest on Sunday. It’s being billed as a “charity banquet” sponsored by the radical Students For Justice in Palestine, or SJP. 

    In case you’re unfamiliar with the SJP, the organization was founded at Berkeley (so you know it’s good) and became active and energized on many college campuses after the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, 2023.

    The American Jewish Committee describes the SJP this way:

    In the days following Hamas’ terror attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, SJP chapters on multiple campuses led protests and other actions that openly praised Hamas terrorists and the death of innocent Israeli citizens. People participating in these protests also bullied, intimidated, and harassed Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus, behavior which is consistent with SJP activities more broadly. This led to several American universities suspending or banning SJP and affiliated groups from their campuses.

    Oh, the fun these terror-supporting folks will have! If you’re going to the Gaza gala remember to don your best formal wear or preferably, your “cultural attire,” which I assume means a bedazzled Palestinian scarf and a ski mask. 

    Continue reading.

  • Waking up to Woke

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Rip van Winkle awakens to Drag Queen Story Hour. Image credit: ChatGPT

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    The nearest analogy might be the spelling bee. No double-elimination, no second tries. One wrong and you’re out.

    That’s what woke means to some of us.

    Defenders of wokeness will tell you, with some sincerity, that its goal is the comfort and safety of everyone. So you eat up the first five minutes of every meeting reciting pronouns as the price you pay for not mis-gendering someone later in the meeting. It also makes everyone feel good about themselves before the meeting gets started.

    And if the party of Trump and Youngkin spends the first five minutes of their meeting discussing how to eat your political lunch, that’s the price you pay for virtue. Extremists in the party of Biden and Harris are probably ready to call me transphobic. Six different ways. And they’ll spend another five minutes of the meeting saying it.

    Morris Udall once described an endless legislative session this way. “Everything had been said, but not everybody had said it.” That’s the story of discussion in the only party left to pull us out of the mire. Everybody in it is really good at talking to each other.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

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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