Tag: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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All In The Family
by Dick Hall-Sizemore It is not just national Republicans that appear ready to tear into each other. A couple of Virginia Republicans have also been at it. Wren Williams is a first-term Republican Delegate from Patrick County. Marie March, also in her first term, is a Republican delegate from next-door Floyd County. The redistricting has…
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Governor’s Plan to Bolster Law Enforcement Is Meek Rather Than Bold
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In October, amidst much fanfare, Governor Youngkin announced Operation Bold Blue Line. In the words of the Governor’s press release, this initiative is “a series of concrete actions to reduce homicides, shootings, and violent crime.” I had some questions and wanted some details on the proposal. I posed these questions to the…
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Police Common Sense in Richmond
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch brings news that contravenes two themes prevalent in Bacon’s Rebellion: the rising violent crime rate and the ineffectiveness of the Richmond city government. Despite having a police force with a vacancy rate of 20%, Richmond has seen a 35% drop in homicides and nearly a…
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A Conservative Fiscal Proposal
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin has proposed tax reductions that would reduce state revenue by about $1 billion in this biennium. I have an alternative proposal on how to use that billion dollars, one that should appeal to the instincts of conservatives on this blog—reduce the Commonwealth’s outstanding debt balance. The Debt Capacity Advisory Committee…
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Reparations for the Violators
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin has proposed reparations for people who violated legal orders. Included in his budget proposal is a directive to reimburse all fines, fees, and interest imposed on individuals “due to violations of COVID-19 related practices, guidelines, rules or operating procedures” and to waive all such fines imposed. The budget language earmarks…
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Youngkin’s Budget Amendments: No Radical Changes
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Budget is policy. The budget reflects the policy choices a government makes. Any Virginia governor, upon assuming office, inherits a biennial budget proposal developed by his predecessor. The new governor is limited significantly in the changes that he can affect in that budget in his first General Assembly session. If the new…
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Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness — No Longer Applicable?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In Virginia, registered voters are not identified by political party affiliation. Political parties do not like this provision because it allows non-party members to participate in their primaries. Parties try to discourage this incursion by non-members into their primaries by requiring various sorts of pledges, either to support the eventual nominee of…
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Shootout At the Fourth District Corral
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For Bacon’s Rebellion readers who do not follow politics in the Richmond area, you are missing a real donnybrook. The tussle is over filling the Fourth Congressional District seat held by the late Donald McEachin and the most in-fighting is over the Democratic nomination. Because the district is solidly Democratic, there is…
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And They Wonder Why Teachers Are Quitting
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Last year, a Loudoun County teacher refused to abide by the school board’s policy regarding the use of pronouns when referring to students. The school board made the mistake of suspending him because he publicly criticized the policy. Although the courts rightly overturned the suspension on the basis that he was punished…
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Back To the Patrick Henry Building
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Glenn Youngkin spent late summer and the fall campaigning around the country for Republican candidates for governor. He was passing out his signature red fleece vests all over the country. His main goal was to help Republican candidates knock off Democratic incumbents, but he did appear with three incumbent Republican governors.…
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Whiplash on Virginia’s Economy
by Dick Hall-Sizemore “Our beloved Commonwealth is in a ditch.” Glenn Youngkin, May 7, 2021.also see here. “The commonwealth has never been in a stronger financial condition.” Glenn Youngkin, Nov. 21, 2022
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The “Missing Middle”: Is it an Answer to the Affordable Housing Problem?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Three years ago, in one of his periodic pleas for more flexibility in zoning laws to enable more affordable housing, Jim Bacon discussed “missing middle” housing and noted that Arlington County was beginning to consider how to address that idea. Arlington released its study late last year and the concept and recommendations…
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Violence Prevention and TATs: A Dissenting Opinion
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been a lot of discussion on this blog about violence prevention committees and threat assessment teams (TAT). There have been disagreements over whether the University of Virginia is in compliance with state law as well as lamentations about the lack of enforcement where it is considered that an institution is…
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Not A Rubber Stamp After All
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin just got a lesson on how being governor is different from being CEO of a hedge fund. He just cannot get what he wants by fiat. The Board of Education, on which his appointees constitute a majority, on Thursday rebuffed the administration on two of its top priorities — Standards…
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The Times They Are A-Changin’
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In Halifax County, the home of the late former governor Bill Tuck, and a bastion of the Byrd machine, which gave Donald Trump, who wondered why we were taking in immigrants from “all these shithole countries,” about 57% of its votes in both 2016 and 2o2o, Sentara recently announced a new pediatrician…