Category Archives: Business and Economy

Freebees Aren’t Free

Posted on April 24, 2024 by | 13 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

I can’t be the only Virginia Beach taxpayer sick of watching my real estate taxes climb every year while the city council wastes money on pricey gimmicks like “free” Tesla rides for residents and visitors to the city.

For two years we’ve picked up the tab for a small fleet of Teslas to be summoned to haul swells and drunks around the oceanfront.

The first year, the misnamed “Freebee” program cost taxpayers $500,000. Last year the project cost $1.3 million. According to city officials, 52% of riders who were too cheap to call a cab or Uber were visitors, while 48% were locals suffering from the same freeloading mentality.

Notice a pattern?

Thankfully, City Manager Patrick Duhaney left this free-market-tampering boondoggle out of this year’s proposed city budget, although some of the Beach’s tax-and-spend knuckleheads are lobbying to put it back. Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Government Finance, Politics, Transportation

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Ready for Taxes on Netflix, NFL Sunday Ticket?

Posted on April 19, 2024 by | 35 comments

By Steve Haner

After a month of unproductive political theater, Virginia’s leaders will finally sit down like adults and negotiate the budget. Better late than never.  The message is “everything is back on the table,” which leaves the door wide open for the tax increase central to the Democrat’s demands. That deserves a quick no.

At this point, Virginians do not pay sales tax on their Netflix, Disney, or sports streaming package subscriptions. That is what they want to tax now. If you just paid an online vendor to file a tax return, next year a sales tax of up to 6 or 7% will be added to that bill. Likewise, any annual subscription for Microsoft Office or One Drive storage, or for an internet security system, will be taxed. Continue reading →

35 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Government Finance, Taxes

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Diamonds Aren’t Forever

Posted on April 15, 2024 by | 46 comments

by Jon Baliles

The entire saga of the development of the Diamond District project in Richmond has come full circle in the last 18 months, as Mayor Levar Stoney, desperate for an economic development win after the failure of his Navy Hill boondoggle and two failed casino referendums, has rounded the bases trying to get a baseball stadium built before the franchise was going to be moved by the powers at Major League Baseball (MLB). Finally scoring a run, however, will come with a cost: $170 million to be exact, because that is how much debt the city will issue  to pay for building the stadium and surrounding infrastructure for the rest of the Diamond District development.

The big news broke last week about the new plan to build the baseball stadium but is also being accompanied by a new financing and development structure and procedures. The announcement unfortunately pre-empted the planned Part 3 of our baseball stadium series, which explained that, at this late date, the only option left to get the stadium built in time and not have MLB yank the franchise was for the city to issue general obligation (G.O.) bonds. That was the only evidence MLB was going to accept to prove the money to build the stadium was actually there and construction could actually begin, because all the talk from the city had been just one missed promise after another, and delay after delay.

The bomb was set to explode and the Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) played the last card they had left. They will put the onus of the debt and risk all on the city’s shoulders, issue the debt quickly and get the shovels turning to meet the deadline. But that is not at all how this process began, and it has changed drastically in the many months the city spent dithering. Continue reading →

46 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Economic development, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Politics, Taxes

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Will Democrats Shut Down State Over Tax Hike?

Posted on April 15, 2024 by | 7 comments

By Steve Haner

The fight that is about to occur at the Assembly’s reconvened session on Wednesday is entirely about taxes, not about spending.

An analysis of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposed compromise budget – done by the Democrats’ favorite financial bean counters, not by conservatives – confirms his budget comes extremely close to the spending levels Democrats approved at the end of the General Assembly.  The gap compared to the $188 billion overall budget is little more than a rounding error. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Government Finance, Taxes

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Utilities Will Gamble on Nukes With Your $$$

Posted on April 11, 2024 by | 22 comments

Artist rendering of VOYGR™ SMR plants powered by NuScale Power Module™

By Steve Haner

Standing firm against raising taxes is a fine thing, but it would help if Virginia’s leaders also stopped using people’s electricity bills to fund rent-seeking energy speculations.

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has tweaked, but not vetoed, pending bills that allow both of Virginia’s investor-owned utilities to charge ratepayers for power plants that may not be built. The dream projects involve small modular nuclear technology, proven in military applications but so far speculative for commercial generation. Continue reading →

22 Comments

Posted in Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Regulations and Government Oversight, Utilities

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Fighting Over the Check at the Green Power Cafe

Posted on April 10, 2024 by | 24 comments

By Steve Haner

New power plants are pretty useless unless they are connected by new power lines. The debate over who pays for those tall towers and miles of cable can be just as divisive as the fight over who pays for a proposed nuclear plant or offshore wind turbines.

Bottom line, of course, the customers ultimately pay. But which customers? Should it be those most reliant on that individual transmission line, everybody within the utility, or should it be all the customers within all the utilities inside a regional transmission organization? Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in Energy, Environment, Regulations and Government Oversight, Utilities

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Jefferson Institute’s Hit List Bills Mostly Gone

Posted on April 10, 2024 by | 16 comments

By Derrick Max

Monday was not just the near total solar eclipse in Virginia, but also the deadline for Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to act on the budget and the remaining bills on his desk. As our Steve Haner wrote, in “Governor’s Budget Compromise Eclipses Fears of Stalemate,” we are generally positive about the approximately 230 budget amendments Governor Youngkin made.

The Governor sacrificed two-thirds of his spending priorities while giving Democrats almost all of theirs. He did this while removing any tax increases from the budget and forgoing all of his recommended tax reforms (reductions). This was more than a good faith offer and should be embraced by any member of the General Assembly, Democrat or Republican, serious about getting a budget compromise passed before the end of the fiscal year.

Just before midnight on Monday, Governor Youngkin acted on the last of the 1,046 bills he had been sent this legislative session. The final tally: he signed 777, proposed amendments for 116, and vetoed 153. He will have a second chance to veto bills where his suggested amendments are rejected.

While I am sure much will be made of the record number of vetoes, Democrats in the General Assembly opted to send a wish list of bills to the Governor that they knew would never get his signature. Nor would some have even passed the muster with previous Democratically controlled General Assemblies or liberal Governors around the country. This is due, in part, to the retirement or defeat of the more moderate members of the Democratic caucuses in the General Assembly. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Taxes

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Youngkin Kicks the Can Down the Road on Affirmative Action

Posted on April 9, 2024 by | 10 comments

by Jock Yellott

By partisan votes, the Democrat controlled General Assembly presented Republican Governor Youngkin with HB 1404, mandating affirmative action in Virginia government contracts.  

Bacon’s Rebellion published a piece that listed the bill as a veto candidate. One of those that would “have the greatest negative economic impact on the Commonwealth.”

But instead of a veto, at the 11th hour on Monday April 8, 2024 Governor Youngkin proposed amending it.

The amendments would postpone its effective date for a year — if reenacted by the General Assembly. Meantime, let’s have more “input.” Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Economic development, General Assembly

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Compromise Budget Can Eclipse Stalemate

Posted on April 8, 2024 by | 17 comments

Gov. Glenn Youngkin

By Steve Haner

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is offering a compromise on the disputed state budget that gives Virginia’s Democratic legislators most of the spending they were initially demanding, especially for local schools and early childhood education. The Governor is also offering a quick path to a resolution that avoids additional months of budget stalemate and political division.

“On a day when Virginians were thrilled to witness an 80% eclipse of the sun, they should also cheer a budget compromise where a Republican governor moved about that far in the direction of meeting the Democrats’ stated goals without added taxes,” stated Derrick Max, President of the Thomas Jefferson Institute. “This is a more than reasonable good faith offer, recognizing that in a divided government, compromise is key.” Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Government Finance, Taxes

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Will Consumers Come First in VCEA Review?

Posted on April 5, 2024 by | 42 comments

FERC Commissioner Mark Christie of Virginia

By Steve Haner

“If we always keep as our focus what is best for consumers, in getting them reliable power for the least cost, then I think that’s the main guidepost we ought to follow.”

That was Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie’s opening quote on a PBS broadcast on energy issues due to air April 9, but the 26- minute program can already be found on the network’s website and Christie distributed it via X today. Continue reading →

42 Comments

Posted in Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Utilities

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Dominion Program to Bury Lines Halfway to Goal

Posted on April 1, 2024 by | 66 comments

By Steve Haner

Just over a decade ago, Dominion Energy Virginia announced plans to spend about $1.75 billion of its ratepayers’ dollars on a program to bury about 4,000 miles of its residential service lines underground. As of the end of last year, the tally was just over 2,000 miles buried at a total cost of $994 million.

The original goal was reported by Jim Bacon, who was initially favorable to the idea. The update comes from an annual report dated March 29 and posted by the State Corporation Commission. This reporter, who admittedly already lived in neighborhoods with underground lines installed at the cost of the developer, was skeptical of paying to bury somebody else’s lines, and this new report doesn’t ease the irritation. Continue reading →

66 Comments

Posted in Regulations and Government Oversight, Utilities

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Proposed Tax for Leave Pay Guaranteed to Grow

Posted on April 1, 2024 by | 60 comments

From tiny acorns, massive tax-fed government benefit programs grow. Case in point, the pending Virginia paid leave bureaucracy.

By Derrick Max

Sitting on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk is a paid family and medical leave bill that would provide eight weeks of paid leave per year for most employees in the Commonwealth. The program would pay employees 80 percent of their weekly salary up to an amount equal to 80 percent of the regional average salary for their qualified leave. Interestingly, teachers, state employees, and constitutional officers are not covered under this program — presumably, these employees already have paid leave benefits and the General Assembly did not want to tax their allies. Continue reading →

60 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Labor and Workforce, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes

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Max: Youngkin Right To Veto Minimum Wage

Posted on March 29, 2024 by | 21 comments

By Derrick Max

There is a near-universal consensus among economists that increases in the minimum wage harm low-skilled workers the most. Originally designed to mimic racially discriminatory laws elsewhere, the minimum wage continues to be a means of picking certain classes and geographic locations over others. For example, the minimum wage benefits the high-cost-of-living areas in the Northeast over the lower-cost-of-living areas in the South. Continue reading →

21 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Labor and Workforce

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Call the Governor a Spoiled Brat? That’ll Work!

Posted on March 27, 2024 by | 15 comments

Not a visual that communicates the Democrats are leading an army in this fight. It screams loneliness.

By Steve Haner

A senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee just called the Governor of Virginia a spoiled brat, which of course became a headline. Is everybody getting the nonsense out of their systems? It is time for the grown-ups to intervene or we will be stuck in a stupid loop until July.

The state budget as it passed a few weeks ago will not stand. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will either impose line-item vetoes that drastically reduce the available revenue, or he will veto the entire $188 billion document. He has sufficient votes behind him to sustain those vetoes. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Government Finance, Taxes

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Wind Project Sued Over Claimed Threat to Whales

Posted on March 18, 2024 by | 69 comments

NOAA Right Whale status graphic, updated this month to report 123 recent deaths and injuries.

By Steve Haner

A coalition of public interest groups has now filed its expected lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore wind facility off Virginia Beach. Its key complaint is the federal permits were issued without a full and fair evaluation of the potential impact of the turbines on the shrinking North Atlantic Right Whale population. Continue reading →

69 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Energy, Environment, Utilities

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