In the Jefferson Policy Journal two weeks ago, we reported the results from a recent study of public-sector versus private-sector compensation. This time, we respond to a presentation by state officials that gives a different perspective.The study we cited, by economists William Even of Miami University and David Macpherson of...
In apparent deference to Governor Bob McDonnell, the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors has revised its six-year plan to assume tuition increases averaging 5.5% annually rather than 12.1% per year in the plan approved last September. The decision will diminish the increase in funding to hire new faculty and...
(This column ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch on Labor Day. It is reprinted here with permission. Dr Chris Chmura is the leading private sector economist in Virginia.) Labor Day celebrates the contribution of workers to America. But many people who lost their job during the Great Recession still have...
(Publisher’s note: On June 21, Gabriel Roth wrote in the Jefferson Policy Journal a column critical of the then-proposed extension of Dulles Rail into Loudoun County. On July 16, Glen Bottoms and Eric Peterson responded. Loudoun Count’s Board of Supervisors approved the extension of rail by a close one-vote margin...
(Publisher’s note: Obamacare will continue to be controversial regardless of who wins the presidential race next month. Medicare is a huge issue in the health care debate taking place here in Virginia and around the country. This article adds to that public policy debate.) Among 45 new government organizations created...
(Publisher’s note: Gary Baise is nationally respected environmental attorney who lives here in Virginia. His article here deals with a case in Iowabut its implications will significantly impact on Virginia’s farmers. That is why it is printed in the Jefferson Policy Journal.) Residents inWinneshiek County,Iowafiled a lawsuit in July, 2012,...
There was a time when Glenn Booker might easily have been classified as a child without hope. The arc of his early life suggested a young man who might easily end up as a burden to society. Separated from his parents, homeless and living with his sister, Latasha, in an...
Virginia has largely, although not completely, avoided the trap of public-sector compensation that in many states far exceeds that in the private sector—a contributing factor in excessive spending in those states and at the national level. A recent analysis for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy and other statewide...
In a reversal of the Jim Crow-era “great migration,” African-Americans are leaving failed cities in the north and returning to the South, writes Daniel Disalvo in a recent City Journal essay. But they’re not moving back to the poor, rural counties their ancestors hailed from, nor are they moving back...
(Old Dominion WatchDog is a news outlet that focuses on issues here in Virginia. Although the Jefferson Policy Journal does not normally publish news articles, the issue of voter registration and potential voter fraud is a topic of clear interest this year. Consequently, the article on this topic is republished...
