Virginia’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Act Deserves a Veto
Sitting on Governor 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 […]
Governor Youngkin Uses His Veto Pen to Protect Farmers and Lower-Skilled Workers
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 […]
Sine Die and Veto Recommendations
We have reached sine die of the 2024 General Assembly legislative session. During this session, over a thousand individual bills and a nearly 500-page biennial budget were sent to the Governor. All of this must be reviewed and acted upon by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) before the April 17th reconvened session. There may be hundreds of bills on the Governor’s […]
Gov. Youngkin’s tax plan will unleash opportunity
*This article originally appeared on CardinalNews.org With the Virginia General Assembly now in session, the grappling over Gov. Youngkin’s “Unleashing Opportunity” tax plan has begun. Already, opponents are attacking it as “regressive” and “dead on arrival” — even supposed allies are less than enthusiastic about its prospects for passage in its current form. This opposition and lack […]
Governor Youngkin Joins the “No Car Tax” Movement
During Governor Glenn Youngkin’s budget submission to the General Assembly, he called for the elimination of the single most hated tax in the Commonwealth — the car tax. He is right, the car tax is very unpopular. Back in 1997, Jim Gilmore made the elimination of the car tax the center of his long-shot campaign for […]
The Case for WMATA ‘Bankruptcy’
Yesterday, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) warned that without substantially greater subsidies from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, they would be facing a $750 million annual shortfall that would require draconian cuts in services, including closing 10 stations, cutting 67 bus lines, and laying off 2,000 employees. They would also freeze salaries, raise fares […]
Tomorrow’s Ballot Question: Will Virginia Become Illinois?
It was reported this week that billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had made substantial campaign contributions totaling $250,000 to four liberal Democrats running for Virginia State Senate and the Democratic Party of Virginia. These donations, made through Governor Pritzker’s “Think Big America” organization, are the clearest sign yet that the left wants to turn the […]
The Policies of Youngkin vs. The Policies of McAuliffe and Northam: A Closing Case for the Future of Virginia
In two weeks, the people of Virginia will decide on two competing visions for the future of Virginia. Will they elect a General Assembly favoring Governor Youngkin’s more freedom-oriented policy vision, or will they want to elect a General Assembly returning the Commonwealth to the statist policy vision of former governors McAuliffe and Northam? While […]
Virginia’s “Runaway” Budget Negotiators
Fear of commitment is a common theme in Hollywood — where romantic comedies are replete with characters that sidestep long-term commitment primarily out of fear that someone better may come along. Think of Runaway Bride, where Maggie, played by Julia Roberts, keeps running away from her betrothed at the altar out of such fear. The budget […]
The $3.6 Billion Decision – Give it Back
Just a week after the hotly contested primaries in Virginia, where the more progressive candidates won in the Democratic primaries and where the Youngkin-endorsed candidates won in the Republican primaries — November was already bound to be an ideological battle for control of the Commonwealth. Now, to add fuel to this battle, voters in November will […]