First of all, they’re monopolies, which are not known for their dedication to cost control or public service. Second, they’re government-owned monopolies, which means that critical decisions on routes and fares are driven by politics, not economics. That’s inefficiency squared. Not only do transit monopolies represent a drain on taxpayers...
Although Virginia is faring better than the rest of the nation, a robust economic recovery in the Commonwealth continues to be dampened, according to the 2012-2013 Virginia Economic Forecast, the thirteenth annual report on the economy conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics and released by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for...
The Thomas Jefferson Institute today released a paper by two experts presenting an altenative view of Loudoun County’s possible participation in Rail to Dulles, so that members of the Loudoun Board of Supervisors might have all the information they can in front of them as they make this important decision....
(This first ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch) Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner soon, possibly this week, will have a chance to strike a blow in favor of responsible environmental policies that are balanced with common sense about the nation’s, and Virginia’s, economic future. Their support is needed for...
The hotly protested firing of University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan should draw more attention to the cost crisis in higher education—a national crisis that has begun to put academic officials under great pressure in their long-privileged environments. But even in that more important debate, anger based on the manner...
On July 3rd Loudoun County’s supervisors are to decide whether to spend taxpayers’ money supporting Phase 2 of the $2.8 billion rail extension to Dulles Airport and beyond. They have three strong reasons to decline their support: First, the proposed transit service will be slow, and Loudoun residents value their...
Last September, Dominion Power announced it would shut down a coal-fired power plant in Chesapeake, Virginia that will take 638 megawatts of affordable and reliable electricity off the grid. Unfortunately for the state, this is the first of many power plants forced to retire early due to increasingly stringent U.S....
Now, let’s look at the public policies that have shaped land use since World War II and view them through the prism of conservative principles. Land use codes. The underlying premise of zoning codes is that different land uses — residential, retail and commercial — should be rigidly segregated. Of...
(Reprinted from the Richmond Times Dispatch) The manufacturing sector in Virginia added about 2,000 jobs in February and March. That might not seem like much in a state that employs 3.7 million people. However, the manufacturing sector declined almost continuously since 1990 and shed a total of 164,000 jobs in...
Smart growth is too important to leave to liberals. Conservatives must articulate their own vision for creating prosperous, livable and fiscally sustainable communities. (Part One of three — This essay has been adapted from a speech delivered at the 2012 Congress for the New Urbanism.)Few aspects of government policy touch...
