Criminal Justice Reform

Stephen D. Haner
February 16, 2021

Lower income Virginians who are customers of the two largest electricity providers may begin to receive subsidies on their residential bills in March 2022 under legislation moving forward in the General Assembly.  The money for the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) subsidies will come from their fellow customers. House...

Stephen D. Haner
February 13, 2021

The ultimate goal of the Transportation and Climate Initiative with its tax and rationing scheme is to eliminate fossil fuels for transportation and get us into electric vehicles.  That is something advocates have admitted and critics have pointed out.  While Virginia TCI participation is on hold in this statewide election year, the 2021 General Assembly...

Stephen D. Haner
February 8, 2021

Majorities in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly agree with Governor Ralph Northam and have voted to tax the federal Payroll Protection Plan grants that saved Virginia jobs in the pandemic. They only remain at odds over how much to tax. The Virginia Senate has passed a bill 39-0 that allows...

Stephen D. Haner
February 3, 2021

In a House of Delegates committee meeting Tuesday, Republican delegates fell into an old and damaging pattern, casting vote after vote against bills that would strengthen regulatory oversight of a monopoly utility and better protect its millions of Virginia customers. Many of the same Republicans would be happy to mount...

Christian Braunlich
February 2, 2021

Candidates love to be on the side of the gods – and supporting reduced pollution and greater economic growth is a “win-win.”  After all, if Virginia can use new technologies to reduce not only greenhouse gases but also what we send to landfills … while simultaneously creating new, well-paying jobs, who could...

Stephen D. Haner
January 29, 2021

A week ago, Governor Ralph Northam’s Administration was adamant that it would be unfair, in fact a double tax benefit, to allow Virginia employers with forgiven Paycheck Protection Plan loans to also deduct any expenses used to qualify for forgiveness. This week, the position changed.  Maybe it would make sense...

Stephen D. Haner
January 27, 2021

Virginia’s major energy-intensive industries will not get a requested path to avoid some of the coming cost shock from the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). The bill that sought them a lifeline was tied to an anvil and sunk in a House of Delegates subcommittee January 25. It didn’t even help...

Stephen D. Haner
January 22, 2021

As I’ve explained too many times to people who won’t believe it, President Joe Biden won Nov. 3. While there remains no evidence of widespread fraud or error, election law changes achieved by Democrats in key states were a major contributing factor to that outcome. That transformation started here in Virginia...

Stephen D. Haner
January 15, 2021

When Texas went to the United States Supreme Court last month complaining about the election processes in four other states, the case was dismissed on the issue of standing. The Court correctly replied Texas had no right to complain about how the Electoral College votes were determined in other states...

Stephen D. Haner
January 6, 2021

The Transportation and Climate Initiative plan to tax and ration motor fuels suffered a major setback just before Christmas, when eight of the eleven states considering it decided not to move forward in 2021. Less than two weeks earlier, advocates had released polling that claimed to show overwhelming popularity for...