How transparent and accountable should Economic Development Authorities be to the public?That’s the fundamental issue raised by Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, who submitted a bill that would require local government approval for all EDA grants and budgets. That bill was defeated by one vote in the Senate’s local government committee,...
(Editor’s note: This is a follow up to the article on this “frog story” in our last issue here.) On Jan. 22, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear and decide whether the U. S. Department of Interior (DOI) and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have boundless...
Controversies over the performance of relatively new express toll lane (ETL) projects are still simmering on both coasts, with Seattle and northern Virginia as cases in point. In the first, the year-old ETLs on congested I-405 face possible legislative termination for not quite meeting promised performance improvements. And just about...
A new study by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy shows that the overall finances of Virginia hospitals have substantially improved between the numbers published in 2016 (for FY 2015) and those in December 2017 (for FY 2016). The study may be found by clicking here. Using numbers posted...
The following position paper was published by Partners for College Affordability and Public Trust, a sponsor of the Bacon’s Rebellion blog. ISSUE: Performance-based (also known as outcomes-based) Funding for Virginia’s Public Colleges and Universities. PROBLEM: Until a little over a decade ago, nearly all state funding for higher education was...
A recent article on the forthcoming White House infrastructure plan quoted an Administration spokeswoman as saying it would address “rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.” That frequent characterization is misleading, as pointed out in an excellent new report from the RAND Corporation, “Not Everything Is Broken: The Future of U.S. Transportation...
Editor’s note: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it will accept the Louisiana ESA frog case for briefing, argument and decision. “The essentially boundless authority granted the federal government by the Fifth Circuit [U.S. Court of Appeals] to control local land and water use under the guise of species...
If I’ve learned anything through my life—whether growing up on my family’s fifth generation hog farm, or through my time representing the voters of an diverse rural, suburban and urban congressional district for seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives—it’s this: what’s good for the goose is good for...
A new study by the Thomas Jefferson Institute shows that the overall finances of Virginia hospitals have substantially improved between the numbers published in 2016 and those in December 2017. More important is the bigger picture: Since 2012, hospital profits have risen from $1.58 billion to $2.15 billion, hospital net...
Increased cigarette taxes rarely produce the revenue expected by local governments. Fairly consistently, the tax increases produce a decrease in revenue, don’t meet expectations, miss budget projections or simply produce mixed results and often turn flat or negative in the years following a tax increase.
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