Mason-Dixon Poll: Voters Want Employee Protections
As local governments take steps towards permitting collective bargaining agreements with public employee unions, voters overwhelmingly want to make sure public employees are informed of their rights, their privacy is protected, and that those workers have a periodic say if the union should stay or go. Those are among the results of a January Mason-Dixon […]
Deadlocked Again on Taxes vs. Spending
We have seen this before in Virginia and here we go again: the classic conflict between tax cuts for the many versus more government spending for a few. The Republican-dominated House of Delegates has passed a series of broad tax reductions, while the Democratic-dominated Virginia Senate has killed its versions of the same bills. Last […]
Youngkin Thwarts Dominion Push for Higher Profit
A Virginia House of Delegates committee has rebuffed Dominion Energy Virginia’s bid to change the rules on how much profit it can earn, setting up a confrontation with the utility and its allies in the Virginia Senate. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) reportedly encouraged the delegates to take the step and sent a member of his […]
Will RGGI Tax Return to Your Dominion Bill?
The on again, off again, direct tax on your Dominion Energy Virginia bills to pay for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) may be on again. If you feel like you are watching a shell game and just cannot find the pea, that is intentional. In its sales pitch for its latest effort to create a […]
Five Reasons for Supporting Youngkin Tax Plan
Last week, the Republican majority in the Virginia House of Delegates passed a $1 billion package of tax cuts for individuals and businesses, the centerpiece of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s economic agenda. But Democrats, who have a two-seat majority in the state Senate, have a laundry list of policies and programs they would prefer to spend […]
Let Them Eat Cake
On being told that peasants were starving for lack of bread, Marie Antionette is reputed to have said “Let them eat cake.” Marie Antionette had nothing on Delegate Suhas Subramanyam. At a House subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, Delegate Subramanyam was confronted with more than a dozen low-income families and black community leaders demanding educational choices […]
House Bill Seeks to Preserve Your Right to Natural Gas
Would Prevent Natural Gas Bans Legislation to enshrine the right to use natural gas and propane in Virginia law, a repeat of a failed effort from 2022, cleared a House of Delegates committee Tuesday. The ultimate showdown will come not in the Republican-controlled House but in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where the effort hit a wall […]
Small Customers In Danger When Energy Elephants Dance
The Virginia House of Delegates is expected to vote this week to exempt certain Virginia manufacturers, which ones to be determined later, from the coming wave of energy costs created by Virginia’s rapid transition to unreliable forms of power generation. House Bill 1430, sponsored by Delegate Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, mirrors a similar failed effort from […]
Complex Energy Bill Will Raise Costs to Customers
The headlines in the coming General Assembly may be captured by fights over abortion and taxes, but the deepest reach into your pockets will involve your energy bills. The state’s dominant electric utility appears to once again be seeking to amend Virginia’s regulatory and ratemaking process to its benefit. A draft bill circulating among energy issue observers, not […]
Here’s the Tax Cuts Youngkin Proposes: Will the General Assembly Say Yes?
The set of Virginia tax changes Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has baked into his proposed 2023 budget amendments is far more extensive and involves substantially more tax relief than the descriptions he offered in his December 15 presentation. “Baked into” is the correct phrase because his actual proposals can only be found in the budget […]