At the annual meeting of the International Bridge, Tunnel, & Turnpike Association (IBTTA) in Austin last month, Ed Regan of CDM Smith gave a dazzling presentation on the potential future of tolling in the United States. Scanning the country and extrapolating recent trends, he predicted a bright future for networks...
The midterm elections underscore how much Americans value energy, job and economic revival – and how much they want less Washington control of their lives, livelihoods, and dreams for their children and grandchildren. If ever there was a time to end the ban on oil exports, it’s now. With U.S....
Stan Collender, “one of the world’s leading experts on the U.S. budget and congressional budget process,” claims in his Forbes column that the federal deficit is “falling rapidly as a percent of Gross Domestic Product and that means the national debt is less of an economic burden than it has...
A quarter century ago this month, the move to standards-based education kicked off in Charlottesville, Virginia. There, President George H.W. Bush and the man who would succeed him, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, led an education summit of the nation’s governors aimed at examining what the nation’s education goals should be,...
A year or so ago, few would have predicted the manufacturing expansion we are seeing here in Virginia. After years of seeing jobs and indeed entire manufacturing industries move offshore, we are thrilled to hear of new operations happening right here in the Commonwealth. Recent months have brought announcements of...
In closing statements of former Governor Bob McDonnell’s August trial, lead prosecutor Michael Dry made a remarkable statement. McDonnell had flat-out denied key testimony of star witness Jonnie R. Williams, a suspected con man under federal investigation who had agreed to testify in exchange for a generous immunity agreement. Dry...
There is “…overwhelming evidence that EPA’s proposed WOTUS [Waters of the U.S.] rule would have a devastating impact on businesses of all sizes, States, and local governments without any real benefit to the environment,…” says the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber, along with other business groups, has prepared...
The late Herb Stein, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, once quipped, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Stein’s Law, as it is now known, applies to the five bailouts of the Highway Trust Fund with general fund money since 2008, to the tune of...
While the General Assembly and Governor McAuliffe debated Medicaid expansion in Richmond earlier in the year, the federal government bureaucracy tried to change the Medicare Part D program into a Medicaid type program. Let me explain. When Congress passed Medicare Part D in 2003 and added prescription drug coverage to...
Why aren’t we making more progress improving the academic performance of Virginia’s school children? Many reasons have been advanced. Some say that school divisions don’t get enough money or that the money is unfairly distributed between schools. Others say that the public school system is over-regulated, bound by bureaucracy and...
