In the waning months of service as one of nine Virginia Retirement System trustees, I find myself in simpatico with Rod Smyth, Chairman of the VRS Investment Advisory Committee, and Chief Investment Strategist for Riverfront Investment Group.Smyth describes VRS assets: “stocks (domestic and international), a wide spectrum of bond/credit (from...
Virginia this week joins the rest of the nation in celebrating “National School Choice Week” from a special position: As one of 11 states with an education choice program offering new options to students in need of them. For the first time, private donors who want to help children find...
This spring, the Commonwealth will make an important decision on how to move forward with the public-private partnership proposals it has received to privatize The Port of Virginia. Virginia has two well-qualified port operators interested in bringing their expertise and capital to Virginia in return for full business and operational...
(This article is reprinted by Surface Transportation Innovations, a monthly newsletter by Reason Foundation.) The state with the longest track record in public-private partnerships (P3s) for transportation infrastructure is clearly Virginia. It enacted the first workable general enabling legislation for P3s back in 1995 (the Public-Private Transportation Act—PPTA) and despite...
Each of the nation’s 366 metropolitan statistical areas saw a year-over-year increase in personal income in 2011 — the first time since 2007. Richmond had the fastest personal income growth of any metro area in the state — with income up 5.8 percent from the previous year, according to a...
Near the Henrico County government training center, a five-foot pipe spills water into Rocky Branch, a forlorn and forgotten urban creek. When it rains, water from more than 80 acres of roofs and parking lots along Broad Street rushes through the culvert and shoots into the stream at high velocity....
As part of his “ALL STUDENTS” education reform package, Governor Bob McDonnell has proposed removing the barriers that prevent Virginia school divisions from working with Teach for America (TFA), a non-profit that recruits recent college graduates to teach for two years in low-income communities. The Fairfax Education Association – a...
(This column ran in the January 7th edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch.) President Barack Obama signed a law last week that keeps taxes from going up on most Americans, but the potential for sequestration was delayed for just two months.The sequestration — across the board cuts in government spending...
As our national leaders struggle over deficit reduction, Virginians in particular worry about the possible effects of a sequester, or automatic cuts, in the defense budget. But it’s not clear that these would have as much impact on the state as some have predicted. Cuts in defense and non-defense spending...
The Jefferson Journal: This Year in Virginia, New Choices.
Virginia this week joined the rest of the nation in celebrating “National School Choice Week” from a special position: As one of states with an education choice program offering new options to students in need of them.
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