Virginia should not join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax is now fully authorized under a new state regulation, and the deadline to appeal that regulation has passed with no appeal filed. Only the one-vote Republican margin in the two...
Virginia’s highway system ranks 2nd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is a 25-spot improvement from the previous report, where Virginia ranked 27th overall, as the number of structurally deficient bridges decreased and the state benefited from the...
Governor Ralph Northam recently suggested caution in the face of recessionary concerns: “As the global economy changes, we must be both cautious and strategic.” Those concerns were largely echoed by the actions of Republicans in the General Assembly who made a priority of boosting the state’s cash reserves. But another...
Virginia state government ended Fiscal Year 2019 awash in cash largely for one reason: A $466 million tax increase that fell on about 30 percent of individual taxpayers, caused by conforming to the new federal tax law without any corresponding tax reform. That represents almost 60 percent of the $797...
Education is usually at the top of the list of national priorities, especially for American Presidential candidates. If one looks at the mission statement for many schools and school districts, it usually includes statements about producing or preparing students for active citizenship. The U.S. should make civics education a priority....
Give Richmond educators credit for brutal honesty. A presentation of the school system’s five-year plan surfaced some devastating data: Only one in ten Richmond high school students is ready for college and a career, according to College Board criteria. If it’s any comfort, that number is up from 9% in...
Debate: The debate on immigration in America continues to rage. People who hold right-of-center political beliefs seem to think that the U.S. immigration laws should be vigorously enforced. There may be some “wiggle room” on the right. For example, some conservatives believe there should be exceptions to deportation for those...
We had been on Medicare exactly two days when our first premium increase notice arrived, a nice healthy 5% jump. This isn’t the Medicare Heaven that I keep hearing about from the presidential contenders. I want that Medicare, the idyllic one described by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Surely...
Virginia keeps adding jobs on a monthly basis, but the state’s job growth rate continues to lag the national growth rate. In fact, monthly employment in Virginia has grown at a slower pace since 2011 on a year-over-year basis than in the nation 86 percent of the time. The reason:...
Richmond-area schools suspend black students at four times the rate of white students, a gap that exceeds the national average, a study by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education has found. The findings have been duly reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. One in five black students in the region...
