(This first ran in Surface Transportation Innovations). For several years I have thought that, given the non-sustainability of fuel taxes for highway funding, the only way we are likely to be able to reconstruct the Interstate highway system as it reaches the end of its 50-year design life is via...
The Virginia General Assembly is grappling with decisions of whether or not to expand the number of individuals served under the Virginia program, the cost of doing so, the consequences of not doing so, and in either case the most cost-effective manner of providing services. The Virginia Association of Personal...
In the lead article Peter Katz (profiled here) elaborates his thoughts on fiscal analytics and growth management. He starts with the argument, which I have embraced, that the fiscal impact of development projects is better understood by comparing revenues and costs per acre. He goes on to suggest that local...
(This is the text of a speech delivered to the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy on July 18, 2013 at its “Virginia’s Energy Future” Leadership Round Table Discussion in Richmond, VA. Over 50 key stakeholders attend this Leadership Round Table Discussion.) Thank you Mike (Thompson) for inviting me to...
(This article first ran in Transportation Innovations newsletter.) Editor’s note: Virginia’s next Governor could learn lessons from the examples in this article and dramatically improve the faulty bridges in our state. The collapse of one span of the I-5 bridge in Washington State several months ago has led to considerable...
Environmental alarmists are demanding that we embrace “revenue-neutral” carbon taxes and carbon dioxide regulations, before it’s “too late” to prevent “catastrophic” global warming, “monster” storms and rising seas that will “inundate our coastal cities.”Anyone dissenting from this “call to action” is a climate change “denier” – a pejorative devised to...
It’s becoming “silly season” in the race for Governor, and candidates should be spending their time offering positive policy solutions, says Mike Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute.
... Oil Sheikhs finance Hollywood movies against it. HBO “documentaries” are made about it. TV “news” complains about it. Opposing it is the latest cause celeb in environmental politics. What can cause such a commotion? It is hydraulic fracturing, a process essential to our nation’s natural gas future, and the battle...
Oil Sheikhs finance Hollywood movies against it. HBO “documentaries” are made about it. TV “news” complains about it. Opposing it is the latest cause celeb in environmental politics. What can cause such a commotion? It is hydraulic fracturing, a process essential to our nation’s natural gas future. The battle over...
Read Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s plans for pre-K through 12 education, and you’ll find a lot in common: Both want a new emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curricula, to reform the state Standards of Learning to incorporate more problem solving and critical thinking, and...
