The Virginia General Assembly, the New World’s oldest continuous lawmaking body, began its 400th year amid pageantry and an unintended tax increase on which, thus far, that body has had no say. The House’s ceremonial mace, a symbol of the legislature’s prerogative, was escorted into the chamber by a company...
As a result of recent federal tax changes, Virginia taxpayers will pay an additional $1.2 billion in state income taxes this year and next, rising to $4.5 billion in additional taxes by 2024. In late December, the Thomas Jefferson Institute released the results of a poll it commissioned asking voters...
As a result of recent federal tax changes, Virginia taxpayers will pay an additional $1.2 billion in state income taxes this year and next, rising to $4.5 billion in additional taxes by 2024. Now, a new poll conducted for the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy by Mason-Dixon Strategies shows...
Recent federal tax cuts put more money into the pockets of most Virginia families to the tune of some $1200 to $1400. But a good part of that could soon be taken away by our elected officials when the General Assembly meets in January. When the General Assembly votes to...
On Friday, after skirting the topic in a major address to a business conference in Williamsburg, Governor Ralph Northam told a reporter that “he’s planning to ask the General Assembly to tackle business tax reform,” adding it would be “comprehensive.” The reporter asked about it because of other comments made...
Late to the party to rebuild and modernize its Interstates, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has developed a toll-based plan to improve I-81, a major north-south truck route. Understandably, the state wants to lay out a vision that can be implemented in the near future. But this plan is...
Smithfield and its subsidiary, Murphy-Brown, have won an important First Amendment gag order case in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Smithfield’s subsidiary has lost 3 times in U.S. District Court. On April 26, 2018, a jury ruled Smithfield and its subsidiary were liable for $50 million to ten...
The unwritten rule seems to be that each successive climate report and news release must be more scarifying than any predecessors, especially during the run-up to international conferences. Thus Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report 15 claims governments worldwide must make “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” spend...
In two new Thomas Jefferson Institute commentaries published on opposite sides of the state, Institute scholars make the case for tax reform in Virginia. In a commentary originally published in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, Institute president Michael W. Thompson points out that the new “tax windfall” coming to Virginia as...
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) claims humans have killed more than half the all the wildlife in the world since 1970. The report attracted media mass attention, though if you read the entire 145-page essay, it doesn’t really say that, much less prove it. More ironic,...
