Check out Jeff Schapiro’s column, “Pork is big side dish in Va. budget,” and let me know what you all think. Here’s a sample:
The budget is more than numbers. It reflects the whim and fancy of politicians.
Big-money programs get their names in the papers. Penny-ante stuff gets them re-elected. That’s why the General Assembly equivalent […]

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What is a conservative to do?
The General Assembly has ended its session and passed a budget.
First, the good news.
There was no tax increase.
The Senate tried to increase the tax on gasoline. Defeated.
The Senate tried to increase the sales tax. Defeated.
The Senate tried to increase the grantors’ tax. Defeated.
House Republicans stayed true […]

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It was great reading conservative Senator Mark Obenshain’s most recent legislative update this morning on the budget. While he had some good things to say about it, like a reduced withdrawal from the “rainy day fund” and it protects funding for rebenchmarking for K-12 education, these few accomplishes seem greatly overshadowed by its shortcomings.
Now […]

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If you have a second, please read Lt. Governor Bill Bolling’s latest newsletter. It lays out the differences between the Senate and the House budgets, and shows the strength that all 19 Republican Senators are showing in fighting the Democrats tax and spend policies for an expansion of government. This is all you’ll need to […]

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Despite Virginia’s recent budget shortfall, Governor Kaine is determined to push through his pre-K plan for 4-year olds. This is a good issue for Kaine, because who doesn’t want Virginia’s children to succeed?
Of course I don’t think that is the most accurate way to frame the issue. I question whether creating new government education […]

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Ok, I fully intend on transcribing for you the debate tonight between Senator Stosch and challenger Joe Blackburn. I can tell you that I thought Joe Blackburn handily won the debate tonight. However, before I sit down and write out the entire debate in a new post, I have to tell you the […]

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The Washington Post asked this question on March 11: is it wise to use the General Fund? Honestly, I don’t know where to start. I guess I’m supposed to take a deep breath and count to ten first, but have any of these people even looked at a summary of the Virginia State […]

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There is a famous example, used in almost every Economics text book I have ever seen, of a simple economy that can produce only two goods: guns and butter.  The purpose of the example is to explain the production possibility frontier - how an economy can allocate production capacity among combinations of guns or butter, […]

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As everyone already knows, VCAP has been no fan of the Transportation Compromise, with the exception of the reforms. However, despite the fact that the Transportation Bill in general is a huge disappointment, I continue to be utterly disgusted with the response from liberals. In today’s Washington Post article, I found these quotes […]

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It takes some simple math to see that the current state budget just passed by the General Assembly is a cautionary tale in unsustainable growth of government.
Let me start with some basic economic statistics. Personal Income – the total amount of income earned by everyone living in the Commonwealth – has been growing at a […]

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