McDonnell Inaugural lineup announced
Staff Report
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Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell today announced that 47 groups from across the Commonwealth will be participating in Virginia’s Inaugural parade on Saturday, Jan. 16th. The parade will take place immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, starting at approximately 1:15 p.m.
The parade lineup will include a number of organizations with personal connections to Virginia’s 71st governor. His American Legion Post from Virginia Beach will join the parade, as will his high school alma mater, Bishop Ireton in Alexandria. The Governor-elect’s youngest daughter’s college will be represented by the James Madison University Marching Royal Dukes. And Virginia’s next First Lady, Maureen McDonnell, will wave to the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders Alumni Association and Hoggettes, and the Washington Redskins Marching Band. Continue reading “McDonnell Inaugural lineup announced” »
Robinson tapped to serve as Secretary of Education
African-American is expert on charter schools
Staff Report
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Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell announced today his selection of Gerard Robinson as Virginia’s next Secretary of Education.
Robinson currently serves as the president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and began his career as an educator in Los Angeles. He is a nationally recognized expert on the modern charter school movement and serves on the Policy Advisory Council at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and on the board of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Charter School Resource Center.
“Few individuals in America are as committed to providing positive educational opportunities for all our young people, in all our communities, as Gerard Robinson,” McDonnell said. “He understands the issue both personally and professionally. Gerard’s life story, from growing up in a working-class family in Los Angeles to receiving his Master’s degree in Education from Harvard, is an inspiration to us all. He has dedicated his career to helping young people across the country receive the same educational opportunities that were crucial to his own success.” Continue reading “Robinson tapped to serve as Secretary of Education” »
Sierra Club: McDonnell misses ‘big picture’ on drilling
Staff Report
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The Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club today issued its response to Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell’s recent letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding Virginia offshore drilling and lease sale.
“In his rush to accelerate Virginia offshore drilling, Mr. McDonnell is not considering the big picture,” said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.
McDonnell continues to base his economic argument for drilling on a 2005 analysis done by former Old Dominion University president Dr. James V. Koch. In several recent statements to the press, Dr. Koch has revealed the deep inadequacies of his analysis. Continue reading “Sierra Club: McDonnell misses ‘big picture’ on drilling” »
McDonnell makes three Cabinet appointments
Staff Report
www.bobmcdonnell.com
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell announced three additional appointments to his administration this morning in a press conference at the State Capitol.
McDonnell announced that Jim Duffey will serve as the Commonwealth’s next Secretary of Technology. Duffey worked for Electric Data Systems Corporation for 24 years, serving as Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Public Sector business, and is a former Vice-Chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
McDonnell also appointed Doug Domenech as Secretary of Natural Resources. Domenech served in a number of leadership roles in the United States Department of Interior, which manages nearly one-fifth of the land in the country, from 2001 to 2009. Domenech began his career in the forestry industry, later serving as a gubernatorial appointee to the Virginia Board of Forestry. Continue reading “McDonnell makes three Cabinet appointments” »
McDonnell: Va. ‘eager to get started’ on offshore drilling
Gov.-elect writes letter to Secretary of Interior to push ’11 lease sale
Staff Report
McDonnell online: www.bobmcdonnell.com
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell today released a letter that he sent last week to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar cautioning against any delay in a scheduled 2011 lease sale involving drilling interests off the Virginia coast.
The letter comes as published reports have Salazar considering a revision to federal policy regarding drilling dating back to the Bush administration. McDonnell made offshore drilling a key part of his 2009 gubernatorial campaign as a way of providing revenues for transportation-system improvements.
“More than fifteen months have passed since the United States Congress allowed the federal moratorium on exploration and development of oil and natural gas resources off the Atlantic Coast to expire, and President Bush repealed a similar executive order banning such action. This cleared the way for Virginia to be the first state on the Atlantic seaboard to explore and drill beginning in 2011. Virginia is eager to get started,” wrote McDonnell in the Dec. 23 letter. Continue reading “McDonnell: Va. ‘eager to get started’ on offshore drilling” »
McDonnell: Current state-budget system ‘needs to be reformed’
Gov.-elect will propose moving development of budget to odd-numbered years
Statement by Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell
www.bobmcdonnell.com
On Friday, Dec. 18th, Gov. Tim Kaine proposed his biennial budget for Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012. The governor made his proposal with only 28 days left in his single four-year term, carrying out his obligation as determined by our current budgetary calendar.
Unfortunately, the current budget development process leads to a situation, repeated every four years, in which the consideration, debate and adoption of one governor’s proposed budget takes place during the administration of his successor. Thus, one out of every two budgets submitted requires no subsequent accountability or management from the governor who proposed it.
The current system also requires a new governor to potentially submit sweeping changes to a budget just days after taking office with limited preparation and input. A sitting governor usually takes many months to analyze and develop a comprehensive state budget. It is likewise burdensome on the General Assembly to have to review and consider the potentially divergent budget recommendations of two governors in such a short period of time. Continue reading “McDonnell: Current state-budget system ‘needs to be reformed’” »
Focus | No car tax, but yes, local income tax?
Kaine gets heat for controversial proposed switch
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Goodbye, No Car Tax. Hello, New Local Income Tax.
Tim Kaine didn’t exactly say it that way, but that was the sum effect.
“Let’s keep the promise. Let’s get rid of the car tax on personal vehicles completely, but do it the right way,” Kaine said in his budget message to state lawmakers today in Richmond that accompanied his proposed 2010-2012 state budget.
The “right way,” in the form of a proposed 1 percent income-tax surcharge that would go to local governments in exchange for their agreement to eliminate the car tax, has raised quite the ruckus, and on both sides of the political aisle, too.
“Hell no. Not for this Democrat,” Northern Virginia Democratic State Sen. Chap Petersen wrote on his blog after the presentation from Kaine. Continue reading “Focus | No car tax, but yes, local income tax?” »
Focus | A move toward equity
Kaine proposes employee-benefits policy change
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The Kaine administration, in a sort of last act as its final days count down, has proposed a change in state policy that would allow state employees to choose between covering a spouse or an “otherwise qualfied adult” on their employee plus one health-care policies.
The policy could be on its way to becoming a political hotbutton with the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia trying to whip up opposition to what it perceives an attempt to run an end-around to the marriage amendment passed in 2006 on the one side and the gay civil-rights lobby Equality Virginia and leaders at public colleges and universities across the Commonwealth leading the charge in the direction of change on the other.
The review period for the proposed change could aid in putting the issue on track to political-controversy status, because the policy will in the end need to gain the approval of the gubernatorial administration of Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, a social-conservative Republican for whom the matter could be an important bellwether. Continue reading “Focus | A move toward equity” »
Charter schools, when explained, get support
VCU survey shows most know little about charter-school concept
Staff Report
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Virginia residents are not well informed about charter schools but a majority support them when charter school programs are explained, according to a new statewide survey conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Commonwealth Education Poll finds only 8 percent say they have heard or read a lot about them, 27 percent have read or heard some, and the majority of 64 percent have heard or read nothing or not too much about charter schools. When a charter school program is described, a 56 percent majority favors a charter school program, while 26 percent oppose and 18 percent are undecided. Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell made increasing the number of charter schools in Virginia one of his key proposals for education. Continue reading “Charter schools, when explained, get support” »
Bolling earns job-czar appointment
Staff Report
www.ltgov.virginia.gov
Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell announced tody that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling will serve in his Cabinet as Virginia’s Chief Jobs Creation Officer.
“Bill Bolling is about to become the busiest lieutenant governor in America,” said McDonnell, confirming that Bolling will also chair his Job Creation and Economic Opportunity Task Force and the Job Creation Work Group, an internal working group of Cabinet secretaries and agency heads. Continue reading “Bolling earns job-czar appointment” »
Not as bad as next year
Column by David Reynolds
Columns, letters: freepress2@ntelos.net
Last time we painted a bleak budget picture, saying that this year’s public budgets are worse than last year’s, but not as bad as next year’s. In my old Washington Bureau of the Budget days it allowed us to put away the usual governmental garbage that we have never traveled down this road before.
The picture is bad everywhere, for some places worse than others. Revenues will continue to be down and our budget pains will remain. Continue reading “Not as bad as next year” »
Letter | McDonnell’s claims on drilling ‘tenuous at best’
Posted by afp on December 31, 2009 · 1 Comment
Letter from J.R. Tolbert, Richmond, Va.
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On the subject of jobs Mr. McDonnell cites a 2005 “study” that claims more than 2,000 jobs would be created by drilling operations. The fact of the matter is that, as cited in the Dec. 30th Wall Street Journal, the author of this report did not consider any Virginia specific data and only looked at examples in Louisiana and Canada. Continue reading “Letter | McDonnell’s claims on drilling ‘tenuous at best’” »
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