Population on the rise statewide
Staff Report
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The rate of population growth in Virginia is increasing again for the first time since the beginning of the recession, according to the latest estimates from the Demographics and Workforce Group of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
The Cooper Center’s population estimates are the official figures for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The estimates are based on changes since 2000 in the housing stock, school enrollment, births, exemptions claimed on state income tax returns and drivers’ licenses. They are used by state and local government agencies in revenue sharing, funding allocations, and planning and budgeting.
While economic conditions remain uncertain, the population growth rate has recovered from less than 1 percent in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to 1.12 percent in 2008-09, said U.Va. demographer Mike Spar, who prepared the annual population estimates. While the state’s overall growth rate has not yet returned to previous levels – it was 1.29 percent in 2003-04 – the trend is toward higher rates of growth after the mid-decade slowdown, he said. Read more
Expert: Virginia headed toward transportation ‘catastrophe’
Item by Robert Brickhouse
UVa. news: www.virginia.edu
Virginia is headed toward a transportation “catastrophe” if state political leaders don’t act, according to a former state transportation commissioner.
Ray Pethel made that assessment in a column in the latest issue of The Virginia News Letter published by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
Pethtel, now director of the Transportation Policy Center at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, predicts increasingly severe congestion, deteriorating roadways, risk of bridge failures and possible loss of the state’s AAA bond rating if lawmakers don’t act soon to end a long-running funding crisis.
Pethtel, who was director of the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission from 1974 to 1986, served as commonwealth transportation commissioner from 1986 to 1994 under governors Gerald Baliles and Douglas Wilder. Read more
