Election Stakes High for Virginia
By Michael W. Thompson
As we consider who to support on November 8, we need to consider the real battles that are coming in the next few years over the direction our states takes in a number of areas. And our decisions on who to support should be based on who will handle these problems best.
In education, “at risk” students faced with a one-size-fits-all education system need to have more choices available to them. A robust charter school system would offer credible alternatives to the current public school system as it does in other states. Tax credits for scholarships for students in “failing school systems seem to make sense. Allowing students to attend any school within their district boundaries where desk space is available seems reasonable. Requiring at least 65% of all K-12 monies be used in the classrooms is a goal to be sought.
In transportation, we need leaders who will take creative and successful ideas from around this country and other countries and bring them to Virginia. We should encourage more private money for toll roads, toll bridges, and High Occupancy Toll Lanes. It is a travesty that only 250 miles of our roads are under private sector maintenance contracts when states such as Florida have 80% of their state roads under such agreements. Private toll roads need to be encouraged and even the selling of publicly owned airports to the private sector should be on the table as has been the case in other states.
With leadership and creativity, we can encourage economic development and best management practices to protect our environment. The clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay cannot become reality without a market-oriented system of environmental credits for agricultural best practices. Earmarking $50 million a year to the Bay cleanup is good, but if it is not spent in the right way we will not accomplish the cleanup that is possible with some well-thought through plans based on true science and not politically biased science.
And overall government reform should be a major consideration of those we elect in a couple of weeks. Our state spends over $32 billion a year and that price tag is rising. We should demand real reforms. The next team of leaders should build on what has been accomplished by Governor Warner and previous governors. We need men and women who will move aggressively to bring best practices to bear on every state agency. And the first step should be a truly new and user friendly budget document that allows legislators and citizens to understand where our money is being spent and how well it is being used. Other states have such budgets. Without a transparent budget document, little real reform can take place.
Health care is a piece of our state budget that cries out for a better approach. Health Savings Accounts for our state employees should be promoted and encouraged. Medicaid reforms from other states need to be brought to Virginia and implemented in a way that brings true cost savings to this program. Allowing several small businesses to come together and purchase health insurance through larger group policies makes sense if packaged properly. And the whole are of health insurance mandated coverage needs to be reviewed since we have one of the highest number of such mandates in the nation and these add significant costs to our policies.
Illegal immigration is a terribly emotional issue, but it is one that strong leadership can grasp and unite our communities around through a reasonable and even-handed program. A program needs to be developed that is not misperceived as being anti-immigrant. A program can be crafted that will bring on board a large segment of the legal immigrant community and this should be a top priority. It seems reasonable that Virginia should not have programs that encourage illegal immigrants to come here. At the same time, we need to encourage legal immigrants to set down roots, raise their families, become U.S. citizens and be part of our community. Clearly, tax money should not used to encourage the illegal immigrants to come here. Draining our scare resources for illegal immigrants is unfair to all those who are in need and live in Virginia legally.
The issue of eminent domain must be handled quickly by the next set of leaders we sends to Richmond. State laws must be strengthened for the protection of our homeowners so that their property cannot be taken by state or local government for the economic benefit of others. The traditional use of this tool for roads, schools, power lines and public safety has long been supported. But eminent domain should not be used to take your home and hand it over to a developer for his economic benefit. Our new leaders must face this issue head on.
These are some of the major challenges facing our state and the next set of elected leaders that we “hire” on November 8th should be willing to tackle these issues in creative ways that are not merely repackaged failures from the past.
Michael Thompson is President of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a non-partisan “solutions tank” in Virginia. These ideas are his and do not necessary reflect the opinions of the Institute or its Board of Directors. You can contact him at .