Virginia@: Your June 6th Sunday Summary

Dear Friend of TJI,

Senator Joe Manchin has taken heat from the Left for making clear he will not support ending the filibuster. But he’s not alone. Others have also written that they oppose “any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senator to engage in full, robust, and extended debate …” Among them were more than half of current Senate Democrats in the Senate – including Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner -- and Vice President Kamala Harris. Of course, the letter was written three years ago, when Democrats were in the minority and cared something for preserving the rights of the minority. The Left is principled, and their first principle is flexibility.

Meanwhile …

1.) Two generations of elected officials have come into office since Virginia last had public employee collective bargaining … so officials are unfamiliar with union strategies on collective bargaining or the provisions to be avoided. To the rescue comes the Thomas Jefferson Institute in a new collective bargaining toolkit authored by Visiting Fellow F. Vincent Vernuccio here. If you don’t want to read through the 42-page document, Vinny has a new column out summarizing the provisions here. This is the stuff of which $392,000 lifeguards are made (here).

2.) Writing over at Bacon’s Rebellion, Jefferson Institute Senior Fellow Steve Haner points out that “So many Virginia employers faltered or failed during 2020, the remaining companies may be charged a special tax of $95 on each of their own employees in 2022.” He also reports that the Virginia Unemployment Commission still has a 70,000 case backlog, which they promise will cleaned up by … September. Finally, he calls attention to how flat employment growth has been in Virginia – even before the pandemic. An informative piece worth reading here.

3.) The ever-watchful Haner also reports on state revenue here. Revenue in the Ralph Northam years is up by a full third from the same point four years ago.

4.) The funds don’t go to the state, but among the tax increases authorized by the General Assembly was permission for localities to impose a plastic bag tax (here). Like Roanoke, which has imposed the tax, Fredericksburg is looking to do the same (here). Prince William (here) and Fairfax (here) aren’t far behind. Coming to a County near you …

5.) The once-sleepy Loudoun County has now become the epicenter of parental pushback against school administrators who confuse their role with that of the Thought Police (here). The Board faces backlash from its defeated efforts to suspend a teacher for expressing an opinion in an open forum (here) (they plan to appeal), and is taken to court again for “race and viewpoint discrimination” in its Student Ambassadors program (here). One parent who survived Maoist China drew parallels (here) about when her freedom was lost. In the ancient days, when we served on the Fairfax School Board, our motion to guarantee employees their First Amendment right to speak was defeated by a liberal majority. Perhaps they have all moved to Loudoun.

6.) But conservatives should never forget that free speech rights work both ways (here).

7.) Former Governor Doug Wilder and his former Education Secretary Jim Dyke (disclosure: Mr. Dyke is on the Jefferson Institute Board) have called for infusing part of federal covid funds into Virginia’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (here). More than 20 years ago, the Thomas Jefferson Institute looked at campus salaries and noted that HBCUs Norfolk State and Virginia State were the lowest in the region (here). Not much has been done to catch up. Time to do so.

8.) In the wake of a pandemic and the Left’s efforts to rein in law enforcement, the Virginia State Police have released the annual Crime in Virginia report (here). The progressive Virginia Mercury reports that the murder rate has climbed to its highest since 1998 (here). Conservative blogger Jim Bacon parses the data and notes that the largest murder uptick was in black communities (here). Conservatives should pound home the message that black Americans, who are left to live with the results of crime, support police more than whites (here), fear crime more than law enforcement (here) and are ill-served by the Left's political class. The focus for solutions should be on gaining accountability over “bad cops” (one thought: Don’t allow police union collective bargaining contracts), because these are the deadly results of Defunding the Police (here and here).

9.) Nor should conservatives concede support among Latinos, as more and more align with conservatives on issue and bid "adios" to the Party of the Left (here).

10.) This is not a drill: Inflation is here (here). Inflation has increased to the highest point in 13 years and former Council of Economic Advisors chair Kevin Hassett says that the ingredients are in the pot and the fire is on (here). Kevin Williamson notes you should be worried about it (here). Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve won’t admit it has an inflation problem (here). Over at Bloomberg News, the argument is that a Joe Biden “trickle up economics” will simply fail (here).

11.) The Biden Administration slogan is "Building Back Better." George Will asks if its even possible in an America (quoting Federalist editor Ben Domenech) where "schools can't fail kids for giving the wrong answers, where teachers refuse to teach even with precautions and vaccinations, and where local authorities won't put down riots." (here)

Finally … Thirty-four years ago yesterday marked the beginning of the end.

Happy Sunday, Everyone.

We miss him still.

Cordially,