Will Virginia Sabotage Its Economic Success?
For years, Democrat nominee Abigail Spanberger has made it clear she’s ready to throw away Virginia’s reputation as job creation-friendly in order to please her Big Labor patrons.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is taking on the government unions head on. George Will describes the financial situation in New Jersey as “the nation’s worst.” Christie has issued executive orders that have saved $2.2 billion in state spending but he won’t be able to get things under control unless he reforms the gold-plated benefits of the government employee unions’ and that is what he is doing. Wonder if the governors of other states — including Arnold Schwarzenegger — are paying any attention.
So he closed the $2.2 billion gap by accepting 375 of 378 suggested spending freezes and cuts. In two weeks. By executive actions. In eight weeks he cut $13 billion — $232 million a day, $9 million an hour. Now comes the hard part.
Government employees’ health benefits are, he says, “41 percent more expensive” than those of the average Fortune 500 company. Without changes in current law, “spending will have increased 322 percent in 20 years — over 16 percent a year.” There is, he says, a connection between the state’s being No. 1 in total tax burden and being No. 1 in the proportion of college students who, after graduating, leave the state.
Partly to pay for teachers’ benefits — most contribute nothing to pay for their health insurance — property taxes have increased 70 percent in 10 years, to an average annual cost to homeowners of $7,281. Christie proposes a 2.5 percent cap on annual increases.
For years, Democrat nominee Abigail Spanberger has made it clear she’s ready to throw away Virginia’s reputation as job creation-friendly in order to please her Big Labor patrons.
Business Item 60, vowing that the NEA would use the word “facism” whenever communicating about policies favored by the President and his many supporters, was just one of several highly controversial 2025 NEA resolutions.
“Union bosses publicly claim to support more apprenticeships in construction. But they do everything they can to keep the number of newly certified journeypersons to a minimum.”