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	<title>The Commonwealth Institute</title>
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		<title>Tighter Voter ID Requirements Bring Costs to Virginia</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/02/20/tighter-voter-id-requirements-bring-costs-to-virginia/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/02/20/tighter-voter-id-requirements-bring-costs-to-virginia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:55:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News Releases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=1176</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New analysis shows impact could exceed $1.2 million RICHMOND, VA – Two bills pending in the General Assembly to tighten voter ID requirements in Virginia will cost between half a million and $1.2 million, according to new analysis published today by The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. Under SB1 and HB9, voters who show up to the polls without an acceptable form of identification would be required to vote provisionally, resulting in significant implementation costs. But the state says the measures won&#8217;t cost anything. “Despite an official state estimate that these costs can be absorbed in the existing State Board of Elections budget, the facts show that in other states where similar measures have been adopted, the costs have been significant,” says Michael Cassidy, Institute president. The analysis examines similar voter ID laws in Maryland, North Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and South Carolina, and considers costs for voter education, staff training, and provisional ballot administration. The Institute&#8217;s analysis puts the cost for Virginia between $522,263 and $1,258,959. The state’s original fiscal impact statement for HB9 estimated the cost at $70,000 over two years and called for a budget amendment. That impact statement is no longer posted on the Legislative [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Voter Photo ID Could Cost Virginia Millions</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/02/08/voter-photo-id-would-cost-virginia-millions/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/02/08/voter-photo-id-would-cost-virginia-millions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:44:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=1144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[HB569: A Fiscal and Legal Morass HB 569 imposes burdensome new voter identification requirements, could cost Virginia millions of dollars to implement, and may ensnare Virginia in costly litigation. As currently drafted, this legislation would (1) require proof of citizenship for new voter registrations (including individuals who move into Virginia after being registered in other states) and (2) photo proof of identification at the polling place. Based on estimates from other states, implementation of HB569 could cost between $7.91 million and $22.59 million. &#62;&#62; Read the report (pdf)]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Virginia Changes Course</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/30/virginia-changes-course/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/30/virginia-changes-course/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:58:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicaid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Poverty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Safety Net]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=1063</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Governor&#8217;s Budget Turns Back on Low-Income Virginians RICHMOND, VA &#8211; In his proposed budget, Governor McDonnell gets nearly 60 percent of his budget cuts from services and programs that serve low-income Virginians, a dramatic departure from bipartisan efforts on Virginia’s budget in recent years. &#8220;These cuts will hurt the disadvantaged and lead to increases in poverty as thousands of low-income Virginians lose essential services like health care and food assistance,&#8221; says Michael Cassidy, president of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. &#8220;Even in the deepest part of the recession, the General Assembly recognized the need to support the most economically vulnerable Virginians. Now, Governor McDonnell proposes that Virginia change course and use services for low-income Virginians as the main targets for budget cuts.&#8221; Services for low-income Virginians are defined as those that are means-tested and budget cuts are calculated on a current services basis. . Key Findings Cuts to programs serving low-income Virginians make up 59 percent of all the cuts contained in the Governor’s proposed budget, despite accounting for just 27 percent of the budget. Prior years’ budgets, however, got only 12 percent of their cuts from programs that serve low-income Virginians. During the recession, programs that serve low-income [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Dec. Jobs Report: No Yearly Progress Despite Dec. Gain</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/24/dec-jobs-report-no-yearly-progress-despite-dec-gain/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/24/dec-jobs-report-no-yearly-progress-despite-dec-gain/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:11:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Labor & Wage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Job Losses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs Gap]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=1048</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Virginia adds 7,800 jobs in December, but total jobs gap remains high While Virginia gained 7,800 jobs in December, according to the seasonally adjusted numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in Virginia remained stuck 6.2 percent for the month, capping a lackluster year in job growth for the state. Looking back over 2011, Virginia gained a net total of 36,600 jobs in 2011, but the number of jobs needed to keep up with population growth for the year was 40,978. “The economic challenges facing Virginia are directly tied to our ability to keep and create jobs,” says Michael Cassidy, President of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. “Keeping and creating new jobs should be the primary focus of our legislators in this General Assembly session.” Analysis of the new data shows: Since June 2009, the official end of the recession, Virginia has added only 23,700 jobs. When compared to pre-recession levels in December 2007, total employment in Virginia is down over 101,500 jobs. Factoring in growth in the working age population, Virginia’s total jobs gap now stands at 283,200 jobs needed to get back to pre-recession employment levels. Looking back over 2011, Virginia added 36,600 jobs [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Reality Check</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/20/reality_check/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/20/reality_check/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Localities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Loopholes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shortfall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tax expenditures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=999</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Governor’s 2012-2014 Budget Ignores Current Needs In his effort to balance the state’s budget and close major funding gaps, Governor McDonnell has presented legislators with a budget that ignores the reality of growing need, shifts obligations to others, hides real cuts in education funding and will cost Virginia jobs. Instead of reforming, reallocating and reinvesting in the programs that make government more efficient, effective and accountable, the Governor’s proposal strikes at – and cuts – the core services that Virginians rely on every day while at the same time widening tax loopholes that drain yet more resources from the state. The Governor’s budget proposes over $880 million in cuts to services in order to close the budget shortfall he faced and to make room for his new initiatives. Over 90% of the cuts in the proposed budget are in the areas of education and health care. The Governor’s budget shifts the state’s growing cost of providing services like education and health care to localities, health care providers, and consumers. The Governor’s budget substantially underfunds K-12 education with a real new increase in education funding of less than 1 percent. The Governor’s budget widens unproven loopholes in the state’s tax code [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Cuts to Health Care Are Bad for Virginia&#8217;s Economy</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/18/cuts-to-health-care-are-bad-for-virginias-economy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2012/01/18/cuts-to-health-care-are-bad-for-virginias-economy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:21:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Reform]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicaid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Safety Net]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=976</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New report shows Governor’s budget proposal will eliminate services for thousands of Virginians and jobs Governor McDonnell proposes a set of deep cuts to health care in Virginia that will mean over $800 million in lost business activity in the economy, further increased costs for Virginians with private insurance, near elimination of state support for cost-effective health care providers such as community health centers, and reduced access to needed services for thousands of Virginians. The Governor’s proposed cuts include: Cuts of over $802 million from Virginia’s Medicaid program. Eliminating long term care for over 4,500 elderly. Slashing payments for indigent care to public hospitals in the state. Imposing a cap for home health care services and weakening the state’s safety net service providers. These cuts sit on top of an already stringent program and at a time of increasing need—the number of uninsured tops 1 million in Virginia—and the share of our workforce who get insurance through their jobs continues to decline impacting thousands of Virginians who can least afford it and who are running out of options in the current tough economy. &#62;&#62;Read the report (pdf)]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Virginia Employment Still Under Water</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/20/virginia-employment-still-under-water/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/20/virginia-employment-still-under-water/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:38:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Labor & Wage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News Releases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Job Losses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs Gap]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=923</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[State lost 3,800 Jobs in November Though unemployment in Virginia ticked down to 6.2 percent in November, Virginia lost 3,800 jobs in November according to the latest seasonally adjusted numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, October’s job gains were revised downward by 2,600, erasing almost 20 percent of the gains initially reported last month. Non-seasonally adjusted figures showed growth of 5,100 jobs.  But, the seasonally adjusted numbers showed declines of 3,800 jobs. “We’re still under water on the job growth front,” says Michael Cassidy, President of The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, which tracks employment trends in the state. “These seasonally adjusted figures are critical to understanding the true picture of what’s going on in employment in Virginia. By adjusting for normal changes like holiday retail hiring, seasonally adjusted numbers give us a better sense if anything different is happening in the economy from what normally happens at this time of year. Those figures show that things are worse than normal because we’re seeing further job losses.” When these latest jobs numbers are factored in with growth in Virginia’s working age population, the data shows that the jobs gap in Virginia remains substantial at 291,400 [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Governor Punts on Tough Decisions</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/19/governor-punts-on-tough-decisions/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/19/governor-punts-on-tough-decisions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:02:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Budget & Tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News Releases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Budget Cuts]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=902</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Statement from Michael Cassidy, President, The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, on Governor McDonnell’s biennial budget The Governor is trying to take the easy way out of a tough situation. Instead of making the investments to create jobs and help our economy grow over the long haul, he has chosen to punt. The Governor&#8217;s budget ignores the costs of education and passes them down to localities. The budget ignores known health care costs and passes down Medicaid cuts to doctors, nurses, and hospitals that will make it harder for Virginians to get medical care. The budget opens even more costly tax loopholes that take resources away from education, public safety and other building blocks of a strong economy. &#62;&#62; Read the statement (pdf)]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Unemployment Benefits Help Virginia Families, Economy</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/12/unemployment-benefits-help-virginia-families-economy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/12/unemployment-benefits-help-virginia-families-economy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:01:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Labor & Wage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Employment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Job Losses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Safety Net]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Unemployment Insurance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=894</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The United States went through its longest and, by most measures, worst economic recession since the Great Depression between December 2007 and June 2009 which swelled the ranks of the unemployed to historically high numbers. Though the economy has begun to grow, it remains weak and economists predict that it will be years before the unemployment rate returns to pre-recession levels. This policy brief explains some of the ways that the recession affected the country in general and Virginia in particular, and why Congress needs to extend the temporary unemployment insurance benefits that are currently scheduled to expire on January 3. If the program is not extended, the impact on Virginia would be significant and devastating for many families. A maximum of 73 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits are currently available for unemployed workers in Virginia, but without extension of the federal emergency benefits this number will shrink to only 26 weeks. Many of the families still struggling to find jobs rely on UI benefits to pay for housing, transportation, groceries and other necessities and would have a much harder time paying their bills without those benefits. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 15,600 unemployed workers will be cut [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Comments: Virginia Exchange Should be Quasi-Governmental Agency</title>
		<link>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/08/comments-virginia-exchange-should-be-quasi-governmental-agency/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/2011/12/08/comments-virginia-exchange-should-be-quasi-governmental-agency/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:28:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Benefits Exchange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Reform]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org/?p=873</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday, Dec. 5, John McInerney, Health Policy Director, delivered the following comments to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees on Commerce &#38; Labor on the issue of establishment of the Virgina Health Benefits Exchange. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, we strongly agree with the VHRI recommendation that the Exchange be set up as a ”quasi-governmental” entity similar to the VHDA. The vote on that was 11-3 in favor and at least 20 other organizations have publicly supported the “quasi-governmental” structure, including major health insurers like Kaiser Permanente, United Healthcare and Virginia Premier. The “quasi governmental” structure would give the Exchange the flexibility it needs to operate as a business enterprise. Such a structure would allow the Exchange to be exempted from state hiring guidelines to ensure the best talent is recruited, and allow for exempts from state procurement to avoid start-up delays. In addition, a Governance Board would be created to represent various stakeholders and ensure transparency. While the Bureau of Insurance (BOI) will play an important role in certifying health plans in the Exchange, the BOI has no experience or expertise in creating or operating a new insurance marketplace. Furthermore, such a marketplace will [...]]]></description>
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