Public Town Halls to be held on Government Reform and Restructuring – what are your reforms?
By JR Hoeft | Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 | PolicyVirginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring has released a list of public town halls that will be held so the public can “share suggestions about what state government is doing well and how Virginia can improve its services to taxpayers.”
The first town hall was held May 10 in Richmond and hosted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The next set of meetings begins this Thursday in McLean and continues in Newport News, Verona, Abingdon, and South Hill, concluding in Virginia Beach July 19.
By August 28, embattled Chairman Fred Malek and the committee must provide its first set of recommendations and a complete report is due in December. As you recall, pro-spending, anti-reform, high tax Democrats, have been trying to marginalize Malek, likely fearful of the waste this committee is going to recommend cutting or the bureaucracy that will be streamlined.
So, let’s have our own town hall: What reforms do you suggest for our state government?
Also, will you be going to any of these meetings?
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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9 Responses to "Public Town Halls to be held on Government Reform and Restructuring – what are your reforms?"
Thanks for asking JR. Yes, I do plan to attend and to testify, especially about the transfer of obligations of the Commonwealth to localities without the transfer of the means to accomplish new functions. Of course, none is more obvious than transportation, but other functions like education, courts and justice, human servcies, and public safety have been treated the same as well. That is, the Governor and his Delegates take great pride in making cuts, yet the real financial burden of these actions fall on local governments and their citizens. For local roads, the Commonwealth has cut the funds from some $40 M a few short years ago, to zero, and that is typical of every locality in the Commonwealth. Frankly, I question whether we need a Commonwealth anymore especially if current trends continue; let’s keep the money and provide regional services. That’s what I plan to say.
This commission is being briefed extensively on privatizing various government functions. One member spoke approvingly of having a private accounting firm do the state’s budget. Yeah, privatization has worked out so well in the area of information technology, that we’ll just spread it throughout government. Also, one of the key things the commission keeps talking about is transparency. Private companies are not transparent. They don’t have to comply with FOIA. Having people who hate, and don’t understand, government reform it is going to work so well.
It turns out that the privitization of the maintenance and operation of the rest stops initiatied by the Allen Administration is so expensive that the new administration is seeking ways to provide these services more cheaply.
Listening to Steve and Mike, one might conclude that any privatization is a bad idea. Could be true.
Maybe the Public/Private Partnerships have too much “private” in them? Too many private sector rabble rousers looking for power? Too many interested corporations get in bed with government when they see some nice land to develop for profit. And those crafty politicians,………well ……they know a big time campaign contributor when they see one!
I guess if a big time company wanted to be in charge of state rest stops, the state better make sure they were profitable through subsidies and tax incentives. At that point, there’d be no shortage of suitors, but ooops……..all this spending is the problem to begin with.
So, with sarcasm, I will agree that privatization is bad and down right evil. After all, it is government that does everything efficiently,lol. Right down to good ‘ol government hiring a Defense Contractor to update your state’s computer network.
Who was governor when Virginia hired a Defense Contractor to upgrade the state’s network? Hmmmmm…..wasn’t that before Gov. McDonnell? Who was it? Who is responsible for that instance that Steve Vaughn mentions?
I too share the concerns over FOIA. Well…..until I read this(emphasis mine):
“Paperwork detailing that concept was released late Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. It came hours before a Northrop Grumman Corp. executive testified in front of a state technology panel about the tardy technology transformation process.” – Virginian-Pilot Article
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/northrop-grumman-says-va-it-work-could-cost-millions-more
Well, I guess instead of sending a FOIA to the hired company, you send it to the government that hired it.
We certainly can’t blame ever efficient government. They do after all continually update their computers and networking platforms right? I mean, from what I hear out of Northrup-Grumann, it almost sounds like they have install top of the line computers and networks where there used to be Radio Shack TRS-80′s connected by early 80′s era wire connections. No, that’s not a cassete tape for music. That’s data storage! I hope it wasn’t THAT bad. On top of lots of upgrading, allegedly there were state side caused delays that added costs? You have to guess at whom to believe, but something is a bit fishy either way and it probably started before the contract was even signed and just grew afterwards. Who knows? Reform that Governor!
But we’re talking about government efficiency and reform here. That and Bob McDonnell is bad because he has a letter “R” after his name. It has to be, right? If that’s not the case, where was all this criticism of privatization when Democrats running the show were in office?
This thread was allegedly about reform possibilities, yet all I hear is complaints about what didn’t happen under Democrat Governors flanked by Democrat party members and RINOs.
I’d like to see ABC privatization move forward. I wouldn’t mind seeing a few Rest Stops be commercialized. You might have to think outside of the box and make a few legislative moves first, but we have problems that need solving. I don’t even care if that means adding a for profit gas station and/or restaurant that collects sales tax on top paying for land upkeep. That’s the best way to tax road ways. Rest Stops add to safety by taking drivers in need of a break, off the roads. Nothing slows traffic flow like a bad accident. Furthermore, would we rather drivers pay sales/gas taxes here or in another state?
The reform I’d like to see is on transparency. Let’s have State level and city/county level forums. You see, if you talk to your city council person or manager, they’ll tell you all about “unfunded mandates”, however if you talk to a state delegate or governor, you’ll get a different answer and explaination of how localities are using alleged “unfunded mandates” as a smoke screen and that cities really have quite a lot of input in the process. Let them face each other off and see who is telling the truth. Then we can make informed decisions as to which elected officials are working in our best interests.
Maybe privatizing won’t work for ABC or Rest Stops. We should take a look at it though, and look at it through a non-political lens. Northrup Grumann might have been the best qualified. They probably run their company networks and possibly build them for military use. Being a Defense Contractor might not mean they are not as competent as a tradtional company specializing in it. What is suspect, is picking and choosing the bad guy based on politics and switching once a different party is in the governor’s mansion and tries to do something about paying the bills. Also suspect is how contracts are handled. Maybe contract procedures with private entities need reform. Maybe local public/private contracts need more regulation too. If this sort of thing is bad on a state level it must also be so on the local level. Right Mike?
Fact is Britt, good management is not a prerogative of the public nor the private sector; it can and does occur in both sectors. Conversely, poor management does too. In regard to the ABC situation, at this point, I want to see the financial analysis before rendering a judgement. But one thing I am clear about; the profit from the operation of the ABC stores now benefits the general fund, not the transportation trust fund. So if the decision is to privatize, the funds should stay in the general fund. We need a solution to the crisis in funding transportation infrastructure, and in my view, the funding solutions ought to have a nexus to transportation use, not alcohol use.
Use proceeds from the lottery to help fund repairs to Virginia’s aged and crumbling infrastructure.
Over the last 4 months or so, I asked my patients if they would favor using lottery proceeds for roads and infrastructure. Talked to a large number of people across the political spectrum.
EVERY single person was in favor of this.
Of course there would be political hoops to jump through and a referendum would have to be on the ballot in November.
But using lottery funds in this matter seems to be an idea that virtually all Virginian citizens would support. A politician’s dream come true.
I would urge all state politicians to consider this and work toward making it reality.
Well of course people would say that if they were ignorant of what the proceeds are used for now, which is of course to support K-12 education. So next time, ask your patients if they would like to withdraw support of K-12 education, and put it instead toward public infrastructure. I think you would get a different answer.
Someone’s constant insistence of the ignorance of the Virginia voter is starting to astound even me.
Since I believe that person is a supporter of Nye; I am starting to wonder if Glen Nye also believes that Virginian voters are too stupid to understand the issues. Such a belief would certainly help explain Nye’s refusal to talk to the voters of the 2nd district.
If you believe Virginian voters are not stupid then
VOTE REPUBLICAN ON NOVEMBER 2ND
Government reform? Go to you tube and type in “severe autism” and you’ll get a good view of how our government is helping the people.
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