THE LATEST
Gov. Youngkin’s deal with Monumental Sports and Entertainment is good for Virginia
In the Washington Times by NVRBF Member Tim Parrish:
When politicians strike a deal to build a new stadium or invite a sports team to their state, the typical framework for such deals is often questionable.
It usually looks something like this: New taxes or tax increases are used to finance the projects upfront. Billions of dollars in public resources are shelled out to build a shiny new stadium — often in the same city where a venue already exists. Billionaire owners glad-hand local officials, and taxpayers foot the bill.
But Gov. Glenn Youngkin is not a typical politician. And the partnership he struck with Monumental Sports and Entertainment is unquestionably good for Virginia.
The deal that Mr. Youngkin — a conservative and successful businessman with much experience in this arena — struck with Monumental is also highly unusual.
Consider recent deals for new stadiums elsewhere. Venues for the Tennessee Titans, Buffalo Bills, Las Vegas Raiders and Oklahoma City Thunder were all financed using some combination of state and local bonds. Some were also financed with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars upfront.
Those deals used traditional general obligation, or GO, bonds, which basically leave taxpayers on the hook to fund a project with funding that would otherwise be used for roads, water systems and other state infrastructure.
Mr. Youngkin took a different tack. Instead of a taxpayer-guaranteed GO bond, the governor made a deal with Monumental Sports and Entertainment to use a revenue bond tied solely to the arena itself. Revenue bonds are exactly what they sound like: They’re guaranteed to pay for themselves, solely and exclusively using the revenue generated from individual projects.
That’s good news for Virginia taxpayers. The new Entertainment District will fund itself with revenue generated by ticket sales, parking and other activities associated with the arena.
There are no new taxes or tax increases associated with this partnership, either. It is funded with existing taxes on activities that will naturally take place — just at a greater volume — at the new arena.
Moreover, the upfront commitment from Monumental represents a greater share of project financing than similar projects. While the commonwealth will not put up a single penny, Monumental is putting up $400 million.
Private financing represents 72% of total funding for this project. The funding from the commonwealth of Virginia and the city of Alexandria — again, solely generated from site-specific revenue — accounts for the other 28%.
Compare that with the ratio of public-private funding for the Titans, Bills and Thunder projects, and you’ll see how sweet a deal Mr. Youngkin struck for Virginia. Public funding for the Titans, Bills and Thunder represented a majority of the financing (Oklahoma City funded 95% of the Thunder project).
Mr. Youngkin structured this partnership with no cost to Virginia taxpayers, only benefits. And those benefits are massive.
The project will generate an estimated 30,000 permanent jobs and 17,000 construction jobs.
That is in addition to the billions of dollars in economic impact the new arena will generate: $4.9 billion for the city of Alexandria and $7 billion for Virginia.
The common refrain that these projects siphon resources away from other public necessities, such as schools and infrastructure, does not apply to this deal, either. For Alexandria, this project will come with new, critical funding for education, multimodal transportation, affordable housing and infrastructure.
The framework of this deal and the benefits Mr. Youngkin secured in it should make every Virginian happy that we have a businessman as governor.
It is not a bailout for a billionaire team owner. It is not a cost burden on taxpayers. It is not a leech on limited public dollars.
It is a monumental opportunity for Virginia, the city of Alexandria, and every Virginian rooted in conservative policymaking.
We cannot allow this opportunity to pass us by.
FORUM ESTABLISHES NEW CHAPTER IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY
(Alexandria, VA) – The Northern Virginia Republican Business Forum (NVRBF) announced today that it has formed a new Prince William Chapter for the fast-growing GOP organization whose focus is on “the crossroads between business and politics”.
“We are eager to partner with the Forum to increase our outreach to Prince William County’s vibrant business community and build a strong network of like-minded Republican business leaders who are interested in economic issues facing the community,” stated Prince William County Republican Committee Chairman Tim Parrish. “There is significant concern from businesses, both large and small, in our County about the direction of the Prince William Board of Supervisors and our legislative representatives in Richmond. We are represented by some of the House of Delegates most extreme members, that want to institute failing principles of socialism and repeal Virginia’s long-standing Right-To-Work laws, and by Supervisors that are focused on everything except creating good jobs and reducing taxes for our residents.”
The Northern Virginia Republican Business Forum, or the Forum, is a project of the Suburban Virginia Republican Coalition (SUVGOP) Political Action Committee. SUVGOP is a regional effort started in 2018 to build the Republican Party in Northern Virginia’s suburbs. It has sponsored events with both state and national Republican political leaders; podcasts with GOP candidates; social gatherings; issue debates; produced informational videos on conservative topics and for Republican candidates; and supported outreach to minority and women owned businesses.
“The Forum had several members that would travel monthly to our Tysons Corner meetings at the Tower Club,” added Ron Wright, Co-Chair of NVRBF, “We will begin holding monthly meetings now in Prince William and expand our network of Northern Virginia business leaders. Virginia is quickly losing its’ number one status as the best state for business due to the leftward swing under the Democrats complete control in Richmond. Republicans will work to correct this mistaken course in 2021.”
Planning for the first meeting in February of the Prince William Chapter of the Forum is underway and the location and speaker will soon be announced. More information on the Forum and Membership can be found at www.NVRBF.com
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Note: NVRBF Members can attend all meetings at both locations. Go here for Membership information.
letter to the editor
Clean energy costs deemed too high for Virginians
Editor Times-Dispatch:
A recent op-ed by Del. Richard (“Rip”) Sullivan, D-Fairfax, lauds the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which mandates requiring the construction of wind and solar electricity facilities in Virginia.
His column criticizes a recent decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding the price that can be charged by renewable electricity suppliers in the interstate market.
He claims the FERC decision assaults “basic free market competition.”
In essence, FERC’s new rule states that when electricity generated by renewable providers is sold in interstate markets, the price must reflect all of the subsidies provided by Virginia to these suppliers, so that these suppliers will not unfairly compete with electricity generated by existing sources.
And what a vast array of renewable electricity subsidies there are — production tax credits, investment credits, property tax exemptions, rebates, loan guarantees, residential tax credits, job creation credits. The list goes on. FERC stated that failure to consider the impact of these subsidies would result in obvious price distortion, and violate the FERC mandate to assure that prices are “just and reasonable and not discriminatory or preferential.”
Sullivan, as the primary patron of the VCEA, is upset that this will prevent solar and wind from being the sole providers of electricity in Virginia. Think California.
What are all these wind and solar subsidies going to cost Virginia consumers?
Sullivan states that under the FERC order, we “will suddenly be forced to supply wind electricity at an artificially inflated price, 20 times higher than the maximum price” allowed by FERC.
Without all the subsidies, renewable electricity generation costs consumers 20 times more than electricity supplied by existing sources. No wonder Sullivan is upset. FERC just exposed exactly what the VCEA will cost us in order to achieve the fantasy of all wind and solar electrical generation in Virginia by 2035.
Collister “Terry” Johnson, Senior Adviser
Ron Wright, Co-Chairman.
Northern Virginia Republican Business Forum (NVRBF)
Article
The Disaster Called the Virginia Clean Economy Act
Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), passed in April by the Virginia Assembly and signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam, provides both the legal framework for electric energy production in the Commonwealth for the forseeable future, and also prescribes the mandates which Dominion Energy must follow to carry out the philosophy underlying this legislation.
The VCEA is one of the first pieces of energy legislation in the US purporting to provide electricity under a mandate of “net zero” carbon dioxide “emission” by the year 2050. In other words, it is legislation crafted by ”green” activists to fulfill their belief that the release of man- made CO2 during the production of electricity should be cut to zero.
This radical philosophy, which is embodied perfectly in the “Green New Deal”, is a doctrine enthusiastically embraced by the Democrat Party and the left wing of the environmental movement.
When put into practice what kind of electric energy world would this philosophy impose on Virginia consumers? What would it cost? What would it do to the Virginia countryside? Would it be reliable? How would the State Corporation Commission (SCC) — the body which historically has been responsible for regulating Dominion’s electricity monopoly — implement the novel directives contained in the VCEA?
The answers to these questions are contained in the 71-page plan filed by Dominion Energy with the SCC in May 2020.
The answers are shocking and appalling. Never before in Virginia’s history has there been a legislative mandate of such a sweeping and extreme proportions for electrical generation.
Dominion Energy confirms that, by following the mandates of the VCEA, the results will be:
- a massive increase in the yearly electricity bill for the average Virginia family of $500 per year – a 40% increase over levels without the VCEA;
- a blighting of the Virginia landscape with hundreds of thousands of acres of new solar panel farms and high-tension transmission lines and towers;
- over $30 billion in increased capital costs for electrical infrastructure, which does not even include the new engineering expense embedded in such novel distribution facilities; and
- a mixture of electricity sources severely threatening the reliability of electricity production, especially when the sun doesn’t shine (night) and the wind doesn’t blow (often).
So radical are these mandates that, for the first time in history, the SCC has effectively been entirely stripped of its authority to regulate electricity generation in Virginia, thereby jettisoning the SCC’s historical responsibility to assure Virginians of both the lowest possible cost of electricity coupled with the highest reliability.
There are also a number of other dangerous consequences which will be levied on the average Virginia family by the VCEA:
- The increase in average annual electricity prices extracted from Virginia electricity rate payers will amount to an additional $2,250,000,000 annually in order to finance the pipe dreams of the eco-left;
- The construction of massive off shore wind facilities, lying 26 miles off the coast of the lower Eastern Shore will be conveniently located out of sight, and not subject to pesky local land use permitting requirements. But even if out of sight, they will still lie directly in the path of Atlantic hurricanes. Think of the damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy on New York City … and then imagine what would have happened to the VA off-shore wind farms. To make matters worse, the wind farms will be subject to the annual “Bermuda High”, which sits off the VA coast for weeks at a time during the summer, meaning no wind will be activating the turbine blades, and thus no electricity will be generated for the air conditioners of Virginians enduring the summer heat. Because wind energy is so unreliable, every similar wind farm in the United States requires backup generation capability powered by diesel or natural gas, an expense not even included in the Dominion plan.
Because Dominion is a regulated monopoly, every expense it incurs as a result of the VCEA will be paid for, one way or the other, by VA ratepayers, in order to assure that Dominion shareholders earn a legally required return on capital.
The VCEA requires – like the famous phrase emerging from the Viet Nam war – that the Virginia countryside must be destroyed in order to save it. The new solar fields required by the VCEA will blanket 490 square miles of Virginia farm and forest land – an area nearly half the size of of the State of Rhode Island, eight times the size of the District of Columbia, and 25% larger than all of Fairfax County.
In addition, Dominion will need to construct four massive interstate transmission lines at a cost of $8.4 billion to carry electricity from these solar fields to consumers. The County zoning authorities – and local voters – of each of each impacted County may have something to say about the placement of these transmission lines and solar fields in their back yards.
The question then becomes: All of this cost, unreliability, and environmental degradation is required exactly for ……… what ? The results can be summarized this way:
The VCEA will have absolutely zero positive impact on climate, and a devastating negative impact on the environment. Under the VCEA, Virginia will not have cleaner air, purer water, or a more beautiful countryside. Fifteen years from now, not a single Virginian will be able to see, touch, or smell any difference or improvement in the environment resulting from the VCEA. But they will be able to see a landscape ruined by solar panel eyesores and ugly transmission towers.
By embracing radical environmentalism, Virginia seems to be vying with California for the title of creator of the most destructive and unreliable energy policy, at the highest cost to its citizens, in the country.
By enacting legislation based on the deeply partisan, radical ideology of eliminating fossil fuels, and replacing them with costly, inefficient, and unreliable wind and solar energy, Virginia Democrats have bet the farm. As these cost burdens and unintended consequences become known, one can anticipate furious backtracking, finger pointing, and calls for repeal coming out of future sessions of the Virginia legislature.
There is nothing clean, green, renewable, or sustainable about the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
By Collister "Terry" Johnson, Member and Senior Advisor NVRBF
Collister Johnson previously served under Governors Robb, Baliles, and Wilder as Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Port Authority. In 2002, he was appointed by President George W. Bush as a member of the Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. In 2006, he was appointed by Bush as Administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, where he dealt with issues surrounding climate and the Great Lakes.He holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia, and currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow.
