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RICHMOND
Virginia has improved in many areas over the year but has suffered setbacks in others, according to the 2008 Virginia Report produced by the Council on Virginia's Future.
The bipartisan advisory group led by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine monitors the state's progress on 46 quality-of-life indicators and identifies long-term goals for the future well-being of the state.
"While Virginia performs very well on many indicators, areas requiring improvement remain," the report said.
Over the past year, the state improved its rates of high school graduation and is on its way to preserving an additional 400,000 acres of land by 2010 with more than $100 million in state and federal tax credits.
But the infant death rate is spiking and consumer fraud, obesity and traffic congestion are also serious problems.
Virginia's infant-mortality rate in 2007 increased to 7.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, which represents more than 800 infant deaths last year. The national average is 6.6 percent. The death rate for black infants in the state was twice as high as the state's overall rate.
The report said the state's child immunization rate also fell below the national average in 2007, ranking 30th, down from fifth best in 2005.
The rate of obesity rose from 25.1 percent of the population in 2005 to 25.3 percent in 2007, but was still below the national average of 26.3 percent.
The report also said that between 2010 and 2030, Virginia is projected to be the 12th fastest-growing state in the country, with a population of nearly 10 million.
It also said the average commute time to work in 2006 was 26.9 minutes, making it the sixth-highest in the nation.
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Not good news
"It also said the average commute time to work in 2006 was 26.9 minutes, making it the sixth-highest in the nation."
This is why real industry will not come here. Our infrastructure is at least 40 years behind. We don't even have a third crossing of the HRBT yet, and that's terrible.
Pork
This is a perfect example of the many advisory councils that were added to the VA government to produce reports. $100,000 here, $250,000 there, Tim Kaine and the Democrats fill the budget with this stuff. For one, the conclusions of this council are laughable- sounds like a book report. Why don't we pick some standard statistics and see how they've changed? I can't think of a more general and unhelpful study than a council on Virginia's future. We have a $3 billion dollar shortfall, probably NOT due to Kaine, but let's get serious.
Bipartisan Advisory Group??
Well, it does include the Minority Leaders of the State Senate and House of Delegates, but other than those token Republicans it is about as bipartisan as the Democratic National Committee.
Worse, it is staffed entirely by bureaucrats and academics with a stake in the continued growth in government.
You can check out the members and the staff at the Council's own website, http://www.future.virginia.gov/index.php which I'm sure the Governor hoped no one would bother to do.
Not surprisingly, the recommendations on the web site are to spend a lot more tax money on public health and higher education.
The first tool of a journalist is supposed to be a skeptical mind. Did anyone bother to check this before printing it?