Guest Opinion: For whom the bell tolls

Our new governor Bob "For Jobs" McDonnell wants to create 29,000 new jobs. Job Czar Lt. Gov. Bolling has been quoted as saying "you've got to spend money to make money."  The only problem is, the state coffers are empty. Still, with 29,000 jobs on the line, surely they will scrape together the money somewhere.

But here's the rub: their plan requires cuts in certain government agencies and functions, which, it is feared, will lead directly to job cuts. So Virginia is now at the point where it has to "break jobs to make jobs" - a zero-sum game. What is to be gained if, as a direct effect of a job creation program, state employees lose their jobs immediately, while the new jobs take time to germinate?  

Guest Opinion: Obama’s latest plan might not help

The views expressed in Guest Opinions are those of the author and do not represent BizSense nor BizSense reporters.

The policies coming out of Washington are changing faster than we have time to digest them.

President Obama proposes to allocate $30 billion of unspent stimulus money to support lending to small businesses. This is a nice gesture, but small business needs equity, too.

And although small businesses certainly need access to credit, borrowing is not a good way to start a business from scratch.

Obama also proposed eliminating capital gains tax on the sale of small businesses. This also is good, but many small businesses won't be for sale anytime soon, so it's a moot point.

I'm not a big fan of subsidies or more government involvement in business, but ...

Guest Opinion: Rethinking the neighborhood from the safety of my cul-de-sac

I live on a cul-de-sac – that's fancy French for "bottom of the bag." Funny how things with foreign names don’t sound so special when you actually do the translation. We moved there when our children were small because we were sure it was safer from traffic. Other factors in our decision were the excellent school district, the location of our friends and good access to malls and major roads. Confident in our assumptions, we and millions more have eagerly sought and bid up the prices for houses on these curious streets to nowhere. In so doing, we have dramatically changed the patterns of suburban transportation and development, and literally cast in stone a transportation design that, as it turns out, is not really safer after all.

Declaration of independence from health care legislation

The views expressed in Guest Opinions are those of the author and not of BizSense or BizSense reporters. IN good CONSCIENCE, November 11, 2009, The unsolicited Declaration of a citizen of the fifty united States of America, When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one citizen to dispel the political doublespeak which has emanated from his government, and to restore, despite the powers of the House, the sacred individual rights to which the Bill of Rights entitles him, a decent respect for the Constitution requires that he should declare the causes which impel him to this dissertation.

Guest Opinion: Trading four wheels for two

The views expressed in Guest Opini0ns are those of the author and do not represent BizSense or BizSense reporters.

I am a bike commuter – every day I brave traffic, potholes, snarling dogs and sometimes even rain and snow on my way to work.  Some things you can't avoid.  But what I don’t understand is the drivers who honk, try to brush by me as close as possible and practice their sign language skills from the safety of their rigs.

But whether they like it or not, the Virginia Code gives me and other cyclists the legal right to use almost any state road in Virginia. This should really not be a surprise, because it's historical fact that the first paved roads in America were paved for cyclists, following a campaign by the League of American Wheelmen (now the League of American Bicyclists). Membership included John D. Rockefeller, "Diamond Jim" Brady, the Wright Brothers and, no doubt, numerous other fine upstanding citizens.  We were here first, but we are happy to share.

Guest Opinion: Is it time to kill the billable hour?

Ask most attorneys who Reginald Heber Smith was, and less than 1 percent will respond correctly.

And yet, it is Professor Smith — by all accounts a well intentioned and highly intelligent law professor from Harvard — who gets the credit for inventing a concept so central to the practice of law for over 50 years that most attorneys simply assume it has always been there.

The billable hour.

And it’s Smith whom Richmond business owners must curse when they get an hourly bill from their lawyers.