Review of the book
Review of the book
Expert dance instructors Steve and Katherine Thomas are offering lessons in Salsa, Mambo, Waltz, Tango and other styles in three 2-hour sessions.
Enjoy one class or take all three at a savings!
Classes are Aug 6, 13, 20, 2008 at Colonial Circuits (on Route 17N in South Stafford across from Celebrate Virginia and Geico.)
100% of all proceeds will benefit the Spotsylvania Republican Committee!
Bring a check or pre-pay with credit card or check online at http://www.spotsygop.com/ by donating using our secure PayPal link.
Black Velvet Bruce Li brings our attention to another victim of our porous border, and then makes a very interesting point:
As of July 1st, a new law requires that all jails in Virginia start checking the immigration status of all persons they detain. How many localities are actually complying with this law isn’t known, but no locality in Virginia seems to be talking about how they intend to comply with this law, much less announcing that they are.
That got me wondering: Is the Rappahannock Regional Jail doing this? Do we know if this applies to whatever holding cells local counties have? If so, are local sheriff’s offices actually doing this?
If you have any answers, dear readers, please put them in the comments. Thanks.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
According to the Free Lace-Black Hole, Supervisor Emmitt Marshall (his district is next to mine) tried to intervene in an animal cruelty case involving the dogs of a son’s friend. Now, before everyone goes beating up Marshall (who is one of the four tax-hikers on the Spotsy BOS), let’s not forget that this is the Free Lance-Black Hole here. Moreover, these were apparently hunting dogs, so we can expect at least in part a rural-suburban division on the reaction within the county.
One part of the story, however, threw me (same link - the dog owner in question is named Jake Payne):
Payne could not be reached for comment at his Louisa home yesterday.
Louisa?!?!
Look, I know Emmitt is not my Supervisor, but I think he could use some advice: if you’re going to get involved in something like this, at least make sure it’s for a constituent.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
The Democrats on the Stafford County Board of Supervisors showed off their incompetence throughout their push to pass a BPOL tax on county businesses.
Three Strikes of incompetence and you are out!
Strike One- Fuzzy math presented by Griffs-Widewater Dist. Supv. Bob Woodson
Strike Two- “c’mon Joe” would you learn to vote. Woodson is joined by Hartwood Dist. Supv. Joe Brito in an inability to operate a three button voting machine. Huh, maybe there is something to the concept that Democrat voters are too dumb to figure out how to use a touch screen voting machine.
Strike Three - All four Democrats on the board refuse to listen to the will of the people and vote to squeeze more tax money out of Stafford County small businesses.
I hope the Stafford County Democrat Committee is proud. Their team is doing a hell of a job.
Cross-posted on Virginia Virtucon
All Fredericksburg Area Republicans come on out to an Open House of the Fredericksburg Area GOP 2008 Headquarters!
Virginia Victory Opens Regional Headquarters In Fredericksburg
WASHINGTON – Virginia Victory today announced the opening of the Fredericksburg regional headquarters on Thursday, July 17.
WHAT: Fredericksburg Regional Victory Headquarters Opening
WHO: Special Guests: Congressman Rob Wittman, RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick, Speaker Bill Howell, State Senator Richard Stuart and Delegate Mark Cole
WHEN: Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 6:30pm – 8:30pm
WHERE: 150 Riverside Parkway
Suite 213
Fredericksburg, VA 22406
I received this as a comment on my right-wing liberal blog from Crissy Sharon, owner of the Mainstreet Grill and Bar in Stafford County. She was reacting to the Stafford Board of Supervisor’s non-Republicans imposing a BPOL tax. After looking it over, I decided that rather than a comment, it should be a post all its own. Thank you, Crissy, for refusiing to meekly accept this outrage.
Hello. My name is Crissy. I own Mainstreet Grill and Bar. I started working at Mainstreet in September 2002 as a waitress, within three months I was a bartender, and then bar manager. In September 2005, I was offered to purchase Mainstreet. Finally in January of 2006 I took over. Let me tell you I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO RUN A BUSINESS! And I am still learning everyday!
Like most small businesses Mainstreet pays alot of taxes. Sales Tax, Food Tax, Personal Property Taxes etc…Going on my 2 1/2 year mark I can say, slowly we have survived when other places have closed. My great staff and local regulars have helped us! Two Mondays ago I got an email that was a forward of a forward of a forward from Supervisor Milde and I was amazed that I haven’t spent time finding out what had been going on in the “grassroots” of Stafford! My husband just started a business in Stafford. He also received Mr. Milde’s email. (From a forward) After talking with each other we decided to go to the BOS meeting. After along day at work I told my sitter I would be back in an hour! Well we were there to the end! My husband spoke! He told me to get up there but I was way to emotional to get up and speak. What kind of business women would I be to sit in front of these men and cry (I mean with tears down my face) like a big baby!!! At first I was mad at the four members of the board that voted for the BPOL. But I realize that I should also be mad at myself for not paying attention to what was going on in our county. I decided my best place to speak would be at my bar with local residents. So since that night I have gotten on my soap box and spoke to my customers. Not only telling them what I learned this past week but getting more information and learning more!
So I would like to get Stafford Residents involved. I was thinking the last Tuesday of each month we can all meet at Mainstreet for a “GRASSROOTS MEETING”. This has nothing to do with “business” I’m not looking for people to come in and spend money. (And if they do spend alittle money on beer and food . . . I will just be paying more taxes to Stafford County so it works out for both of us . . . lol). This is intended for people to come and learn (like me) and/or discuss local, commonwealth and federal issues. No matter what party you are. I would like to invite different state and local political people in here to discuss the issues. Maybe start a Voter registration here! I just need to get involved and the best way for me to do it is through my business.
1st GRASSROOTS MEETING AT MAINSTREET WILL BE JULY 29 7pm-9pm (D.J. Note: Address is 315 Garrisonville Road in Stafford; phone number is 540-288-9277).
“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”Ronald Reagan
To th extent that anyone from Stafford reads or listens to me, I would encourage everyone to attend this meeting to let Crissy know you’re willing to help her in her efforts.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
The editors of the Free Lance-Black Hole took a little longer than the rest of MSM to miss the point of the House Republican transportation plan, but they missed it all the same. In fact, the FLBH (along with the rest of MSM) are actually making me do the unthinkable (for me) - defend Bill Howell!
The FLBH editorial is full of errors (and I’m being charitable, otherwise I’d call them “lies”), but the main thrust is that they simply can’t handle the fact that the House Republicans came up with a plan that ties transportation funding in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to transportation activity in those regions, provides more money to the two regions than the Democrats’ statewide plan, and does them both without raising taxes.
Shall we begin? Here’s the first paragraph:
GROUCHO MARX reportedly said, “I have my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.” Alas for a traffic-mired commonwealth, the Republican caucus of the House of Delegates has only one principle: no new taxes. Here’s one hundreds of thousands of Virginian motorists wish it had: do your duty.
So . . . the folks at the FLBH would rather the Republicans were unprincipled and malleable ciphers than dedicated and creative public servants. As for the “do your duty” nonsense, what would youcall presenting a plan that sends up to $600 million to NoVa and $300 million to HR and ties future monies to the port and airport activity there? I’d say the House GOP did its duty just fine.
However, it’s the next paragraph where the FLBH reveal their real problem with the House GOP plan:
. . . House Republicans, meeting last week with the rest of the General Assembly in special session, for the third time refused to advance statewide transportation bills based on new taxes–a time-proven method of building roads dating to ancient Rome, and tied up with the very definition of civilization.
Well now! Centralized taxing for roads is “time proven”? Then why is Virginia one of only three states that don’t localize road funding? Furthermore, Virginia itself not adopt this method until 1932, which last I checked was more than thirteen centuries after the last Emperor to rule over Rome passed from the scene. Then again, Rome also had slavery and murder-for-sport. is the FLBH looking to bring those back, too?
The fact is, the FLBH wanted a tax increase, and the House GOP wouldn’t give it to them, so the editors are acting like spoiled children spouting words that sound smart but have no basis in fact. to see what I mean, check out the next paragraph:
. . . House Republicans once again willfully failed to meet their basic legislative responsibility to produce critical infrastructure. Think about that dereliction when a formerly three-hour trip down I-64 to the beaches takes five or six, or when the minutes of your life dribble away in a Northern Virginia that is pushing its frontier of traffic frustration ever deeper into Greater Fredericksburg.
So, if the FLBH is to be believed, the Democrats were the ones who would have provided the funds needed for HR and NoVa. Well, let’s take a look at the two proposals. Which one provides more potential funds for Northern Virginia? If you answered the one from the Senate Democrats, you’re wrong. The Senate plan provides $2.28 billion over seven years (less than $330 million per year on average). The House Republican plan (the new HB6055) by contrast provides up to $600 million a year. As for Hampton Roads, it’s the same story; the Senate plan provides $1.55 billion over seven years (Under $225 million per year on average), while the House plan has up to $300 million a year.
Keep those numbers in mind when the Democrats and their MSM enablers tell you the Republicans don’t care about Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
The rest is just mindless ranting that I wouldn’t even expect from a freshman in college. Still, the end of the piece had a nice line that just needs a little tweaking:
The latest obstruction in Richmond is, however, clarifying. It verifies, almost according to the scientific method, that Virginians can have an effective transportation system, or they can have a Republican majority in the House of Delegates. “Or,” not “and.” The next election will settle which Virginians hold more important.
Not quite, fellas; as I noted earlier, the Republicans had a perfectly viable first step to a more effective transportation system. What we actually learned goes something like this: that Virginians will have their taxes go up, or they will have Republicans control the House of Delegates. “Or,” no longer ”and.” The next election will settle which Virginians hold more important. I’m guessing they won’t go for the former.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
In true communist fashion, rogue supervisors George Schwartz, Jow Brito, Bob Woodson, and Harry Crisp departed from reality and responsible stewardship of Stafford County residents’ finances and just took a huge step against everyone’s personal property rights.
Stafford County Residents should be very pissed off right now… The “protection” district, drawn by Cecilia Kirkman (extremist nutjob who forced a $60M swamp land deal on taxpayers so she wouldn’t have neighbors clogging her (public) road), randomly wanders around almost the entire county east of I-95 ignoring some of the largest waterways and so-called steep slopes that SHE ONLY says will cause poor water quality.
Cecilia alleges that a 15% slope of a hill is cause for restricting your land use COMPLETELY for a hundred-thirty-five feet on BOTH SIDES of this slope. Yes, this includes drainage ditches in your front yard… they may only be a foot deep, but they’re a slope! So if you need a permit for a job you want to do, you may as well stamp DENIED on it yourself and save the trouble.
This is a SCAM- this overlay district is about stopping ALL construction of ANY KIND (deck, driveway, shed, or house) east of I-95! The original plan covered the WHOLE COUNTY!
They’re taking the TYPICAL Democrat INCRIMENTALIST approach…. a little today, a little more tomorrow, and a touch more the next day. (There now, that wasn’t so bad was it?) Yikes! What just happened to my property values??!?!
Too late, you didn’t get involved.
You’d better get involved in this process folks- this is not a partisan issue- this is a Stafford County land rights issue, your family’s rights issue, and the financial well-being of the whole county issue…
Seriously, this has to stop. Somebody should be in jail for this kind of piracy!
Stafford County officials will not study the economic impacts of a proposal that would guard part of the Potomac River basin from development, but they will also limit uses for some pro-perty owners.
Last week, the Board of Supervisors nixed the $25,000 study that was meant to evaluate how property values might be affected by the proposed overlay district.
The proposed Potomac River Resource Protection Overlay district covers 24,600 acres east of U.S. 1.
It requires buffers around sensitive waterways and certain slopes adjacent to streams. The buffers would improve water quality in streams and rivers but would also restrict what some property owners could do with their land. New developments and changes to existing lots would be subject to the restrictions.
Several dozen property owners protested the overlay district during a May public hearing. At that meeting, board members delayed their decision on enacting the district and agreed to consider the economic analysis.
But during a quiet work session last week, supervisors voted 4-3 to proceed without the analysis.
Griffis–Widewater Supervisor Bob Woodson said in an interview that the analysis was not the best use of county funds, especially during a tight budget cycle that has forced Stafford to cut its spending.
“We think our latest proposal was a good one, and we think that the county has enough resources to make a good determination of what may be the economic impact,” he said.
But Aquia Supervisor Paul Milde said the analysis would have shown how the overlay district could limit the county’s tax revenue from future development.
“That means high-paying jobs won’t be here, that means the commercial tax base doesn’t expand there,” Milde said. “It will certainly reduce our commercial tax base and therefore further burden our residential tax base. The question is, how much?”
The overlay district includes both Milde’s and Woodson’s districts.
County staff is sampling about seven parcels in the proposed overlay district to see how the proposed buffers could affect properties.
The staff also supported the economic analysis.
“I think that any information that can be made available to the Board of Supervisors during the decision-making process is a good thing,” said County Administrator Anthony Romanello.
Without the analysis, Rock Hill Supervisor Cord Sterling said, it will be difficult to make an informed decision on the overlay district proposal.
“I don’t know the cost-benefit analysis,” he said. “I have not seen a demonstration of enough data to support this.”
The supervisors will consider the overlay district after the completion of the sampling studies, sometime in November.
Subject: Re: HB6055
Dear Republican Members of the House of Delegates:
This letter is sent after consultation with members of the First Congressional District Republican Committee. Unique among Virginia’s Congressional Districts, the First is the only Congressional District encompassing both HR/Tidewater and NoVa.
You are considering HB6055 which is such a disappointment. Much time and energy has been expended in trying to redefine or otherwise sugar coat what are in fact taxes or to reestablish agencies rejected by both the Voters and the Courts. Had that same amount of time been spent on trying to find a solution to the underlying problem, we all would have been better served.
At this point in our history, the price of energy and the subsequent lifestyle changes it has caused, with the resulting institutional, manufacturing and trade changes under way, show that you are dealing with yesterday’s problems - not today’s and not tomorrow’s.
Should this bill pass, you all will suffer at election time because the problems will not be solved and neither the Press nor your fellow Republicans will let you forget. More importantly, those of us in leadership roles in getting out the vote have seen volunteer participation both decline and turn against us due to your past legislation in this area.
Should you go down this path again, we can expect more of the same, with the first casualties being John McCain, and Jim Gilmore.
The continuing disruptions which will result from the cost of energy make it imperative that you all review our transportation, commuting, educational, and trading models before money gets thrown at problems no longer relevant to the Commonwealth’s present and future.
We have supported you in good times and bad. This, however, may go beyond anyone’s ability to justify or support in good conscience. It violates the pledges most of you took and it violates the Common Creed we as Republicans profess.
Roll up your sleeves and start dealing with the problems we are facing today and will be facing tomorrow. That is why we worked so hard to put you all in the majority. Your past actions, divorced from our common beliefs, are why you are barely in the majority, and why we have lost the Senate. Put Kaine and the Democrats on the defensive. Make us proud and vote this bill down!
Yours truly,
Thomas E. Foley
Chairman, First Congressional District Republican Committee
Just like when a 12th Century king declares he wants a bigger bejeweled crown and some more wenches, so he sends a goon squad out to plunder his subjects and shake them until hidden coins fall out of their socks, so reigns Chairman George Schwartz in Stafford. “The subjects free will, be damned” you can almost hear him utter when the public hearing session began in a crammed-packed chambers.
If you like keeping some of your money, Stafford County may not be the right place for you. Regardless of your party affiliation yesterday, if it’s not crystal clear that our homegrown crew of elitist Democrats will tax you into bankruptcy when times are good, and tax you even more when times are bad, then you just aren’t living in reality anymore, and you certainly aren’t living in Stafford County.
As if one should need any proof of this on a national level, “America’s chickens have come home to roost” here in Stafford! And after they roost, they’re going to eat your cat and steal your wallet.
Stafford County Democrats George Schwartz, Joe Brito, Bob Woodson and Harry Crisp have approved a highly controversial businesses tax, called the Business, Professional and Occupational License or “BPOL” in a meeting that stretched until later than 3:00 am!
These liberals call it a “revenue generator” for the cash-strapped jurisdiction, but let’s be clear: RAISING TAXES IS NOT A REVENUE GENERATOR- it’s a TAX INCREASE!
A revenue generator could be the world’s largest ball of yarn at a two-seat diner along Route 1. Tourists come, spend their money, we tax them for pancakes, the diner employs people, they buy things, and the economy goes round and round. If we’ve planned our area correctly, the tourist might also decide to fill up with gas while he’s here and “ooh” look at that, something to buy at the farmer’s fruit stand across the street! … more tax income and revenue generation for the county… The farmer gets so busy that he eventually sells to Giant Foods, and the Diner outgrows his two-seater and upgrades to an IHOP franchise a year later, and viola-a growing economy emerges from the FREE MARKET as it was always intended (I’m leaving out the part where Stalinistic building permits, Marxist zoning restrictions and hippy environmental lobyists restrict the sale of the grocery store to less than 10,000sf, and tell the diner owner what he can’t do with his own property which results in a lawsuit that he eventually wins, but nevertheless slows the process to a grinding halt for 36 months just to get a siteplan review—but that’s for another rant.)
What all Democrats seem to never grasp is that REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH is UN-AMERICAN and quite SOCIALIST! A tax on businesses is a TAX. It is something that someone else takes from you that they didn’t earn. Taxing a business for the 15th time - literally, is no way to foster a healthy business economy.
After many DOZENS of people spoke out against this tax in person, they shoved it through anyway. The only people who spoke for it, were the usual crowd of liberals who offer the all famous lines, “someone should do something about our need for more cash.” Isn’t it amazing how that someone is always “someone else” whose checkbook must be opened? Not one supporter of BPOL offered an alternative.
How much combined business experience do to the elected board of supervisors have? On the Democrat side= ZILCH. All three Republicans have owned or currently own a business though! So we can very clearly see who understands the impacts of adding more taxes to a fragile balance of our local economy!
Perhaps we shouldn’t be building $50,000,000 new schools when our student population is declining? Perhaps we shouldn’t be using $60,000,000 to buy swamp land when we have dangerous roads to pave? Perhaps we shouldn’t be building mega-million dollar police, fire & rescue headquarters buildings until we can afford it? Perhaps we shouldn’t be restricting 12,000 acres from any development whatsoever if near a 15% grade? Perhaps we should be lobbying our state and federal boards for more of our own tax dollars to come back so we aren’t a “donor” county and state for road money?
Perhaps we could use some of these savings to improve our infrastructure, invest in tourism initiatives and incentivize new businesses? Nnnaaahhhhh- Let’s just raise the taxes on bread, daycare, gasoline, groceries, diapers, car repairs, water, eyeglasses, shoes, firewood and everything else people need. THAT’S what it means to be a Stafford Democrat apparently.
Beginning in 2010 (thank God for a small favor) the county will charge half the maximum rate allowed by state law. Gross receipts up to $200,000 will be exempt.
Now is the time for Democratic families to take a serious look at their values and consider that even if they ‘like’ big government spending, they may not be able to ‘afford’ it any more. After all, when is enough enough?
At what point in your tax level are you no longer a FREE WORKING AMERICAN? At what point are you a subservient socialist worker? We’re already above the 50% mark of how much taxes you pay in total of your income! When do we start standing in lines for bread and socks?
The DMV is now charging you $5 to stand in line and talk to a live human teller! Someone remind me WHY WE NEED A DMV IN THE FIRST PLACE? My car runs just fine without a sticker on the windshield or a license plate on the back. Everything else is JUST ANOTHER TAX.
I’ve never seen so many NEW TAXES introduced during such a slow economy. My family is tightening up, why can’t my government? I suppose it’s just “someone else’s job” to worry about that since our government is rapidly becoming no longer “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, but rather, “tax the people, from other people, to my people.”
Here’s what Supervisor Paul Milde has to say about BPOL:
Now is not the time to impose a BPOL tax.
Right now, businesses across our nation and our commonwealth are facing very challenging times.
Stafford County’s businesses are not immune from the uncertainties affecting companies large and small across America. Indeed, the pressures of difficult economic times are keenly felt by every Stafford business.
Despite these circumstances, several members of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors are intent on imposing a new tax on our local businesses.
This new tax is commonly referred to as BPOL, or Business, Professional and Occupational License. Its innocuous-sounding name disguises the reality that BPOL is among the most regressive of taxes.
The tax would be assessed on the gross receipts of a business. So, whether they are profitable or not, businesses will have to pay this tax.
If you think this issue matters only to business, think again. Pressures on residential property-tax bills–which are offset by the substantial taxes already paid by local businesses–could only become greater if Stafford were to become less business-friendly.
The growth in revenues from businesses helps to protect Stafford home- owners from having to bear an even larger financial burden.
Stafford’s pro-business policies have greatly benefited our community, creating jobs, improving our quality of life, and providing revenues for our treasury.
In 2002, our businesses produced $38 million in revenues for Stafford. By the end of fiscal 2008, projections show that figure increasing to a very impressive $62 million–a 63 percent increase in just six years.
The current debate over BPOL is more than just a business concern. Its outcome will affect every Stafford resident.
Make sure your voice is heard by attending the public hearing tonight at 7 p.m., immediately prior to a planned vote by the Board of Supervisors on enacting BPOL. Do your part to keep Stafford a great place to do business.
As goes the waste from Culpeper Schools one waster at a time, so should go the Spotsylvania School System…. except that Jerry Hill’s contract that he strongarmed his board into giving him has more than double the benefits every year and about double the salary.
Yes folks, Spotsylvania County pays its school superintendent with YOUR TAX MONEY more than $260,000 per year (including benefits, car, tax sheltered annutiy and more).
Education should always be funded with priority. Teachers should always be paid what they’re worth. Waste should always be cut from the top down. Bonuses, if any, should ALWAYS be merit based. HUGE salaries simply shouldn’t exist in public education. They aren’t needed!
A family of five could live in the biggest house in the county on one income and eat our 4 nights per week on a ‘mere’ $175,000 salary. But Hill rakes in $260,000! What in the world does a person do with that kind of cash from a public till?
Is this what you intend to be done with your hard earned money when you pay your property taxes every year?? Is that education funding as it is advertised? Are the children suffering when Mr. Hill doesn’t get the school budget passed or is he personally (I’d like to suffer in his league for a vacation)?
But on the other hand, he is but one salary that tops $120K in the county school system. Do you know how many others there are?
You might be surprised to learn just how many people are slurping from the breast of your paycheck, your commute stress, your missed soccer games due to work, and your dual income family budget that just never seems to be enough to catch up from.
There’s a very simple economic reason for that: each and every year, the slacking school system(s) (NOT the teachers as a group, but the SYSTEM as a whole) is asking for 15-20% more money. Your family doesn’t make 15-20% more money so you don’t pay 15-20% more in taxes to pay for it. It’s really THAT SIMPLE!
Culpeper is apparently just begining to wake up to the concept. Spotsy should too, then Stafford, then King George, then Caroline….
from the FLS today:
Culpeper removes schools chief
David Cox is out as superintendent of Culpeper County’s public schools.School Board Chairman George Dasher made the announcement last night during the School Board’s annual summer retreat at Graves Mountain Lodge.
Dasher said that Cox, 46, will take a one-year sabbatical–effective immediately–during which he will do unspecified consulting work for the School Board. After June 30 of next year, he will resign.
While no official action was taken until last night, sources said that last week, following his yearly evaluation, Cox was told there were enough votes to remove him unless he resigned.
It is unclear why the superintendent fell out of favor with the board.
Under a negotiated agreement, Dasher said, the School Board will pay the superintendent his full salary plus benefits next year and for the remaining two years of his four-year contract, unless Cox takes another job before June 30, 2011.
Cox’s $130,000-plus yearly salary and an annual 12 percent tax-sheltered annuity could add up to almost a half-million dollars at a time when the school system is so strapped that teachers got no raises this year. Cox’s contract has no buyout clause. READ MORE…
Almost no one has read the fine print in the tax hike proposed by Senate Democrats (and which may well pass the Senate as I’m writing this). Most will just assume it does what MSM says it will, namely ” increase the gasoline tax and other levies to generate new money for Virginia’s transportation needs . . . with additional amounts generated through regional tax increases in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads” (Roanoke Times, emphasis added). That is wrong; SB6009 does far more than that.
Buried in the fine print of the Senate Finance Committee substitute (the version that reached the floor) is a provision on “Imposition of additional state retail sales and use taxes in certain regions” (Section 58.1-603.3 - you’ll have to scroll down about a third of the way). Which “certain regions” you ask? Well, the bill is kind enough to define them:
There is hereby levied and imposed, in addition to all other taxes and fees now imposed by law, a general retail sales and use tax at the rate of one percent in any urban region of the Commonwealth that has at any time an aggregate of at least 8.5 million daily vehicle miles traveled in the area in accordance with the most recent written determinations of daily vehicle miles traveled by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Based solely on this requirement, the Tax Commissioner shall be responsible for making the written determination of whether an urban region has met such requirement.
Now, the bill defines “urban regions” as metropolitan planning organizations, which, from my quick research, covers just about the entire state. If your MPO has over 8.5 million daily vehicle miles traveled (DVMT), you’re getting hit with a sales tax hike - whether you like it or not.
Who gets to spend your money? Why, it’s the unelected Commonwealth Transportation Board:
Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, the net revenues generated and collected from the tax imposed under subsection B shall be allocated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board solely for transportation projects in the respective urban region that are included in the federally mandated Regional Transportation Plan approved by the metropolitan planning organization for the respective urban region (or any successive plan).
So what we have here is an automatic tax increase imposed in secret with the money to be spent by unelected officials.
Now, you, dear reader, may be thinking - but there is no way my MPO reaches the criteria (well, unless you live in NoVa or Hampton Roads, but you’re getting hit with the regional tax hike under this plan anyway). Well, based on the latest VDOT data, if you live in the following MPOs, you would be wrong. Residents of the following areas would be hit with a regional tax hike under the Senate Democrats’ bill:
I say again, if you live in any of the above listed counties or cities, your sales tax will go up along with the statewide tax hikes - if Saslaw’s bill becomes law. Odds are, MSM and most of the legislators will be as surprised as you are.
This is no way to govern. As bad as it was before the Senate Finance Committee marked it up (and it was bad enough), this in infinitely worse - and a telling sign of what happens when legislators see a chance to hit up the taxpayer. To call this an outrage is an understatement.
Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal
Recent Comments