Virginia's Tax Quagmire

Brendan Minter in the Wall Street Journal has more on Virginia's current economic quagmire. As Minter points out, when the Governor proposed a$1 billion dollar tax increase including expanding sales taxes by 0.5% and creating new taxes that target the elderly and their nest eggs, Republican's should have struke back with all guns blazing. It would have been a perfect opportunity to reverse recent democratic electoral gains, and ensure Republican control of all three braches in Virginia for a long time.

That, as we all know, is not what happened. Rather, the state House, led by Appropriations Committee Chairman and Fairfax County Republican Delegate Vince "Tax and Spend" Callahan proposed a $500 million increase. The Republican Controlled State Senate, of course, not to be outdone proposed a 3.2 billion tax increase, though for some reason the Journal calls it a $4 billion increase. Well, why should we trifle over a few dollars and who am I to disagree with the Journal's charecterization of this increase. We both agree it is dispicable.

The one good item to emerge though is that people in Northern Virginia are steaming. The Virginia Club for Growth and Ken Cuccinelli are working the issue hard and at the upcoming county convention we are going to elect a new party Chairman who promises to hold our run away politicians in line. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see a motion from the floor seeking to strip Callahan (right now the most powerful Republican in the State Government) of his party affiliation. Whether it passes I don't know, but it will certainly carry a great deal of support.

See also: here, here, here, and here.