Cardinal Way: Civility Rules encourages constructive dialogue on difficult issues. We recently ran two competing essays on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposed tax overhaul — one in favor, one against — and then asked readers: How should any surplus be used? If taxes are reduced, which ones? If you could tell budget makers and the governor one thing about tax policy, what would it be? Here’s how readers responded.
You can also weigh in on this week’s two essays about the proposed Alexandria arena.
If the readers who responded to our recent Cardinal Way questions about the governor’s proposed tax overhaul were sitting around a table, they’d likely still be debating things.
Their responses aren’t a scientific survey, but they do give a flavor of public opinion, and the reactions were across the board. In the event of a surplus, some wanted low tax rates, some wanted a one-time rebate, some wanted that surplus spent. If taxes were cut, some prefer a lower income tax rate, some prefer a lower sales tax rate, and a lot wanted the car tax gone.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed reducing the state income tax and raising the state sales tax, with the former reducing the incentive for people to move out of state, the latter broadening the tax base. Critics have said increasing the sales tax raises a regressive tax, and amounts to taxing lower-income workers to pay for an income tax reduction for wealthier Virginians.
Meanwhile, the governor has also expressed interest in eliminating the locally imposed personal property tax on cars, an issue that Republican Jim Gilmore pushed in his 1997 campaign for governor and one that some Democratic candidates for the General Assembly revived in last fall’s elections. The opposition to that has always been that this is a local tax so localities can cut it anytime they want; the catch is that many localities depend on its revenues.
In Richmond, a House of Delegates committee last week showed no interest in making it possible to do away with the car tax, voting down a bill by Del. Chad Green, R-York County, on a party-line vote. Meanwhile, the state Senate shows signs of putting off action on the governor’s tax proposal until next year so it can be studied further. For now, we have what some of Cardinal’s readers would like to tell those legislators.
Those on the spend-a-surplus side advanced these arguments:
“Why are we even considering a tax cut when we could be funding much needed services such as higher salaries and better resources for teachers and wildland forest fighters (VDOF, among other state agencies, has laughably low salaries and high employee turnover), increased bus and metro services, and housing for our ever increasing homeless population?” asked Sarah Parmelee. (VDOF is the Virginia Department of Forestry.)
Elizabeth Kafka saw things this way: “Tax the people and corporations that can afford it! Jesus told us to care for the poor. He would be turning in his grave to see the governor’s cruel tax plan.”
Margaret Katherine Grimes was more succinct: “Tax the rich through income and estate taxes to support schools.”
Those favoring the tax reduction tended to have shorter responses. Many didn’t leave any written responses at all to explain their reasoning. Michael Gale simply said: “Stop taking our money to pay for programs that infringe on our rights.”
Former Gov. George Allen provided the most detailed case for tax cuts: “Lower [the] state income tax rates to make Virginia more competitive with lower-taxed, prospering and growing North Carolina and Tennessee (with no income tax and significantly better electricity rates). Costs of living and conducting business, right-to-work freedom and a skilled workforce are the keys to winning states over high cost losing states.”
While this wasn’t a scientific survey, I did notice that the car tax got mentioned more than any other.
Stepheny Fanning’s response was typical of those: “The personal property car tax is ridiculous. I pay right now 942 dollars every 6 months for two cars. PLEASE get rid of this!!”
And then there was Gary Jatzalu, who noted the complexity of reducing or eliminating certain taxes: “I grew up in a state with NO income tax. Over the years I realized that the very high property taxes, almost three times what the county I live in in Virginia, were regressive to the lower income folks. Higher income folks paid a much lower percentage of their income in taxes. If the personal property tax on vehicles was eliminated, the counties would have to raise property taxes. No way around this. This would hit the poor much harder than the car tax.”
If you’d like to read the rival tax essays on the governor’s plan again, you can find both the pro and con arguments. And, depending on how you feel about things, you can contact your legislators in Richmond.
