A few words from the ‘dark lord of the state GOP Senator William Howell’ regarding the recent screwing of Virginia’s voters by the ‘Tax At Any Cost’ crowd. “This is a truly historic moment for Virginia. We have passed a bipartisan funding plan that will address VA’s transportation need.”
Bipartisan indeed – Republicans joined with the Democrats to pass RINO Governor McDonnell’s transportation bill.
This is what your Virginia State Republican Leadership calls historic bipartisanship that passed by a 60-40 vote.
- The Bill eliminates the current 17.5 cents per gallon flat tax at the pump on gasoline and replaces it with a new per gallon gasoline tax to the wholesale price – 3.5% paid by gas distributors which will be passed to consumers at the pump. The sales tax is based on the February 20, 2013 price – any future decrease in the price of gasoline will not go below this floor amount for tax purposes.
- Increases the diesel fuel wholesale tax to 6%.
- It allows all Local Governments to impose a sales tax of 1% without a referendum or sunset date!
- It establishes 3 non-elected state “Authorities” One for Northern Virginia, One for Tidewater and a “Priority Board.” They will have sweeping powers that could potentially add nearly $550 million tax dollars in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
- It boosts the sales tax on nonfood merchandise from 5 percent to 5.3 percent and devotes a fatter slice of existing revenue to transportation instead of schools, public safety and other services.
- It creates a regional funding mechanism that boosts the sales tax to 6 percent in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and requires those funds to be spent only on transportation projects in those areas.
- It increased the titling tax on new vehicles in a graduated amount from 3% to 4% this year and then increase to 4.3% by July 2016 which will then increase the cost of the vehicle by $375. All other tangible personal property will now be taxed at 5%.
- Adds a $100 registration fee for fuel-sipping hybrid vehicles.
- Increases personal property tax from 3.5% to 4.3%.
- Taxes on vending machine sales will rise from 4.5% to 6% in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and 5.3% in the rest of the State.
- Heavy equipment used for contracts on road construction, railroads, docks, etc. will increase from 3.5% to 4.3%.
- Northern Virginia commercial, industrial and residential land and building sales will see an additional tax of .25 cents per $100 of value.
- Northern Virginia will also see a 3% hotel tax.
The potential total price for Virginia taxpayers over the next five years could be, at minimum $6.1 billion dollars, an average of over 1.2 billion per year in new taxes.
Almost every Democrat in Richmond voted for this, including Roanoke’s very own socialist enabler, State Senator John Edwards. In fact the Democrats are claiming this is the biggest policy accomplishment in a decade. And McDonnell’s aide is jumping around like he is auditioning for “Glee” because they put together a bill acceptable to John Edwards and hailed universally by Democrats.
But it gets even worse.
The support of the Democrats for the transportation bill was contingent on another sell out on Obamacare. Friday night, McDonnell agreed to support an Obamacare Medicaid “compromise.” According to the Washington Post “The Medicaid deal called for allowing a panel with 10 legislators to authorize expansion of the federal health-care program for the poor, elderly and disabled if certain reforms were implemented as part of the federal Affordable Care Act. It was a compromise between a House bill, which would have required the entire General Assembly to approve expansion, and a Senate bill, would would have allowed the state health officials to do so.”
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has already stated that this deal is illegal “It is my opinion that the General Assembly may not delegate final legislative authority regarding budget or other matters to a committee composed of a subset of members of the General Assembly. To oversee Medicaid reforms as the commission is envisioned to do actions toward that end would require a vote of the entire legislature — at least 51 votes in the 100-member House and 21 in the 40-seat Senate — to comply with the state Constitution.”
But stomping on the State Constitution didn’t stop McDonnell and his “bipartisan team of Obama supporters” in Richmond from moving forward with this sell out. McDonnell promised he would not raise taxes and that he would not set up state Obamacare exchanges. And, in one fell swoop…he broke both of those promises. But he couldn’t sell you out alone. This could not pass without the assistance of Republican Senators and House of Delegates members.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of Obama, released a statement of his own praising McDonnell and the General Assembly for the bill’s passage. “The passage of this historic mainstream compromise with bipartisan support is a critical step forward for Virginia. It will make significant progress toward solving our transportation problems and making Virginia the best place for business. Despite last minute attempts by some right-wing ideologues to stop any progress on transportation, Virginia’s leaders came together in the middle to find compromise.
As one of those Conservatives [right-wind ideologues] who is going to see my Virginia taxes increase, I have a few words for the so-called Conservative members of the Virginia General Assembly, most of which I dare not write. I am writing McDonnell and expressing my thanks for his putting his future political career over that of the voters who put him in office. I’d suggest you do the same.
While you’re at it, you may want to contact your state representative and thank him also: A list of those who sold us out is below.
House: (David B. Albo, John A. Cosgrove, M. Kirkland Cox, L. Mark Dudenhefer, James E. Edmunds II, Thomas A. Greason, Christopher T. Head, Gordon C. Helsel Jr., M. Keith Hodges, Salvatore R. Iaquinto, Riley E. Ingram, S. Chris Jones, Terry G. Kilgore, Barry D. Knight, James M. LeMunyon, G. Manoli Loupassi, Daniel W. Marshall II, Joe T. May, Donald W. Merricks, J. Randall Minchew, Richard L. Morris, John M. O’Bannon III, Robert D. Orrock Sr., Charles D. Poindexter, Harry R. Purkey, Thomas Davis Rust, Edward T. Scott, Beverly J. Sherwood, Christopher P. Stolle, Robert Tata, Ronald A. Villanueva, Michael D. Watson, David E. Yancey, Joseph R. Yost, Speaker William J. Howell)
