Category: Taxes
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Tell Me Again. Why Are Virginia Taxes So Bad?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I have taxes on my mind. It is sort of hard not to be thinking a lot about taxes these days. I just finished compiling my tax returns (yes, I realize that I am a procrastinator). The Governor is telling me that the state taxes me too much and he wants to…
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Richmond’s Reaganesque Time for Choosing
by Chris Braunlich Richmond, like Washington, has always been a place where an “insider’s game” is played – not in a pejorative sense, but simply as the way things are done. Relationships are paramount, people speak in the arcane language of lawmaking, agendas are confusing for outsiders, and the activities of a subcommittee for an…
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Fairfax’s Un-Affordable Housing Program
by Arthur Purves If you live in Fairfax County and are over 50, you may have received from the county a five-page 120-question survey to “…inform the county’s … Future Aging Plan.” Here’s the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance Future Aging Plan: stop taxing us out of our homes. For 20 years, county supervisors have been…
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Richmond, Its Unions and Taxes
by James C. Sherlock Richmond residents should note that: The number of employees at City of Richmond in year 2020 was 4,140. Average annual salary was $56,410 and median salary was $50,001. City of Richmond average salary is 20 percent higher than USA average and median salary is 15 percent higher than USA median. Median…
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Know the Terms of Surrender in Negotiating With Teachers Unions
by James C. Sherlock Franklin Roosevelt thought collective bargaining agreements incompatible with public sector work. Today’s left, unburdened by the public interest, finds FDR’s principles at best quaint. Since May of last year collective bargaining is legal in Virginia for local government employees by local option, but for not state employees. The issues most people think…
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The State Budget: The House Reductions to Cover Tax Cuts
Budget is policy. A budget reflects what an organization chooses to spend its money on. The differences between the versions of the 2022-2024 biennial budget passed by the House and Senate this year are starker than they have been in recent memory. There are major philosophical and policy differences that the conferees will need to…
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Two “Day One” Proposals Fail
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Glenn Youngkin is quickly learning that being governor is not like being CEO of a large corporation. Just because the guy at the top wants something done does not mean that it will be done. One of Youngkin’s campaign promises was to require local governments to have a referendum before they could…
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Last Stand for a Higher Standard Deduction
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The argument now dividing the General Assembly on partisan lines is not whether to cut the state income tax, but for whom. The House of Delegates goes big with a broad tax cut that brings Virginia into line with other…
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“Frozen” Property Taxes
by James C. Sherlock I admit my fascination with how newspapers present various issues. It is an important window into the information their readers are getting. City manager and county executive proclamations that property tax rates are “frozen” are meant to sound like fiscal constraint. Consider this headline from The Washington Post: “Fairfax County executive…
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You Want to Raise Your Tax on Yourself? Forget It.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Several years ago, officials in Halifax County were confronting the problem of what to do about the local high school. There was consensus that something needed to be done. The only question was whether to make extensive renovations or build a new one. Depending on the option selected, the price tag was…
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Senate: “Trust Us This Time on Tax Reform”
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia government is flooded with cash — tax revenues far in excess of what is needed to maintain its current level of services and a fair reserve. Key votes have now been taken and the House of Delegates is poised…
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Weather Writer/Climate Warrior Defends RGGI Tax
by Steve Haner The Richmond Times-Dispatch weather reporter has entered the political debate over Governor Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to exit the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). But is he really a weather reporter, or a climate warrior? Sean Sublette’s on-line report on RGGI is packaged as a simple recitation of facts, but it is the…
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Virginia is Facing a Citizen Revolt on Inflation-Driven Tax Increases
by James C. Sherlock Virginians must fund their local governments. It is not wise to chip away at local government revenue without an integrated plan to ensure they are funded to carry out the things we need them to do. However, two key ways in which we raise local revenue, property taxes and sales taxes,…
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Oops! That’s Not Your Tax Form
by Kerry Dougherty Not good enough, Virginia Department of Taxation. Not even close. It’s not enough to apologize and tell the roughly 15,000 Virginia Beach taxpayers whose personal tax information on their 1099G forms was sent to the wrong address to simply hold tight until the correct document finds its way to them. Those forms…
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Poll: Bipartisan Support for Scholarship Tax Break
by Chris Braunlich The following was issued today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy as a news release: As National School Choice Week 2022 concludes, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy today released results of a polling question demonstrating the overwhelming popularity of Virginia’s sole education choice program. Support is particularly strong…