Over the last couple weeks, the Virginia legislature has been working to come up with a budget. The House and Senate both passed their own budgets and sent them to the other chamber; both then proceeded to reject the other chamber’s proposed budget. This resulted in an expected stalemate in budget deliberations. Now, 12 legislators work to sort out the differences in conference and come up with a workable budget. They could present a budget out of conference committee as early as today.
They have a lot of cleaning up to do before the final budget is free of tax increases. SB 30, from the Senate, was loaded with fees, many of which were actually tax increases. Additionally, the Senate budget kept a 2% mark-up on alcohol sold at ABC stores, an $4 million a year tax increase left over from former Gov. Kaine’s budget. HB 30 also had it’s flaw, a tax increase of $60 million over the biennium, the elimination of the Section 199 deduction.
Americans for Tax Reform urges these legislators to rid the final budget of any tax increases and additionally to reject burdening the people of Virginia with higher fees. To see ATR’s letter, click here. A vote for a budget containing net tax increases would be a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a commitment that 27 legislators have made to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." To see a list of those legislators, click here.
Click here to see ATR’s letter outlining what taxes need to be pulled from the budget in order to clean it up.