"Just four years ago, Virginians were asked to pay for a massive tax increase, the brainchild of former Democrat Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner and then Republican state Senator John Chichester.
As a result, billions more dollars from working families in Virginia have poured into the coffers in Richmond. In the three state budgets since that point, state government has spent nearly $100 billion of your money. The result?
They’re back for more.
Regardless of Governor Tim Kaine’s rhetoric about working families in Virginia expecting a “free lunch” for not wanting to send more of their hard earned money to Richmond, the fact remains that there is plenty of revenue in Richmond to pay for core government services.
There just isn’t enough money to pay for those services and everything else the politicians in Richmond want. And there never will be.
Virginia’s taxpayers are not getting anything close to a free lunch – and it is incredibly arrogant for the Governor to suggest that they are.
Next Monday, June 23, the General Assembly will be in town for a special session. We’ve dubbed this the special “tax session” because, despite the rhetoric about a “transportation crisis,” there are no guarantees that revenue from any new taxes will go solely to transportation.
It will go into the General Fund and be spent any way Virginia’s political elite wants it to be spent. (Note that one of the biggest supporters of the tax increase is the Virginia Education Association – a group that in theory would not directly benefit from a tax increase for transportation – clearly they know the tax increase won’t be spent as promised.)
The lack of guarantee that transportation will actually become a priority is just one of the many reasons that the General Assembly should reject the call for tax hikes. The fact that transportation spending makes up just 13 percent of the budget, while education makes up 40 percent and social services 30 percent, indicates that transportation has never really been the priority it should have been. To complain about a “crisis” now is disingenuous of our elected officials. If there is a crisis, it isn’t the fault of the taxpayer.
But most importantly, to ask Virginia’s working families to pay even more in taxes when they are facing extraordinary, and ever rising, gas prices, higher food prices, a collapsed housing market, job insecurity and a sluggish economy is arrogance beyond imagination!
Your elected officials, your Delegate and state Senator must hear from you today! I urge you to send a clear message to your representatives that you oppose higher taxes and fees!
ACTION: Click the link below and send an email to your Delegate and Senator and urge them to oppose higher taxes. And, email your friends and family so they can make their voice heard."
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