Thank a Republican: Efforts to boost taxes bite the dust

Victoria Cobb, President of The Family Foundation of Virginia, gives a run down of the events leading to the defeat of Governor Tim Kaine and the Democrats' most recent attempt to hoist taxes on Virginians:

Information Alert: Tax Hikes Averted this Time

The General Assembly’s special tax session adjourned around 1:35 this morning with no new tax or fee increases passing. After a day of political gamesmanship, harsh partisan rhetoric and exercises in parliamentary gymnastics, all of the major tax proposals eventually met their demise.

The fireworks started early when the House Rules committee met suddenly and voted to send Governor Kaine’s tax hike proposal to the floor. This came a week and a half after the same committee killed the same bill, and after the Governor and House Democrats complained that the process wasn’t fair. Kaine claimed he had the votes to pass the bill, so House Republicans called his bluff.

Democrats were caught off guard by the move and tried to delay the process to figure out what to do. In the end, they voted against parliamentary procedures that would have allowed Kaine’s bill to receive a straight up or down vote – something they had claimed they wanted.

Later, the House brought the Senate’s transportation proposal to the floor, where the gas tax provision was quickly stripped out of the bill. Regardless, the bill failed to pass by a vote of 59-39.

Finally, HB 6055, the attempt to “fix” last year’s transportation package that was gutted by the state Supreme Court, was passed in an amended form by the House with a vote of 51-45. Some House members seemed to believe that voting for a miserable attempt to “fix” last year’s mistake would be viewed positively by taxpayers. Fortunately, the Senate referred the bill to the finance committee where it met its demise.

Thankfully, the potential tax hikes were defeated this time. However, it is a sobering reminder that many of our legislators are refusing to understand the economic plight of Virginia’s citizens. Once again, we’d like to thank you for your support as we continue to keep our legislators fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.