Virginia Sales Tax Goes Up, Relatively Silently...

[acroyear]

For all the media attention that the "Northern Virginia Road Tax" vote got 2 years ago, I'm surprised that the raise in the Virginia Sales Tax to 5% has managed to get through so silently. I had absolutely no idea it was going to happen until WTOP mentioned it as a one-liner this morning between stories of a Maryland politician and the DC school that's still closed.

In fact, they emphasized the tax increase on cigarettes (a negligable 2.5 cents per pack) as if it was FAR more important than the overall sales tax rate, even though cig sales only affect 1/5th of the population.

16 million people affected by something they probably wouldn't have supported and all it warrents is one line? Hell, even the 'Post doesn't think it warrents a front-page of Metro. Searching their site, the only mention is a VA specific section, on Page *4* at that, titled "As Taxes Increase, Seeing More Shrugs Than Hot Collars".

*sigh*

how did people get so apathetic about their own money?

This is not to say that I don't think the increase will help, both the state's budgets and in calculating it (5% is always easier to deal with than 4.5%), and in fact during the 90s I thought it was a good idea in and of itself.

I just wonder why, when it did happen, it happened so silently?

Comments

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

That is pathetic. Once upon a time Virginia was the intellectual forefront of the revolution, proposing independence, speaking out against unfair taxation, and being home to most of the big-name Founding Fathers. Now I suspect it'd be the one of the last states to ever utter a word (if at all) against FedGov tyranny.

[sunnidae]

NPR talked about it when it was passed -- that was a few months ago; it might've even been before Jacqui was born. (See how my calendar works now? :)

Maybe nobody's saying much about it because everyone *agrees* with it. You won't hear me complaining.

they always get their money

[zammis.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that is the deal with taxation. Economy in the toilet? No problem, we'll raise taxes.

They did it quietly cuz they knew there would be an outcry. Kinda like property taxes skyrocketing. My payments went up almost a 100/month this year.

They will always get their money; our choice is in what position we get raped, not whether they get to it. :(

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Um. I heard about it, and I live in Baltimore.

Because your state capital is in Richmond, and you live in the Northern VA suburbs, the federal government gets more attention, especially in a heated election year. The Montgomery County suburbs have the same problem in Annapolis.

Because those NoVA residents don't pay as much attention to what goes in in Richmond, your delegation gets rolled on the issues by the downstate county delegations (same as Montgo in Annapolis).

Part of the reason the NoVA roads are a Giant Bitch Super Frigging Nightmare is because you guys have been rolled on taxes to have sane road planning, and the developers get to do what they want. VA probably should have raised the sales tax some years ago, but being VA, they wouldn't raise any taxes at all for as long as they possibly could. If you want good roads and decent services, you have to pay for them, it's that simple. And sooner or later, the bill comes due.

And "FedGov tyranny" has nothing to do with it.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason the NoVA roads are a Giant Bitch Super Frigging Nightmare is because you guys have been rolled on taxes to have sane road planning, and the developers get to do what they want

because (as the current thing in Loudoun about developers *paying* to develop, in exchange for having price controls), development/zoning of land for residential, commercial, etc projects is allocated by the county, but primary roads to access said developments are allocated by the state, which is *always* behind the curve.

this is quickly demonstrated by the massive amounts of development going on at the intersection of Loudoun County Parkway and Braddock Road, where (I was *shocked* to see) Braddock at that point is still a dirt road for crying out loud...

and the state is in no hurry to fix that.