At first it appeared like one thing from the satirical web site Babylon Bee. The brand new governor of Virginia, the “average” Democrat Abigail Spanberger, has proposed a tax hike on companies comparable to canine strolling and grooming.
Extra proposed tax hikes embody levies on weapons and ammunition, storage services, dry cleansing, house repairs, meals supply companies, package deal deliveries and a brand new private property tax on electrical leaf blowers (however not gas-powered blowers?) and electrical landscaping gear.
There isn’t a financial cause for elevating taxes in Virginia. When his single time period expired final month, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin left behind quite a few successes, together with a big funds surplus of $572 million, above the projected forecast. That made 4 consecutive years of surpluses, leading to $10 billion in surplus income. Youngkin achieved this by slicing taxes and creating an financial setting enticing to new enterprise whereas incentivizing taxpayers. He additionally began a mini revolution when he uncovered a number of the issues being taught about gender and boys in woman’s bogs in Loudoun County public colleges.
One would suppose such a file of feat could be emulated, no less than partially, by his successor, however Democrats are usually not used to slicing taxes and lots of get pleasure from following the most recent kooky pattern. What they’re used to is elevating taxes and rising spending, which almost at all times ends in outcomes which are counter-productive.
As if these proposed new taxes aren’t sufficient, Spanberger desires to lift the highest marginal tax price. Some Democrats are proposing a price of 10 p.c on earnings over $1 million. One proposal would push the highest price to 13.8 p.c. If enacted, that might put Virginia forward of California and provides the Commonwealth the doubtful distinction of getting the best state tax price within the nation.
That chilly wave Virginians are feeling just isn’t solely attributable to the wintry climate. It’s the breeze created by individuals leaving excessive tax states like New York and New Jersey for no tax states like Florida, Texas and a rising variety of others.
Governor Spanberger offered herself to voters as a “average.” The media by no means challenged her on that label. Fast, are you able to outline the phrase average? What does that imply in relation to insurance policies? Do moderates favor decrease taxes? Are they against males in girls’s sports activities? What about open borders? Being on the mistaken aspect of those points contributed to Democrats’ defeat in final yr’s election, though latest particular elections gained by Democrats appear to have been extra about disliking President Trump than opposition to his insurance policies, most of which look like working.
Right here’s the dictionary.com definition of average: “saved or holding inside affordable or correct limits; not excessive, extreme, or intense.” Given what Governor Spanberger and a few members of her majority Democrat legislature are proposing in new taxes, that definition doesn’t match their political and financial profile.
It’s onerous to consider {that a} majority of Virginians would embrace a set of insurance policies which are immediately reverse the profitable ones of Glenn Youngkin, however given the weak candidacy of his lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, and a media that engaged in a coverup of Spanberger’s true beliefs – mixed with President Trump’s unpopularity – it wasn’t troublesome to foretell the result.
If these tax will increase are handed, search for some Virginians and companies that prospered in the course of the Youngkin administration to affix the exodus that’s now occurring from different states to m ore economically hotter climes, they usually’re taking their canine with them.
Readers could electronic mail Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Search for Cal Thomas’ newest guide “A Watchman within the Night time: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
