Here’s another first for our blog: We, as most organizations do, put out position papers on bills we follow and distribute them to certain lawmakers. With blogs, not only can we put them online so you, too, can have access to valuable information with which to contact your delegates, senators and statewide office holders; but because it’s interactive, you can look up bills immediately or click on the patron’s name and be taken to his or her e-mail address and contact information. Be a citizen lobbyist from home! Now, about this particular piece:
Whenever a tax reduction bill is introduced, it must be accompanied by a fiscal impact statement by the Department of Planning and Budget, which documents how allowing you to keep your own money will affect state government, those poor souls. So, with a plethora of gas tax increase bills introduced this session, we decided to do a fiscal impact statement on how these tax increases would affect you, Virginia’s hard-working families. This is the briefing sheet we distributed to most members of the House and Senate (some will never learn, though, no matter what). The bill numbers are highlighted; click to read for yourself a summary or actual bill.
FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT
Finally, the economic impact certain bills will have on those who fund the government: Virginia’s families.
Here’s how certain gas tax increase bills will adversely affect hard-working Virginia families — not state government — based on two cars, one 20-gallon fill-up per car per week for one year, and gas at $3.00 per gallon:
- HB 41: $232.96
- HB 275: $416.00
- HB 490: $62.40
- HB 1266: $228.80
- SB2: $312.00
- SB 411: $104.00
- SB 444: $83.20
- SB 445: $41.60
- SB 713: This is a one-cent per-year increase over five years:
Year: Annual Cost of Gas Tax Over Current Cost:
- $41.60
- $124.80
- $249.60
- $416.00
- $624.00
At a time of $3.00 per gallon of gas, sinking stock market, credit crunch and slowing economy, it is not the time for the state to take away more hard-earned income from Virginia’s families. It’s time for state government to tighten its budget, just as Virginia families must do each day.
Vote NO on ALL Tax Increase Bills
[...] Liberal demagoguery at its worst. When are voters going to sicken of this tripe? No open government, no citizen watch dogs over how elected officials spend taxpayer money, because of the children! Maybe, senator, maybe there would be money for the children if we could find the waste and abuse! But no, then you wouldn’t have the need to jack up our taxes again! [...]
[...] build the factory, we’re not getting the sales tax revenue anyway; not hard to understand. (By the way, here’s what we think of economic impact statements.) But Delegate Hull asked question after question, finally admitting that instead of a tax break, he [...]
[...] (To see a partial list of Democrat tax increase proposals, what they would cost you, and to check on … [...]
[...] This one is a beauty, folks. It raises the gas tax one cent a year for five years, effectively making the cumulative increase for families with two cars, filling up each car with 20 gallons per week, a total of $624.00 a year more in year five over what they pay now. (See how we figured this in our own Economic Impact Statement.) [...]
[...] Making matters worse, the impact statement had absolutely NO concrete figures or facts, was full of assumptions and assertions, was based on the original draft of the bill and not was passed by HWI, and incredibly faulty logic. (It’s funny how DPB never files impact statements on how the government’s taxes and spend….”) [...]
[...] mind that tax increase bills never have attached to them the impact they would have on families (so we did it for them on these bills as well as on this infamous proposal), while tax reduction bills must have impact statements [...]