Information Alert: Removing a $1 Tax

Victoria Cobb, President
Monday, December 10, 2007

Several years ago the Virginia General Assembly passed a $1 tax on vehicle registrations to help fund the activities planned for the 2007 celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. The tax raised approximately $4 million a year.

That tax is set to expire, or sunset, on June 30 of next year.

One can argue over the necessity of the tax in the first place, but that debate is long past. What is unreal is that there are legislators who are pushing to keep the tax past the sunset date! In a gross example of the insatiable appetite for money we face in the General Assembly, even what was sold as a temporary $1 tax may become permanent.

No doubt, as legislators do the biannual battle over budget in 2008, we will hear once again how the state is starving for cash (as if families are not). Already the Virginia Education Association is demanding a $1.5 billion increase in spending on public education, the Governor is touting his costly Pre-K plan, and numerous other special interests are lined up at the financial feeding trough. A $1 tax is likely to be dismissed as small piece of the debate.

But the sunset of the tax was a promise by the General Assembly to the citizens of Virginia that we would be charged only for a temporary period of time. Continuing this tax is another breech of trust, something too many politicians are very willing to do.

Today, Attorney General Bob McDonnell voiced his opposition to continuing the $1 vehicle registration fee, and we join him in calling for the permanent elimination of this tax.

For more on this issue, visit our blog by clicking here.