Category: Taxes
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COVID Casualty: Unemployment Insurance System
By Steve Haner This first appeared in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch and has also been distributed by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. America’s and Virginia’s unemployment insurance program – born of the Great Depression and the Social Security Act of 1935 – may be another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has mutated…
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No Fed Return Required, Other Questions Answered
by Steve Haner There were various factual debates over my post on tax payments yesterday, and these updates are worth special attention. A morning conversation with a certified public accounting familiar with Virginia taxes brought to light the following: If you fail to file a state return by May 1, the six-month extension truly is…
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Despite Offered Delays, Pay Your Taxes On Time
By Steve Haner The latest complaint against the Northam Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is failing to provide adequate state tax relief. The complaint comes from the Tax Foundation and surfaced in a news report in Wednesday’s Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has now chimed in with an editorial. Apparently most other states…
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Right Wing Uses Virus To Stifle Needed Reforms
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in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Health Care, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka Right-wingers in Virginia have been apoplectic for months that Democrats finally captured the General Assembly after years of Republican control. They also were enraged that the legislature this winter passed a number of reforms that would draw Virginia into the 21st Century such raising the minimum wage, boosting collective bargaining, tightening rules…
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Thank God for Medicaid Expansion
By Peter Galuszka For years after the Affordable Care Act, “Obamacare,” made millions of federal dollars available for states to expand Medicaid health coverage, Virginia Republicans steadfastly blocked Virginia from using the money. Led by former House Speaker Bill Howell and Sen. Tommy Norment, the GOP claimed that expanding Medicaid to nearly 400,000 people would…
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Localities Are Re-Writing Budgets. So Should the State.
by James A. Bacon It is obvious to some people that COVID-19’s body blow to the economy will have a devastating impact on state/local government finances. Old Dominion University professors Ron Carlee and Robert McNab have estimated that local governments in Hampton Roads are losing at least $16 million a month in local taxes, while…
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Northam: Take the Bricks Off the Life Rafts
My first post in two weeks. What the heck, I should join the parade and give a bunch of advice to our beleaguered Governor which he is likely to ignore. This first appeared today in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. It has one of those annoying “take a survey” paywalls, but in this case asks a…
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Sweet 16 (Tax Bills) Will Cost Virginians Billions
By Steve Haner What will this year’s General Assembly cost you in taxes? Here are at least 16 bills approved by the 2020 General Assembly that create or raise taxes on Virginians or authorize a local government to do so. No one told Virginians at the start of session that major tax increases were coming,…
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Electric Yellow School Buses? Pure Green Grease
By Steve Haner Having voted to give Dominion Energy Virginia a blank check to spend billions of your money on offshore wind turbines, the Virginia House of Delegates will vote today to provide hundreds of millions more from your pockets for electric school buses. Last week the House defeated a similar bill, twice. It received…
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How Virginia Would Fare Under President Biden, Part 1
By DJ Rippert And then there were two. Today, Elizabeth Warren announced that she will withdraw from the presidential race. That leaves Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard (yes, she’s still running) as the remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination. Given that Tulsi Gabbard has exactly one delegate (from American Samoa where she was…
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A Series of Hidden Tax Hikes In the Bag
By Steve Haner Politicians hate taxes that voters pay by check and love taxes that are buried deep on invoices or fully invisible. The 2020 General Assembly is raising taxes right and left (mostly left) but focused on that second method. These will be tax increases most people will never spot. Governor Ralph Northam’s record…
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Cabinet Officers: Assembly Decides on Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner Thanks to the persistence of Del. Charles Poindexter, two members of Governor Ralph Northam’s cabinet are now on record stating the General Assembly will decide whether Virginia joins the carbon tax regime called the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In 2018 both of them had signed a letter endorsing the interstate compact to…
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Consistency? Seek it Not at the General Assembly
The Virginia Constitution grants exemption from local real estate taxes for veterans with 100% service-related disability and for the Gold Star families of those killed in action, a move enthusiastically endorsed by voters in 2010. But in a House Finance Committee subcommittee this morning Virginia’s local governments presented the General Assembly with a bill. The…
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Updates: Electoral College, Carbon Tax, Tax Reform
By Steve Haner Catching up on several issues previously discussed, with links to the original posts: Virginia’s 2020 Electoral Votes Still Ours to Award. Pending legislation to enact the National Popular Vote regime has now failed in both House and Senate committees, although nothing is really dead in this process until final adjournment in March. …
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Tax Reform Dies at Dawn, Tax Hike Fares Better
By Steve Haner The change in leadership in Mr. Jefferson’s Capitol has left one bad trend intact: The House Finance Committee still worries first and foremost about whether any tax policy change – no matter how meritorious — would interfere with state spending. It was the same under Republicans, unfortunately. New House Finance Chair Vivian…