by Dick Hall-Sizemore
With one foot out of the Virginia Governor’s Executive Mansion and both eyes on the White House, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is being careful not to cross Donald Trump. In recent comments he has praised Trump actions and downplayed or publicly ignored any negative effects on the Commonwealth of recent Trump initiatives.
Tax and spending bill
He recently lavished praise on Trump’s tax and spending bill, saying that it would result in tax relief of about $2,800 per family. Most Virginians should not start counting on that level of tax relief. What Youngkin did not say was that that figure is an average and that the actual distribution of the bill’s tax benefits is highly skewed to high-income families.
The Tax Policy Center largely agrees with the average tax benefit, but goes on to report, “The biggest beneficiaries would be households making between $460,000 and $1.1 million (the 95th-99th income percentile), who would get an average tax cut of $21,000, raising their after-tax incomes by 4.4 percent.” Further down the income ladder, middle-income households ($67,000-$119,000) would get an average tax cut of $1,800, which would raise their after-tax income by 2.3 percent. Lastly, the lowest -income households, those making less than $35,000, would get an average tax cut of $150, or less than one percent of their after-tax income.
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